Tears of the Sun Blu Ray
July 5, 2009
Tears of the Sun Blu Ray Review
Tears of the Sun is Antoine Fuqua’s follow up to the popular Training Day. Training Day earned Oscar nominations for Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington. Denzel Washington won the Best Actor award. Tears of the Sun is more straight forward action film than the previous film. Even though the main attraction of the film is the action, it does deliver a great message. The movie portrays the violence and cruelty suffered by many Africans.
The plot is very straight forward. Lt. Waters and his team of SEALS head into dangerous area to rescue Dr. Lena Kendricks and the missionary priest in Nigeria where the rebels are threatening to murder them. While on the rescue, Dr. Kendricks refuses to leave if the refugees are left behind. Lt. Waters and his team basically go against the order and helps the refugees flee the murderous rebels. All of them must travel through harsh environment while evading the rebels to reach the safety.
While the action sequences are truly great, the real strength of the movie plays out between the fighting sequences. We see the suffering and cruelty inflicted upon the civilians by these rebels. The rebels’ actions aren’t very different or exaggerated from the actual events taking place in Africa today. That’s the real tragedy and strength of the film. Bruce Willis stands out as the rough and tough leader of the special ops. The role reminds you of his Die Hard days minus the sense of humor. This is one of the better military films that has great take home message.
What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.
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Tears of the Sun [Blu-ray] List Price: Sale Price: $17.49 You save: $11.46 (40%) Average Rating: 
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teqars review
Bruce willis is perfect for this role. Blu-Ray adds to excellent film. Story line lays the moral issues right on the table for the audience to judge. The political implications and “national interest” flow right to the real world issues in today’s Africa and other areas of the world. The characters are well developed through the film and the raw action and violence are not just add ons but integral to the storyline. In addition, the glimpse into SEALS tactics and mission go right to the Somali piracy of 2009. highly recommended.
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Not worthwhile
Picture quality is impacted because so much of this film is shot in very dark conditions. Also, someone on the production team seems to think that Bruce Willis’ face can be substituted for good scenery. I bet his face took up half of the overall area on film for this movie. My biggest single gripe is that I found the plot completely implausible, and the characters impossible to get attached to.
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‘War Movie’ With A Noble Message
The is a solid “war” movie with U.S. Navy Seals, led by Bruce Willis, rescuing an American doctor and 70 of her patients from war-torn Nigeria. This is violent and bloody in parts but definitely not another war flick overdone with violence.
This is beautifully-filmed, artistic in spots and I’m curious what the Blu-Ray version looks like. The sound is excellent, too.
National critics didn’t like this movie. I suspect one big reason is that they are used to seeing films in which Christians are shown as sympathetic victims of persecution.
Willis is perfect for this role as the strong, stone-faced leader. Monica Bellucci could have been a little more likable as the doctor. The story gets a little too melodramatic at the end, but it’s tolerable.
This is not a family film by any means, because of the violence, perhaps 20 f-words and a dozen abuses of the Lord’s name in vain. Still, an interesting movie with a different slant, and at least has a noble message.
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“God already left Africa…”
Tears of the Sun sheds light (as it should do) on the reality of what is going on in much of Africa: war, atrocities, child soldiers, refugees, bad governance/corruption, and the scrambling for natural resources. An elite unit of U.S. NAVY SEALs is ordered into Nigeria to escort an American doctor and three Europeans (a Catholic priest and two nuns) to safety, following a coup staged by the northern Muslim Fulani tribe against the southern Christian Ibo tribe for control of the oil-rich nation. During the mission the unit’s commander witnesses the atrocities committed by rebel fighters, disobeys orders, and engages the perpetrators. As a result, he decides to take up the task of escorting a group of refugees across the border into neighboring Cameroon. Things will be further complicated when hundreds of Muslim fighters giving chase seem particularly interested in one of the refugees…
Bruce Willis (in a familiar role) and the rest of the cast carry out their performances well (though nothing extraordinary), however, Monica Bellucci’s character as well as her acting were surprisingly not that great or convincing (she was rather annoying for a change). The likelihood that a crack team would jeopardize its mission and risk embarrassing the U.S. on humanitarian grounds is highly unlikely. Moreover, logic dictates that the SEALs will be court-marshalled and imprisoned for their actions, none of which is shown in the movie. Nevertheless, the film will provide for more than just a few thrills not to mention a few tears.
Tears of the Sun is strongly recommended along with Blood Diamond and Hotel Rwanda for those with an interest in Africa.
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Great movie, good story and full of action
In this movie, Bruce Willis is part of a Special Forces unit that is deployed into a war-torn part of Africa with instructions to certain extract US citizens that are working at a missionary. Willis and his team battle and evade a large force that is quickly tracking them throughout there journey to the extraction zone. Along the way they confront and eliminate a group of men that are carrying out their mission of ethnic cleansing. While this is nothing like the Die Hard series, this is still a very good movie in its own way and I am surprised at the number of negative reviews on this movie.
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terrible movie
This is probably the worst Bruce Willis movie, and that’s saying a lot. The acting is stiff and the plot is thin. Not even all the action scenes can make up for it. The parts that are supposed to be emotional are dry and unconvincing. The movie is, in a word, boring. I’m glad I rented this one and didn’t buy it. I would have given it one star, but the action was pretty decent.
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Pretty good movie
The story is pretty good and the acting is also, though Black Hawk Down is a better movie overall.
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Contradictions Blur
It is its contradictions that make Tears of the Sun challenging to judge and which no doubt account for the wide disparities in opinion. On the one hand are the pitfalls of corny dialogue, logical stretches, and a weak performance by Willis. On the other hand is the drama of the faintly addressed but seething issues of human rights, multilateralism, and the limits of military power. Tears doesn’t deal with these complexities with the finiteness of a film like Platoon, nor does it possess the visual beauty of a film like The Thin Red Line. To its credit, there are fine performances by Monica Bellucci and others, and the film avoids the condescending and even racist view of Africans in Black Hawk Down. But most significantly, and not to give anything away, viewers should look for a single scene that is as brutal, vengeful, compassionate, and poignant as any in the finer combat films. Perhaps Tears doesn’t quite reach the nobility its script aspires to, but this successfully done, difficult, and powerful scene is redemptive of the effort and leaves the viewer with an image–and something to thing about–he’ll recall long after seeing the film.
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Price of conscience
Like BLACK HAWK DOWN, TEARS OF THE SUN is ultimately a Hollywood action film with a strong military basis. But like BLACK HAWK, I highly recommend it for its outstanding production values and as-good-as-you’re-likely-to-get portrayal of the difficulties of direct action intervention in African ethnic cleansing.
TEARS lacks BLACK HAWK’s tight, no-nonsense script, but Antoine Fuqua has crafted a visually beautiful, and his control over the long-take, wide-angle action sequences is flawless. Despite its intentions to be politically meaningful, TEARS is at its best when the bullets are flying. The sets, scenery (with Hawaii filling in for Nigeria) and costumes are all impeccable. And this extended, director’s cut is better paced and more fleshed out with regards to backstory.
Bruce Willis leads a solid cast, and even when the script is failing them, he and his squad of Navy SEALs share a genuine chemistry on screen, both in tactics and personality, that you couldn’t fake with lesser actors. Monica Bellucci, though an exceedingly talented actress, stumbles with her English lines.
Though it will ultimately be dismissed as right-wing, “Republican” propaganda (just like BLACK HAWK), TEARS is ultimately too noble in its intentions (naive, even), to stoop to that. Willis and his soldiers, like the best of Frank Miller’s heroes, are out-gunned and out-numbered, and still try to do the right thing. It makes the film’s finale emotional, even despite its stilted writing.
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Neither really good nor really bad, but worthwhile for a few reasons
“Tears of the Sun” (2003) tells the story of a squadron of Navy Seals led by Bruce Willis who are on mission in Nigeria to remove a beautiful American doctor (Monica Belucci) from a Christian village before evil Islamic militants move in and annihilate ‘em all. Belucci insists that “her people” go with them. Willis initially refuses but later has a change of heart. Since there are too many to remove via helicoptor they have no choice but to lead ‘em out on foot to the Cameroon border. Will they make it out alive?
I remember seeing a scene or two while channel surfing a few years ago and it perked my interest. What I saw had an ultra-serious vibe and seemed to have depth as well. It looked like my cup of tea because I’m a huge fan of the original “Apocalypse Now.” The icing on the cake is the presence of Monica Belucci, who’s definitely one of the most beautiful women to ever grace God’s Earth. Seriously, her face is incredible!
Well, I’ve seen it twice now and, despite all the positive items it has going, I can’t help but find it kinda disappointing. I’ve already listed the positives so allow me to cite what doesn’t work:
After seeing the film twice now I only remember two characters — Willis and Belucci. Every other character is totally forgettable. This isn’t the case at all with, say, “Apocalypse Now” wherein the viewer knew and remembered every single member of Capt. Willard’s team after seeing the film once, not to mention the major peripheral characters. Another good example would be “Last Of The Mohicans” (1992), which has a similar theme (i.e. good people being chased through the forest by evil villains).
The mistake of “Tears of the Sun” is that it jumps right into the thick of the jungle story without allowing the viewer to get to know anyone. As already noted, the theme is heavy and the vibe is fittingly serious, including the score, but because we aren’t emotionally tied to the characters the picture comes across too heavy-handed and melodramtic.
I should also add that the 2-hour film is fairly slow moving and that the big-action sequence doesn’t take place until the finale. The problem with this “exciting” climax is that the viewer, once again, doesn’t care what happens at this point because we don’t really know the characters and therefore have little emotional attachment. I just got done watching the ending and I was quite bored — lazily strumming my acoustic guitar, looking around the room, etc.
Although the story takes place in Nigeria the picture was obviously shot in Hawaii. The difference in geography is enough that the film loses points for realism, but who can deny the beauty of Hawaii? So maybe it gains the points back.
The Director’s Cut merely adds the deleted scenes from the Special Edition dvd to the film. In other words, unless you absolutely love the film it’s not necessary to buy the Director’s Cut; just watch the deleted scenes. Speaking of the deleted scenes, there’s one quietly potent scene where a black American talks with a black Nigerian. It has great dialogue and should have never been cut.
BOTTOM LINE: “Tears of the Sun” has some attributes, including the ultra-serious vibe, cinematography, score and Monica Belucci. But this is far from a good film. At the same time, it’s not bad. It’s just okay. Check out “Rambo” (2008) if you want to see the same theme done in an effective manner.
PERSONAL GRADE: C
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Tears of the Sun on Blu-Ray
Tears of the Sun is one of the best war movies I have seen years. It is amazing how real a movie becomes on Blu-Ray.
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Navy Seals
A film that is thought provoking. A SEAL team commander is put in a moral dilemma, and must act outside the “box”. SEAL fans should enjoy.
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Tears of one of the movie goers
It’s boring and extremely illogical. The truth is nobody in that situation could have helped rescued so many people if he did not have the support of many air planes and infantries. I found the fighting scenes were not engaging either.
I did not have to pay the full price for the ticket but I still think it’s a waste of money
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Superb war movie
What a great film! I am suspicious of Bruce Willis who has a tendency to get in front of the camera (the series of Die Hard). However, he is at his best in this mission taking place in the breathtaking scenery of a sumptuous and agonizing Africa (Nigeria). The horror of civil war is very well described. the story of the movie has lots of sense. The actors are brilliant. A great moment of cinema, which helps us to better assess situations of crisis.
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GOOD BUT NOT WHAT I EXPECTED
This was a good movie, but not what I expected. You really shouldn’t put a quote on the DVD case that reads “The best Bruce Willis action movie since Die Hard”. That gives the presumption that it’s within that genre. IT IS NOT. No where bloody near in fact. This is a heavy, depressing, slow paced movie about genocide in Africa. Why in the hell would you reference Die Hard at all for a heavy movie like this?? Probably to sell DVD’s. Same with the description of the movie. They of course leave out saying anything about women with their [...] ripped off, dead babies, children being shot, rapes, etc. etc.. Again, who would buy such a depressing DVD? So it worked. Your marketing tactics worked. I bought the DVD expecting one thing and got another. I don’t mind the message and the cause this DVD promotes, but I don’t appreciate a lecture where one was not expected nor requested. Be honest in your marketing next time and maybe you’ll get a better reaction from others like me. I would give it just one star for being completely misleading – but I’ll give two stars for being a good movie, though not what I paid for.
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