Annapolis

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Directing Annapolis is Justin Lin, whose previous feature was the irresponsible high-school comedy thriller "Better Luck Tomorrow." This second movie is more his speed.

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

Compellingly reserved and inscrutable at the start, Franco starts to lose us by the second hour, when his character's still not showing up for roll call on time, and isn't charismatic enough to bring us over to his side.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Any resemblance (except qualitatively) to "An Officer and A Gentleman" is strictly unaccidental.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The result is two competing films, one about a failure's struggle to succeed in the Brigade Championships, the academy's boxing tournament, and the other about a quitter redeemed by military discipline. In the hands of director Justin Lin, the two story lines don't altogether merge.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Packing in enough cliches for a dozen movies, this drama about a sensitive young man trying to achieve his dreams via the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis will best be enjoyed by the generation unfamiliar with "An Officer and a Gentlemen," "Top Gun" and any preceding boxing movies.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The underdog story doesn't miss a cliche, even though it never figures out whether it's a boxing picture or a military drama.

USA Today Mike Clark

A hopeless if harmless boxing picture whose principals just happen to wear uniforms outside the ring, Annapolis is set in a U.S. Naval Academy where no one ever seems to attend class.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It's really just "Rocky" in gleaming dress whites.

Variety Brian Lowry

James Franco and Tyrese Gibson scowl and strut and should make the hearts of teenage girls all atwitter, and that's about the only audience that won't see most of the punches telegraphed well in advance.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A formulaic, predictable and yet reasonably likable picture.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

It wasn't shot in Annapolis and doesn't have an original thought in its head. Other than that, Annapolis is a fine film.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Like so many disappointing movies, it's peopled by performers who do their damnedest to make the whole thing work.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This isn't as much a movie as it is a recipe for a cinematic casserole in which the ingredients are clichés and rip-offs.

Dallas Observer Staff (Not credited)

The best things about this numbingly predictable service-academy drama are its talented leading men.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

At a time when movies, even from Hollywood, are finally turning their eyes to conflicts abroad, Annapolis seems conspicuously myopic and reactionary in its denial of the world outside campus, though a movie this formulaic wouldn't pass muster during peacetime, either.

Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg

Often laughably overwrought rehash of "An Officer and a Gentleman," ekes out enough of a subtext on competition to qualify as a non-fiasco.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

May be a good showcase for James Franco, who's in every scene, but it's a disappointing choice for director Justin Lin.

Los Angeles Times Robert Abele

Franco is a refreshingly offbeat screen presence and in lighter moments boasts an appealing smile. He may be someone to watch, but too bad there's little room for emotional spontaneity - acting, in other words - in a rote Hollywood drill such as this.

LA Weekly James C. Taylor

Annapolis succeeds only in the difficult mission of making charismatic actors like James Franco and Tyrese Gibson seem bland and surprisingly unsexy.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is the anti-Sundance film, an exhausted wheeze of bankrupt cliches and cardboard characters, the kind of film that has no visible reason for existing, except that everybody got paid.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The Navy will no doubt like what it sees, yet a project such as this should impart some sense of the times we live in.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A record number of movie cliches are strung together for the otherwise forgettable boot-camp drama Annapolis.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Sir, no, sir.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Guaranteed neither to offend nor delight.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The only impressive thing about it is the monotony and thoroughness with which it replicates cliches from older, better movies and hammers them into pop alloy to an up-with-me beat beat beat of its musical score.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Annapolis has enough material for an exciting trailer. But that's all the movie really is: a trailer tricked out with protracted boxing sequences and an undernourished romantic subplot that culminates in a single tepid kiss.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

If Annapolis is not the worst movie to date of this still-young year, it is certainly the most hackneyed, as well as the most depressing.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Best never to have left dry dock with this one.