I'm one of those who has never been a big Bruce Willis fan, but I did think this was a great movie and he played his part better than some things I have seen him in recently.

A career soldier is forced to choose between following orders and saving lives in this action thriller. Lt. A.K. Walters (Bruce Willis) is a veteran Navy SEAL whose commander (Tom Skerritt) has given his team a special assignment. A Central African nation is expected to explode into war at any moment, and Walters and his cohorts are to escort any American citizens in the area to safety, most notably Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a doctor from the United States who has set up a clinic in the jungle. Walters and his men find Kendricks, but she refuses to leave with them unless she can bring along 70 refugees who have been left to her care. Kendricks makes it clear that if they are left behind, the refugees will face certain death, but Walters' C.O. insists he bring back Kendricks - but not her patients. Forced by his conscience to disobey orders, Walters and his team race against time to escort the refugees to a border town where they will find safe haven before invading troops can ambush them.

I can't really see the fuss about this movie - or Monica Bellucci for that matter. I wasn't bored as such through most of it, just wondering what was going on, and when it was going to end. And wishing Monica would do up a few more buttons on her shirt.

I don't mind Bruce Willis movies at all, although it's disappointing sometimes when they don't live up to expectations. I might take a peek at Hostage when it comes out on DVD, plus it's got his daughter in it, playing his daughter, which should be interesting. But as for this, I'm so glad I didn't buy it, as it would have been a waste of money.

Does anyone else think that when Bruce has the very grey stubble, he looks like Jean Reno?!

The characters very one-dimensional in this, particularly Monica Bellucci's character. (Why do I think she's French instead of Italian?) All she had to do during a lot of the movie was stand around, look worried, and not very much else - except call Bruce all the names she could think of in a different language. She was highly unbelieveable, particularly as her husband was said to have been killed not that long ago, in a similar situation. Wouldn't that have awakened old memories? Brucie must have got a right slap off set, during the scene where she got knocked out, cos he got a right feel of her ass when he put her over his shoulder. Plus, the director must have realised that there's a few boring moments, cos suddenly, Monica bares a lot of cleavage, just to get the guys interested in the movie again, when there's not much action.

What stops this movie from being rated two stars was the shoot out/war towards the end. This definitely made up for the rest of the movie being rather tedious, as it was a shocking, nail biting few minutes, as one by one the SEALS got killed, or injured. It was simply amazing, and brutal. The score reminded me very much of Armageddon, and all the fighting and the planes coming to the rescue, strangely enough, reminded me of Pearl Harbour.

Although it was only 10 minutes longer than Secretary, which won in a toss up over which movie to watch late at night, I still found Secretary to pass a lot quicker. This was incredibly slow, and definitely felt quite a bit longer than its 1hr 56mins at some points.

This movie does a great job of portraying the heartbreak that people go through in that part of the world, and I will admit, I did get quite teary towards the end when people were reunited. It doesn't make up for the fact the rest of the film was pointless and tedious.

I finally watched this film after strong insistence from a few friends who hailed it as one of the best war movies ever made. Well, as my title states, this is a very well-made drama as well as a great action flick. But I cannot call this a great war film. First off, there is far too much disobeying of orders, especially by the most highly trained warriors in the U.S. arsenal, trained first and foremost not to disobey (or even question) orders. Secondly, they are made to look like heroes for doing so, and the commanding officer responds with an "Oh well, all's well that ends well" attitude.

The acting is great. The music is also very good (kudos once again to the great and versatile Hans Zimmer). The technical details regarding SEAL operations are also dead-on (with the obvious exception of following orders).

Overall, this film is about moral principles on the battlefield. This is a very thought-provoking concept and makes us think about some important issues. But in real-life situations, the mission is more important, and completing the mission will help maintain a great number of moral principles. For instance, innocent people die in war. But how many more innocent people would die if there were not a war (i.e. World War II, Operation Desert Storm, and yes, even the recent Iraqi War)?

So, I do not regret seeing this film. And most film goers who like movies of this kind will not be disappointed either. But there was still room for improvement. For real war films with realistic portrayals of soldiers (using the generic term) obeying orders and maintaining their moral principles, I would recommend WE WERE SOLDIERS, BLACKHAWK DOWN, and the now classic SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

Here is a worthless fact for you. Tear of the Sun was supposed to be Die Hard 4. It was taken from a book called Les Larmes du Soleil by Henri Vernes.

In "Les Larmes du Soleil", a plane in which the hero is travelling over South America is hijacked by rebels. They intend on asking for a ransom to the Governments of the countries of the 'white' passengers. The plane crashes and the hero escapes into the amazon. Soon he hooks up with a tribe of Aztec descendants and leads them away as the rebels are after them. This book was written as Die Hard 4 but Bruce Willis liked the title so much he agreed to do Die Hard 4 if he could use the Tears of the Sun title and script for a completely different movie.

Now it's about a group of Elite Navy SEALS given the simple sounding mission of rescuing a doctor (an American Citizen) from a jungle village in war-torn Nigeria as an Evil General seizes control of the country and imposes brutal ethnic cleansing. Not a pretty situation.

But as soon as Willis and his hardass SEALS (including Cole Hauser, Johnny Messner and Nick Chinlund) show up the stubborn Doctor (that's the lurv-ley Monica Bellucci) refuses to budge unless she can take 70 villagers with her. Willis lies, telling her that this is fine by him as long as she agrees to go. The choppers arrive, Bellucci freaks as Willis-calling him every name under the crying sun (!) as only she is escorted to safety. Minutes later they fly over the village to find that the rebels have massacred everyone. His conscience gets the better of him, he orders the choppers back and they lead the ditched villagers to the safety of the Camaroon border through 40 miles of jungle.

Trouble is, one of the villagers is a mole and someone else isn't who he says he is. As a result, what seems like every member of the Nigerian rebels go after them with about a bazillion bullets and rockets at their disposal.

The difficulty lies in the fact that Tears of the Sun both does and does not glorify war. You can't really tell if the film is gung-ho or serious. But there's something quite moving and noble about a bunch of hardened commandos willing to die for a cause they've not had enough time to understand. Soldiers are humans and are too often portrayed as killing machines. There is no entertainment in the combat, only a sense of real danger and hopelessness. I actually prefer this film to the Black Hawk Down because A) it's not a jumpy, jittery blur and B) there a subtler emotional investment. Subtlety is something Black Hawk Down did NOT have. You can argue that it hardly belongs in a war film but it does give Tears of the Sun a strange edge.

I have the Superbit DVD that has a brilliant 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen picture with a loud, dynamic Dolby/DTS 5.1 soundtrack. Get this version, it's only available in R2 at the moment so you'll have to import if you live outside the UK.

Wow. I was not expecting this. I thought oh good, another mindless Bruce Willis action flick. This is an emotionally draining movie. Willis did an excellent job portraying the Lieutenant. If he seems stoic and unemotional, it's because he has a job to do. Obviously, he does have emotion as he turns the chopper around after seeing the burning blood-bath of the church he had just left several hours ago. And the fact that he didn't follow his orders exactly is totally realistic; people break rules all the time to follow their conscience.

I've read a lot of reviews, and people seem to be confused as to why the SEAL's were sent in to extract the American doctor, and why she was so important. Um, people. Stay with me here.....that's what we do. As Americans. We get our people out of war torn countries when it is no longer safe. Why was she so important? How do you rate the importance of human lives?

The action was credible. I like how not a fire was shot until halfway through the movie. The way the SEAL's cover each other, the stealth, the efficiency when they go into the village to kill the rebels is amazing to watch. All the SEAL's were excellent actors.