Absolutely the worst movie.

A Masterpiece!

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Blistering performances.

If you watch the trailer, it will be somewhat misleading, because the explosion of a ship does not really happen in the movie, among other things shown in the promo. But the bigger issue with this war academy movie is this: it has not enough soldier's life in it, while at the same time is has way too much sport in form of boxing, especially near the end. And also, like so many others pictures about men becoming soldiers (cops, firefighters, lifeguards etc.), it has a romance in it, panning to the female portion of the audience; which is a serious problem haunting not only the Hollywood film industry. Unfortunately in this case, Jordana Brewster is just not cut out from the same material as Demi "J.I. Jane" Moore and as such is not believable as an US Navy instructor. On the other hand, the rest of the cast probably could not be betterAlthough that extensive amount of boxing and preparation for the matches could also be viewed as a plus, because of them this "peacetime war" movie is not so typical as you could expect. And also the matches are presented not from A-to-Z way. For example from the second one only the finale is shown, with entertaining camera work; while in the third one there is this climax moment that is not the end of a fight, which is achieved by a slow motion technique in combination with extraordinary music of Brian Tyler. And that is another quality of this picture- the original score, with both nostalgic / love theme and energetic and not so classical-like action music. But on top of that, there is also very good music supervision, resulting in a a great usage of the song "Different Stars" by Trespassers William and "Born Too Slow" by The Crystal MethodAll in all, this is not a war epic nor a great movie, but simply a good execution of interesting story and characters, with the US Navy serving merely as a setup. And most definitely it is not that stupid and / or boring, as some negative user reviews from IMDb describe it

In the boxing ring, men flock to see hunky James Franco (as Jake S. Huard) strut his six-pack abs. He also works as a ship-welder for his father, but Mr. Franco would rather join the Navel Academy at "Annapolis". Franco gets his wish when Donnie Wahlberg (as Lieutenant Burton), a self-described "36-year-old out-of-shape lieutenant," who can be caught ogling Franco in the opening fight, pulls some strings to get Franco signed up. Franco, who "came straight here from high school," meets Tyrese Gibson (as Commander Cole) in the ring, makes goo-goo eyes at pretty superior officer Jordana Brewster (as Ali), and trains to be a better boxer.Other than seeing handsome Franco's bugling muscles, you may not think Justin Lin's "Annapolis" is worth watching. The story is ordinary to a fault, and clichéd beyond hope. But, it's not too poorly produced. And, you can see how supporting and featured players can make something out of an assignment - going to the head of the class is Vicellous Shannon (as Marcus "Twins" Nance), who does an exemplary job with his character. Sporting more fat than muscle, Mr. Shannon milks every drop out of his script, without overdoing it, and takes the title "Best Supporting Actor" in a film that will wasn't ever going to win any awards.**** Annapolis (1/27/06) Justin Lin ~ James Franco, Tyrese Gibson, Vicellous Shannon, Jordana Brewster

We have seen this film before. It a boring compilation of scenes lifted from films like 'An Officer and a gentleman' and 'Rocky'. Every single character is a walking cliché and the whole thing feels predictable. It's not a bad film, just very disappointing. The fault clearly lies with the script. A little more imagination and better craft would have made this film watchable. James Franco is competent but can't rise above the material. As a tribute to the naval academy or a recruiting tool, the film's alright. But it's simply not worth seeing for its own sake. Avoid.Overall 3/10

The best way to describe this movie in my opinion is to say it's not that interesting. I honestly don't understand why some movies ever get made. Seriously now, how can you as a studio ever green-light such a project after you've read the very generic script, filled with all the clichés and the usual suspects. It offers no surprises at all and it's a totally predictable movie from start till finish.It's a self indulged project, that is about living the American dream by joining a prestigious naval academy. But why our main character exactly wants to be in it so badly just never really becomes clear to me. Becomes he promised his mother before her death? Now seriously, that seems like a totally crazy thing to promise to your mother now doesn't it? A lot of things just don't become clear to me in this movie. For instance also why exactly the two main characters, played by James Franco and Tyrese Gibson hate each other so badly from the start on. It seems to have no grounds. And why is he liked Lt. Burton so much? What makes his character so special? To me he just seems like one of the boys and gals of the naval academy and he has no particular special skills or ideals. Also his boxing skills aren't that impressive.For in essence "Annapolis" strangely enough is also a boxing movie. Not that the boxing serves a significant enough purpose for the movie though really, since the movie focuses on so many (too many) more elements around it. Also the way the boxing sequences are shot is just completely terrible. It shows it as a sport in which you have to punch as hard as you can without stopping. Seriously, no tactics are involved and I actually wonder if the movie had a boxing coach or professional present during the making of the movie, since it seems to me that the cast and crew had no idea what there were doing when it came down to its boxing sequences. It's a movie that gives boxing a sort of a bad name. It presents the sport as one in which two crazed individuals aggressively, constantly take a swing at another.But the movie concentrates on much more elements. It's a dramatic, romantic, sports movie. It's however also very predictable in every way, which ensures the the drama, the romance as well as the sport just doesn't work out in this movie. All of the characters are so incredibly standard and overdone. All of the characters you would expect in a movie about a tough naval academy are present here. But also the script just doesn't ever offer any surprises. And yes, of course the movie also manages to throw in a love-story, which just wasn't necessary and it doesn't exactly make this movie any better or more likable to watch.In the end I just don't really know what this movie is about. Is it about the main character trying to fix the relationship between him and his father? Or is it perhaps about achieving something in life by devoting yourself to the service of your country? Is it about fighting for your chance in life? Is it about finding and getting with the love of your life? I'm really not sure what the movie tried to achieve and it tries to throw in a bit of everything, however with as a result that basically nothing really works out for the movie as it should had.James Franco is a good actor but he just ain't quite ready yet the play the main character in any movie. He is always at his best playing a secondary character, that stays more on the background but has as well also has just a couple of big scene's for himself. The movie is filled with some other well known actors but none of their characters really work out, which is obviously not mainly just due to their acting performances but mostly more to it's formulaic script and probably also directing. It's a funny thing that the unknown Vicellous Reon Shannon, who yet plays a very formulaic role (the fat guy with twinkies under his bed), is the only actor who lets his character work out and lets him become one you can actually sympathize for.No sir, I don't like it. The movie just isn't interesting to watch. It's clichéd and just overall doesn't seem to have a point.4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/