Colonel Terry Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) is a decorated marine and Vietnam veteran. His latest assignment is to fly into Yemen with a squad of marines and rescue an ambassador (Ben Kingsley) and his family from protestors at the American embassy. When the protestors turn violent and marines are killed, Childers orders his men to open fire on the crowd, killing over 70 people. Now he faces a court martial and up to fifteen years in prison unless he can prove that the crowd had weapons, and he was only returning fire. His attorney is Colonel Hayes Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones), a friend whose life Childers saved in Vietnam. The prosecuting attorney is the slimy Major Mark Biggs (Guy Pearce), who has been hired on by the even slimier William Sokal (Bruce Greenwood), who wants everything pinned on Childers so the US can save face.

As I said, this is hardly an original movie since obvious similarities to 1992's "A Few Good Men" exist. There are several things besides the lack of originality which really hurt this film. One is the absence of a good score. In fact, there is hardly any music at all in "Rules of Engagement". During the courtroom and battle scenes, where the tension is palpable and the audience is on the edge of their seats, a nice dramatic score would have been welcome. Instead, we are given overwhelmingly loud sound effects of explosions and gun shots which make it impossible to hear what is being said. On the bright side, the battle scenes are very realistically filmed, especially the opening scene of the skirmish in Vietnam involving Childers and Hodges' unit and a VC squad.

The acting in "Rules of Engagement" is certainly the film's high point. Samuel L. Jackson is the perfect choice for his role. A man consumed with passion (Jackson is at his best when playing a character consumed by passion) for his job and his country. Jones may be a bit miscast as an alcoholic loser of a lawyer, but he turns in a great performance anyway. Ben Kingsley ("Species", "What Planet Are You From?") is given nothing to do other than look shifty eyed and stutter over his testimony in court. Guy Pearce, who gave a brilliant performance in "LA Confidential", is horribly miscast as the prosecuting attorney. There is something about Pearce's performance that makes Major Biggs seem incredibly slimy (too much so in fact) despite the fact that his introduction sets the character up as something of a boy scout.

There are certain things about this film which make very little sense. For example, Bruce Greenwood's ("Double Jeopardy") character is given a video tape that would not only clear Childers of all charges, but would get the US out of trouble as well. Instead of submitting the tape as evidence, he tells his aid: "I don't want to think about it, I don't want to see it, I don't want it to exist." Not only does it not make sense that he didn't want it to exist, but it makes even less sense that he would tell a witness. The only other thing that bothered me was the poor editing job performed here. Not only are long, sometimes boring sequences not edited down to size, but we are sometimes given quick camera cuts from person to person during the courtroom scenes which make things very confusing. "Rules of Engagement" runs a little too long at 127 minutes. I recommend it to fans of Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L Jackson since they are both given a chance to shine here. I give the film two and a half out of five stars.

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* * * * * - One of the greatest movies ever made, see it now. * * * * - Great flick. Try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad. See it if you have nothing better to do. * - One of the worst movies ever. See it only if you enjoy pain.