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February 10, 2006 > Arts & Entertainment > Annapolis : painfully dull, predictable disappointment from capable director

Annapolis: painfully dull, predictable disappointment from capable director

By Margaret Tung | Thresher Editorial Staff

Going into Annapolis, there were red flags that it would be a bomb: a stale, flat “hero” in underdog Jake Huard (Spiderman’s James Franco), a trite obstacle — a notoriously difficult academic institution — and a tired conflict, his father’s (Munich’s Brian Goodman) opposition to his lifelong dream.

Unfortunately, the cliches do not end there. Director Justin Lin’s Annapolis is wrought with everything that made 1980s movies like Top Gun and Rocky awesomely bad. But unlike those previous films, Franco has neither Tom Cruise’s charisma nor Sylvester Stallone’s strangely addicting bravado. Not even his James Dean-like looks can save this disaster.

The movie begins with Jake’s dull life as a riveter and sometimes-amateur boxer. Then, quick cuts through a series of dialogue-free images give audiences an unwelcome synopsis of the story to follow. Jake and his mother shared the same dream — for him to attend the Naval Academy — but since her death, he has settled for the more practical occupation of building ships with his distant and critical father.

Set to prove everyone wrong, Jake lands admission from the academy’s waitlist and heads to Annapolis. There, more obstacles and — gasp, shock — a love interest greet him. Tyrese Gibson (Four Brothers) plays Cole, a harsh and demanding lieutenant who immediately singles out Jake as his new scapegoat. Luckily and unsurprisingly, another superior, Ali (The Fast and the Furious’ Jordana Brewster), defends Jake because of the sexual tension between them.

Ridiculously, skinny and doe-eyed Brewster is cast as Jake’s superior, and they engage in a flirtation within the academy’s strict confines. But the film’s plot later weaves itself into an even stranger place: the boxing ring. Despite all the attention given to the Navy’s physical and mental demands, the movie ends in a climactic boxing match between Jake and Cole.

Annapolis’ unsound story not only makes for a lackluster film, it also leaves 1980s-esque loose ends that the script and characters pretend not to notice. Jake sometimes jokingly brings up “the war,” and even when Cole mentions he has been a soldier before, audiences are never given the name of the war or where Cole fought. More frustratingly, viewers begin to wonder why the movie preoccupies itself with a boxing tournament in the midst of this anonymous war.

Perhaps the film would have been more compelling had it centered on Jake’s roommate, Twins (Hart’s War’s Vicellous Shannon). Coming from a small town where he received a handshake from the mayor and a parade for being admitted to the Naval Academy, he seems to have much more at stake. His problems are much more relatable and realistic than Jake’s angsty father issues.

In the end, the movie’s only accomplishment is that it is the testosterone-laden equivalent of a made-for-Lifetime original. Even more disappointing, though, is that the same person who created the gutsy film Better Luck Tomorrow directed it.

Lin has devolved from the pioneering venture of exposing a dark subculture of over-achieving Asian-American teens to a movie that compares help to sex — one should take the opportunity whenever it is offered and repeat as much as possible. The harsh reality Annapolis ends up showing audiences is that the filmmaking industry sometimes requires uninspiring albeit well-paid jobs in order to support the real gems.

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