Metacritic reviews

A strong, gritty, powerful piece of film making, and one of the three or four best movies made about the Vietnam era.

An affecting, old fashioned, antiwar war story.

Consistently fresh, engrossing and unpredictable.

Worth a look. It's easy to overrate -- but just as easy to undervalue.

Rarely less than compelling, must-see entertainment, thanks to Farrell, Schumacher and company.

The stripped-down production give a disturbing sense of immediacy to an otherwise fairly conventional story about boys being prepared for war.

Beneath the rough vérité exterior beats the same slick, corny heart.

In his first major role, the Irish actor Farrell deflects the script's more dubious aspects through sheer magnetic presence.

Despite melodramatic lapses -- the gripping action recalls Walter Hill's 1981 "Southern Comfort" -- this is Schumacher's most ambitions film since "Falling Down" in 1993, and it plays to his strengths with young actors.

Schumacher has gone into the cinematic heart of darkness and emerged with his own peculiar kink on the war movie: Vietnam beefcake.