The Great Raid
The Great Raid ★★ 2005 (R)
Workmanlike retelling of the 1944 rescue of more than 500 American POWs from a Japanese prison camp located in a remote area of the Philippines. You've got the outside planners, Army Rangers Mucci (Bratt) and Prince (Franco) and their Filipino allies, led by Pajota (Montano); the insiders, led by malaria sufferer Gibson (Fiennes); and nurse Margaret (Nielsen), who's also a resistance leader. Film has a looooong build-up before the raid comes off, which dissipates the tension. Completed in 2002, flick sat on the Miramax shelves until its brief 2005 big screen release. 132m/C DVD, Blu-ray Disc . US Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Fiennes, Marton Csokas, Robert Mammone, Natalie Mendoza, Motoki Kobayashi, Cesar Montano, Maximillian Martini, James Carpinello, Craig McLachlan, Dale Dye, Paolo Montalban, Gotaro Tsunashima; D: John Dahl; W: Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro; C: Peter Menzies Jr.; M: Trevor Rabin.