Annapolis (PG-13)

Review Date: January 27th, 2006

Annapolis isn’t anything but an over-boiled, corn-fed version of An Officer and a Gentleman.

Story

No, seriously. Annapolis follows Gentleman almost to the letter, right down to our main character, rebellious Jake (James Franco), who comes from the wrong side of the tracks (with a father who doesn’t support him) but gets into the Naval Academy anyway. There’s the steely senior upperclassman (Tyrese Gibson), who rides Jake mercilessly but can’t make Jake quit. They inevitably end up duking it out in a boxing ring. Or the chubby freshman or “plebe” (Vicellous Shannon), who is the pride of his family because he got into the Academy but will fail if he can make it through the obstacle course, letting everyone who’s counting on him down. Oh, and there’s also the beautiful girl (Jordana Brewster). She and Jake flirt in a bar, she rejects him and then he finds out she’s an upperclassman at the Academy. Wait, that’s Top Gun, isn’t it?

Acting

You sort of have to feel bad for Franco. He has all the makings of a movie star--dark, brooding looks, heavy-lidded eyes, Marlon Brando intensity--but he just can’t quite find the right movie to launch him into stardom. He missed the mark with the medieval romance Tristan and Isolde--and now, as the insurgent Jake, he simply can’t outdo Gentleman’s Richard Gere. Neither can bad boy Tyrese (Four Brothers), trying to be a younger, tougher version of Louis Gossett Jr.’s Oscar-winning hard ass. At any moment, you expect Tyrese to yell, “Oh, you’ll DOR!” Instead, the actor comes off ludicrously ill-fitted in his Navy whites. The rest of the cast, too, have a tough time making us believe they belong in the movie. Please, you think someone like Brewster (The Fast and the Furious) is going to be in the Naval Academy and know how to box? Highly unlikely.

Direction

Wonder which genius exec over at Disney had the brilliant idea to greenlight this derivative mess? The impetus for making Annapolis was probably to give audiences a glimpse at the prestigious U.S. Naval Academy and how hard it is to make it through. Not a bad idea, on paper at least. But it’s obvious screenwriter Dave Collard watched An Officer and a Gentleman several hundred times, sat down and wrote his cheesy heart out but forgot to add any of the steamy sex. Then, to add insult to injury, they hire director Justin Lin(Better Luck Tomorrow), a relative novice, who tries his best to keep up appearances that he knows what he’s doing but doesn’t really have any of the necessary experience to make the film better. Annapolis is simply doomed to fail.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 1 star.