Annapolis - Palm Beach Post movie review

'Annapolis' misses the naval academy's real drama

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

"SIR! HOKEY AND CLICHED, SIR!"

Chances are that is how a midshipman would describe Annapolis, a Hollywoodized view of freshman plebes at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Touchstone Pictures

'Annapolis'

C-

The verdict: A hokey military academy melodrama with authenticity issues.

Director: Justin Lin
Starring: James Franco, Jordana Brewster, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Donnie Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson
Run time: 108 minutes
Release date: Jan. 27, 2006
Rating:PG-13 for some violence, sexual content and language.
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Filmed in Philadelphia of all places, decidedly without the cooperation of the Navy, the movie is constructed of used goods. Picture An Officer and a Gentleman crossed with Rocky, but not the better parts of either one, and you have an idea of how risibly derivative this film is.

Start with a blue-collar welder named Jake Huard (James Franco of Tristan and Isolde) with plenty of authority issues and a grudge against his father. He receives a last-minute acceptance to the academy, conveniently located across the river from his home. It is his long-held dream escape from the drudgery of shipbuilding, which he trades in for the hazing and character-building abuses that the military saves for its best and brightest.

Naturally, Jake is thrown in with a suite of multi-ethnic roommates. There's the by-the-books Asian prig, the Hispanic corner-cutter and, most endearingly, the obese, but kindly African-American from the small-town South. Jake coaches the portly Twins (Vicellous Shannon), so nicknamed for his double weight, to run the obstacle course and slim down, while Twins helps Jake bulk up and qualify as a heavyweight in order to box against their caustic company commander, Cole (Tyrese Gibson).

Gradually, boxing takes over the movie, as Jake sees the ring as his way to prove himself, to himself, to his fellow plebes and to his father. Plus it is a way to spend time with Ali (pert Jordana Brewster), an upperclass superior of Jake's who might as well have "Romantic Interest" painted across her forehead. As he begins training for the academy's Brigade Championships, she morphs into Rocky's Burgess Meredith, exhibiting unexpected skills as a boxing coach.

Franco is sufficiently wiry and resolute, but shows none of the promise of his early roles. The same is true of director Justin Lin, whose debut film Better Luck Tomorrow had a distinctive edginess that is missing from this mawkish, formulaic effort.

Surely there is enough real drama in the grueling process of turning plebes into naval officers without resorting to story lines that are so patently fabricated. This would be an apt time for a film that honored — and made enticing — the Naval Academy, but Annapolis is not it.