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 arts
"An Officer and a Gentleman" and parts
"Top Gun", Justin Lin's follow-up to his
indie hit "Better Luck Tomorrow", the
Navy Academy/boxing movie "
Annapolis
", is serviceable entertainment. To be sure,
it's nothing extraordinary, although everyone
involved, from the cast to the director himself,
are clearly destined for something better and more
substantive. As a standalone sports movie, with
all the clichés inherent in the genre, "
Annapolis
" is certainly innocuous enough, even though
it does dive into cornball every now and then, but
even that is good for a chuckle or two.
"
Annapolis
" stars the James Dean-channeling James
Franco ("The
Great Raid") as Jake Huard, a kid from
"the wrong side of the tracks" who gets
an invitation to
Annapolis
, the respected
Navy
Academy
that only accepts a thousand or so applicants from
the tens of thousands that apply every year. A
welder at a shipyard that happens to overlook
Annapolis
, Jake has dreamt of attending the Academy all his
life, beginning with a promise made to his
now-deceased mother. Unfortunately for our hero, a
disinterested father and a hardnosed attitude
developed over a lifetime of being kicked down and
forced to get back up on his own are destined to
get the young man in trouble.
Obstacles in Jake's way
include his gruff instructor played by Tyrese
Gibson ("2
Fast 2 Furious"), his culturally
disparate roommates, and a continuous flirtation
with Ali (Jordana Brewster), another one of his
instructors. It is eventually revealed that Jake's
acceptance into
Annapolis
was the result of Lt. Burton (Donnie Wahlberg),
who although the film never comes out and says it,
sees himself in the young Jake, and wishes to help
him however he can. Much of the film involves Jake
going through training, getting into spars with
his roommates and instructors, and of course,
training for the inevitable Big Game (in this
case, the Big Fight) between himself and Gibson's
Cole, the much-hated instructor, in the Academy's
Brigades, the one time of the year where superior
and underling are considered equals inside the
boxing ring.
The word that best describes
"
Annapolis
" would be "unambitious". The
screenplay by David Collard ("Out of
Time") is a melding of various,
familiarly-plotted sports and Armed Services-based
films, including the aforementioned "An
Officer and a Gentlemen" and "Top
Gun". The underdog sports movie themes are
right out of "Rocky" and all of its
various clones, and as such there is an
overwhelming sense of déjà vu while watching
"
Annapolis
", and every now and then the film's faithful
adherence to the tropes of its genre is
irritating. Fortunately for "
Annapolis
", what makes it a derivative piece of
cinematic work also makes it easy to like. After
all, the reasons movies like "Rocky" is
mimicked so often is precisely because they are
crowd pleasers and their formula have proven
lucrative enough to replicate.
"
Annapolis
" also benefits from a decent cast and crew.
Justin Lin is more than a competent director, and
must have known he was not making anything of real
substance, so approached the film as an exercise
on his way to bigger and better things. (Though to
be sure, his upcoming third installment of the
"The
Fast and the Furious" franchise would
seem to indicate otherwise, but I digress.) James
Franco makes for a worthwhile square-jawed hero,
and his chemistry with Jordana Brewster is
excellent, although I might be a tad bias as I
find Miss Brewster to be exceptionally appealing.
But the biggest surprise has to be Tyrese Gibson,
who proves that he's not all muscle and good
looks, and is actually quite effective as the
hardassed instructor determined to mold Jake into
a leader, or kill him trying. His confrontations
with Jake, including their boxing match at the
end, are of course straight out of "An
Officer and a Gentleman", but as they're well
done, they are easily forgiven.
Without belaboring the point,
"
Annapolis
" was conceived as a crowd pleaser first and
foremost. Its plotting and character arcs are
almost obscene in their predictability (although
the attempted suicide of one character was a bit
of a shock), and the film is not nearly as
inspiration as it seems to think it is. Beyond
those negatives, I have little qualms about
recommending "
Annapolis
" to those looking for easy no-frills
entertainment. It's got a good cast and the film
never overstays its welcome. But if you require
more from your movies, then you are advised to
seek elsewhere.
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