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'The Great Raid' can't seize attention

Director John Dahl is known for such tight, low-budget neo-noirs as "Red Rock West" and "The Last Seduction" — movies that get their kicks from the dumb things greed, lust and fear will make people do. So the idea of him making a World War II film is odd but appealing: Surely a filmmaker of this pedigree will wring an old-fashioned, spirited B-movie out of the true story he is tackling.

Miramax 'The Great Raid' 1 out of 5 stars Director: John Dahl Starring: Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Fiennes, Mark Consuelos Release date: August 12, 2005 Rating: R for strong war violence and brief language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "The Great Raid"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Unfortunately, Dahl delivers the downside of an old programmer — a cast full of B- and C-list actors, unimpressive production values, unexpected moments of clunkiness — without the wit and soul that made the best of those movies such a joy to discover.

For one thing, the 133-minute "Raid" is the opposite of lean. The essential plot here is the daring rescue of 500 survivors of the Bataan Death March, soldiers who were being starved to death in a prison camp situated far from areas the Army considered strategically important.

But the screenplay, in an effort to add human interest and widen the film's scope, embraces a time-consuming but irrelevant subplot in which one prisoner (Joseph Fiennes, whose job seems to be to tremble for two hours, waiting bravely at death's door) fantasizes about a never-consummated romance with a woman who works with the Filipino underground, smuggling medicine into camp.

Fiennes' one-note performance has plenty of company: Connie Nielsen, so good in the recent "Brothers," is awkward here; young James Franco can never convince us he's an Army captain; and Benjamin Bratt lets his sculpted jaw do his acting for him. Add a script that's 80 percent lifeless exposition, and this "Raid" isn't nearly as great as its real-life counterpart.