By Ayall Sagi
Staff Writer

Good acting doesn't make up for a formulaic plot.

Although the movie's plot was a little on the unfulfilling end, Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding Jr. did an amazing job, and it wouldn't be surprising to see them nominated for best actor awards.

Gooding plays Carl Brashear, a black man who is determined to succeed in life. Gooding maintains his character properly, as one would expect from an Oscar-winner.

DeNiro brings out a new side of himself when playing Billy Sunday, a bigot who's driven to make Brashear fail. DeNiro perfectly displays a stereotypical southern racist while smoking his tobacco pipe and acting like a savage.

"Men of Honor" is a typical Hollywood movie, where Mr. Underdog beats all possible opposition. Although this movie was based on a true story, it seemed unbelievable and didn’t piece together as well as it should have.

The movie is about how Brashear enrolls in the Navy and goes through many obstacles to achieve self-actualization. Brashear becomes the fist black to attend the Navy diving school, where he encounters harsh physical and mental pain and is subjected to racism and defeats illiteracy, but conducts himself appropriately and overcomes difficult barriers.

An example of this is seen near the end of the Naval diving school when Brashear only has one more test to pass. To try to stop Brashear from passing, Sunday sabotages Brashear's equipment bag, which causes all the tools and required parts to fall to the ocean bottom. This task seemed impossible from the given situation.

As expected, after 10 hours Brashear completes the task and is ready to come up. He is shaking because the water is so cold. This shows how unbelievable this scene seems because in all likelihood, Brashear should have died of hypothermia. The movie should have ended there. A viewer might be thinking "This is unlikely, but it could happen."

Another flaw in the movie is that there was too much plot for what seemed like little time. In one scene, Brashear learns that his father has died, tries to fight racism on the base, gets into a fight with Sunday, gets into a fight with his girlfriend, proposes to his girlfriend and gets into another fight with Sunday. It is unbelievable that this could take course in a plot time of about 2 hours.

Another major flaw is that the movie doesn't end soon enough. It should have ended 30 minutes before it was over.

During a court scene at the end of the movie, an unbelievable dramatic event occurs which makes the viewer think, "Yeah, right, like that could ever happen."

This is definitely a typical feel-good movie. Although not Oscar worthy, it is definitely entertaining.