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Major Thorn (Faye Dunaway), left, lectures Captain Murphy (Amy Acker) about discipline in the indie “21 and a Wake-Up.” |
“21 and a Wake-Up,” the first American-made Vietnam War movie shot where the conflict happened, could pass as an ambitious, rookie student film with its amateurish performances, cornball dialogue and possibly the worst editing job outside of an old Albert Pyun action movie.
Fittingly released on Halloween weekend, “21” offers a truly scary performance by 68-year-old Faye Dunaway as Major Thorn, a by-the-book commander who locks horns with Captain Murphy (Amy Acker), an “undisciplined” female Hawkeye Pierce at the U.S. 24th Evac Hospital during the final days of the war.
“21” was written and directed by Chris McIntyre, who served as a Marine stationed in Vietnam during the war. He based his film on real events, which, ironically, come off here as Hollywood creations, especially when Murphy travels into Cambodia on a secret mission to retrieve a Vietnamese-American girl, the daughter of an Army surgeon killed during a blatantly telegraphed “surprise” explosion. (Read more…) Rated: R (language, nudity and violence). 120 minutes.
Now playing at local theaters.