Annapolis (2006) starring James Franco, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster, Donnie Wahlberg directed by Justin Lin Movie Review

Annapolis (2006)   3/53/53/53/53/5


James Franco in Annapolis (2006)

Playing Sailor Boy

Jake Huard (James Franco) comes from a family of ship builders but always wanted more, he wanted to serve on boats rather than build them and that means going to Annapolis Naval Academy. Fortunately for Jack, Lt. Burton (Donnie Wahlberg) has seen him box and despite his less that glorious academic record fudges things for him to be one of the 1207 candidates. But that less than glorious academic record proves to be an issue as whilst Jake can cope with the physical aspects he can't do the classes and his inefficiencies leads to him becoming unpopular with others who all suffer the punishments for his academic short comings. On the verge of quitting he finds little sympathy or support from his father who seems more happy to be right about his son being a quitter. But fortunately Jake discovers that maybe his boxing experience will provide him with a way to succeed.

"Annapolis" proves what I have known for a long time; a movie doesn't have to be original, special or thought provoking to be entertaining. I am serious because "Annapolis" feels like someone rolled the dice and picked two movies off of a list and set about combining them with this case it feeling like someone took "An Officer and a Gentleman" and combined it with "Rocky" or any other boxing movie.

Jordana Brewster in Annapolis (2006)

What this means is that "Annapolis" is predictable right from the word go, when Jake's friends stitch him up on the night before he leaves for the academy with an attractive woman at the bar it is no surprise that she ends up being one of the trainers at the academy who in turns up becoming close to him. On top of that we have the trainer who is a bully who has a go at a foreign candidate whilst constantly humiliating another who has a weight problem. Basically as you watch "Annapolis" you will spend plenty of time predicting what scenes will come whilst thinking about the movies it is similar to and those I mentioned earlier are not the only ones.

But whilst I am sure there are days where I would find "Annapolis" annoying in its unoriginality if you are in the right mood the obvious nature of it makes it kind of entertaining. I suppose what I am saying is that if you want pretty actors delivering action and drama which doesn't challenge you and makes you smile which offering up something akin to inspiration then it succeeds. In fact considering this is a movie which is all about the training at the Naval academy the cinematography makes everything look so pretty which isn't hard when you already have attractive cast in James Franco and Jordana Brewster who looks even more attractive than she usually does.

What this all boils down to is that "Annapolis" is utterly shallow, devoid of originality, not realistic and is all about pretty actors delivering pretty performances for audiences who don't want to be challenged. It makes "Annapolis" a guilty pleasure and the sort of movie which is ideal for at the end of a day when you want to watch something simple, okay I mean vacuous.

Tags: Boxing Movies


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