Black Hawk Down (2001)

Synopsis: Idealistic Army Rangers bring American way of life to war-torn Somalia...and help turn Mogadishu into downtown Detroit.

Blurb From the VHS Jacket: “In 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are sent to capture a violent warlord whose corrupt regime has lead to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. When the mission goes terribly wrong, the men find themselves outnumbered and literally fighting for their lives.”

What Did I Learn?: When a movie soldier advises a buddy to leave his canteen and night vision goggles behind because the mission is only going to take 30 minutes, there’s a very good chance it might last a bit longer than that.

You Might Like This Movie If: Deep down, you know that Rangers Lead the Way.

Really?: Does it really make a lot of sense to use a white guy in civilian clothing to spy on the enemy in East Africa?

Rating: Black Hawk Down is a very compelling and realistic account of America’s ill-fated intervention into Somalia in the early 1990s. All of the performances are quite good, and this film will certainly hold your interest for the full 144 minutes. That said, it’s sometimes hard to tell who’s who during the action sequences (which occasionally look like something from an Xbox shoot-em-up game) and the dialogue occasionally lapses into speechmaking. That said, Black Hawk Down is highly recommended. 9/10 stars.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265086/