Coupled with the Now That’s Vietnam Movies! compilation soundtrack, it never entirely forges its own identity. The film also takes a few too many of its cues from Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Toby Kebbell draws the short straw with a character who may as well be called Private Cliché, while Hiddleston and Larson are curiously underserved by straight-laced dialogue and a noticeable absence from the action. Reilly’s stranded WW2 soldier who gets the most compelling arc, a heartfelt story underpinning his fruit-loop insanity. Jackson is suitably intense as the Ahab-like military man, but it’s John C. Practically everyone gets solid screen time, even if it’s never enough to care when they die. Likely there wasn’t time, given the enormous ensemble cast.
