"Tears of the Sun" is a flick begging to be liked. A military film, conveniently released in the heyday of international relations struggles, tries so hard to be good, yet it can't cover up the fact that, for lack of a more potent phrase, it blows.

The setup could have made a great film. A group of Navy SEALs, led by Bruce Willis, goes into Nigeria to extract an American doctor (Monica Bellucci) from a mission before murderous rebels overtake and burn the place down.

The doctor won't leave without her patients. The SEALs won't leave without the doctor, so they compromise, bringing along those who can move on their own will. When they reach the helicopter checkpoint, the SEALs ditch the indigenous people, as they weren't part of the mission parameters.

That's pretty much the first 20 minutes. The rest of the film decides to forego reality and do something that is not too characteristic of a special operation. They turn back, decide to pick up the people they left behind and trudge through the jungle to safety.

Meanwhile, a large group of rebels trails and gunfights ensue.

Sure, it sounds like a slam-bang actioner that would satisfy any need for testosterone. Instead, the end product is a plodding mess riddled with more plot holes than bullets.

The film also lacks suspense, relying on time-tested tension building tactics any intelligent viewer would be insulted by.

Throw in lines such as "God already left Africa" and you've got a royal waste of film. Every line is as one-dimensional as the character delivering it and every character is as bland as an unsalted rice cake.

The only thing saving this from being a B-movie are a few highly disturbing scenes. The rebels our heroes face are in the midst of ethnic cleansing and we the audience watch as innocents are gunned down, burned alive or mutilated.

Not to say these images are good ones, in fact they are gut-wrenching. They are shocking sequences where the main characters are allowed to show emotion, an opportunity not afforded them throughout the rest of the film. It shows the horrors of the situation that are null and void in the rest of the film.

The whole thing seems to scream public relations for the military. It's as if it is saying, "Look, American soldiers are compassionate people out to protect the world and its children from evil and horror."

Those involved should hang their heads in shame.

If you liked this, you might also like: a lobotomy.

Suggested Viewing: A great way to get brainwashed into thinking the U.S. military's goal is a humanitarian one.