Young hot shot lawyer (although he could easily be a fighter pilot/cocktail mixer) is so good/cool/sexy he beats everyone he's up against. This time the girl who falls for him is his boss but they don't actually get down to it (although they do both get fishy fingers - you'll have to watch the movie to get that) and, folks, don't fear, Tom Cruise doesn't sing this time... what was the Righteous Brothers follow up to 'You've lost that loving feeling' anyways...

Tom Cruise plays lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee under Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) called on to defend two marines (Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson played by Wolfgang Bodison and Pfc. Louden Downey played by James Marshall) who murdered one of their squad. But were they acting on orders? Jack Nicholson (Col. Nathan R. Jessep) knows the answers...

"Top Gun without the expensive flying shots and no shirt offedness."

"My, Tom does look great in a military uniform."

"Everyone complains that Leonardo DiCaprio looked too young for Titanic, but nobody ever seems to question Tom Cruise in the same way at this time in movie history."

"I did not understand the baseball references. Please tell me they didn't just add that in so Cruise could wear a baseball jacket when he was interrogating officers?"

"Tom orders a beer and the waitress doesn't ask him which one? At this time in beer history there must have been over 5 to choose from! 10 out of 10 for speed, waitress-babe, but 0 out of 10 for modern waitressing. You just can't get the staff these days..."

"I had a moment of West Wing deja vu when Tom talks to Demi about her asking him out on a date (the bit when he says something like: 'Are you asking me out on a date, because someone asked me out on a date one time and it sounded just like that'). Aaron Sorkin wrote West Wing and he wrote this movie too; did he charge West Wing again for that piece of writing? I want my money back just in case!"

Well, it looks like Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is determined to make a stand on principle...

In court, Kaffee calls Col. Nathan R. Jessep (Nicholson) to the stand. Kaffee's only hope is to get Jessep to admit that he ordered a Code Red (an unofficial marine order telling the accused to kill the guy they are accused of murdering).

Does Kaffee do it? After a couple of tense moments of looking at each other, a stiff drink of the finest court water and then Tom lets rip. A shouting match ensues in which Kaffee gets Jessep to admit he did order it, Jessep is then arrested.

The twist in the tail is that the two guys who followed the order to kill Santiago, whilst getting off the charge for murder, get a dishonourable discharge for conduct unbecoming a US marine.

"If you haven't had a blow job from a superior officer, well, you're just letting the best in life pass you by."

"I'm a cool guy but this heat is making me absolutely f-wording crazy."

[Why Demi Moore's character is defending the marines:] "Because they stand on a wall and they say 'nothing's gonna hurt you tonight, not on my watch'."

"I'm gonna rip the eyes out of your head and piss in your skull."

Saluting yourself in the mirror.

What is a hunky-late-twenty-something just qualified hot shot lawyer who wears baseball clothing when questioning officers to do? Tom keeps his shirt on throughout and still manages to clean up by closing time.

You either like Tom Cruise playing this kind of lippy young hot shot character or you don't. It's not as cringy as Top Gun at its worst, probably because the writer of this movie is Aaron Sorkin (West Wing) - one of the finest.

There are some great moments - Jack Nicholson has some superb lines. However the ending, just after one of the marines is about to be dishonourably discharged - when he turns and salutes Kaffee - is truly awful (especially as he had earlier said he would rather go to prison than be dishonourably discharged because he wouldn't know what to do with his life afterwards).

Never do anything Jack Nicholson tells you to do.

A soiled Tom Cruise jock strap.

There's not a punch-in-the-kisser in sight, which is a shame.

On the plus side, the verbal aggro is there in mouthfuls.

Terrible missed opportunity for a shirt-off paper-clip fight between Kevin Bacon, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore.

This is quite a good movie.

Trouble is, Tom Cruise plays to his annoying 20-something hot shot typecast of the time.

On the plus side, the movie is very well written and Jack Nicholson (they probably wrote the role for him in any case) is on form.

March 7 , 2005