A Few Good Men (1992)

For so many years this was my favorite movie. The plot, the acting, the scenes are all superb. Tom Cruise may be the lead but every actor brought their A Game for this film. Aaron Sorkin and Reiner rounded out a brilliant ensemble to make this a totally enjoyable experience. Enjoy every moment.

Full disclosure, I think Aaron Sorkin is pretty much the king of political shows.If you like The West Wing, The Newsroom or The American President, you should like this movie. If you hated any of them for their liberal-leaning politics, it seems likely you'll hate this, too.This show does not paint the military in a favorable way and, of course, the Marines, in particular, are put on trial. Literally. I love the military, it's not like business or school, so I'm not sure I agree with Sorkin's take here. Regardless, nobody writes quite like him.What I am sure of is that this movie has a dash of eye candy, a stellar cast AND I solemnly swear, you can handle the funny.This is a very good show but I can only watch it every 5 years or so.

Let me get started by saying there's no story even resembling reality here. Navy lawyer Kaffee (Tom Snooze) is a little pee-on, yet he decides all on his own to take a sensitive case to court, a maneuver which would have found him stone-walled as soon as the higher echelon discovered he was filing to try the case.Of course, we wouldn't have a movie without writer Aaron 'Copy-n-Paste' Sorkin's silly plot. We also wouldn't get to see Jack Nicholson's fine performance as Colonel Jessup. After all, he makes this his show while concomitantly dwarfing the poor excuses for actors on hand (Tom Snooze, Dummy Moore, and Kevin Haddock). Therefore, let the carnage begin.We are introduced to Kaffee when he is LATE for a meeting showing up without a PEN (he's a lawyer - with a briefcase and everything - but he forgot his pen). Naturally, his commander is understanding. This is where the smart-alek chutzpah begins as Kaffee is proved to be a selfish fool, but all his contemporaries mysteriously still admire him.The next ignorant screw-up by Kaffee happens as he arrives at a superior's office where Kaffee plops down in a chair while munching on an apple. As he sucks the dripping juices off his wrist, the silliness is snapped back to the old 'understanding commander' gag, rather than the more believable (and preferable) event of the superior barbecuing Kaffee for being such an arrogantly clueless putz.As the film drones on, Kaffee has not realized that he should probably go to the nearest five-n-dime store and purchase a package of pens (this running joke was meant to be funny..... it was not). Kaffee's stupidity and total lack of military bearing was more than just Sorkin's failed attempt at comedy. It was also very annoying which resulted in a dislike of Kaffee. What a jerk.When the BIG SCENE materializes (where, in the court room, Kaffee gets Jessup to 'admit' to ordering a forbidden 'Code Red'), we are supposed to believe that Jessup's career is over. This is a half-witted plot point by Sorkin as Jessup could easily appeal and just say that he was angered by the arrogant Kaffee (who truly is an obnoxious little fart). Following Jessup's demise, we see Kaffee stand proud to serve in the Navy, something he's balked at for the preceding 2 hours-plus.As previously stated, this is Nicholson's movie. But added to that, there is no story here, at least if one strives for reality in a film, which is what all involved in movies strive for. When Kaffee (who was specifically chosen by the Navy to plea-bargain this case) decides all by his lonesome to try the soon-to-be-general Jessup in a court of law, the Navy would have escorted Kaffee back to his little cubical and shoved a stale donut in his mouth to shut him up, all of this while they begin to process his foolish butt out of the Navy.Rent, watch, enjoy, but don't forget..... there's no realistic story here.

A Few Good Men is without a doubt, at the top of my "If I Was Stranded on a Deserted Island and Could Only Watch 5 Movies for the Rest of My Life, What Would They Be?" List! (Okay, I made that list up. I mean, how would you get power on a deserted island to watch the movies?) Jack Nicholson, who played Colonel Nathan R. Jessep, perfectly portrayed the quintessential, hard-core, high ranking, military bad- ass! Col. Jessep's "You Can't Handle the Truth" speech, forever solidified him in my mind, as the coolest guy ever! It took me weeks to memorize that speech, but have enjoyed years of both impressing and annoying friends and family, reciting it. If you have not seen A Few Good Men, you owe it to yourself to do so. If you have, watch it again!