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Tears of the Sun Play Trailer

Tears of the Sun (2003)

tomatometer

33

Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 150
Fresh: 50 | Rotten: 100

Tries to be high-minded, but in the end, it's just a stylish action movie.

35

Average Rating: 4.7/10
Critic Reviews: 37
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 24

Tries to be high-minded, but in the end, it's just a stylish action movie.

audience

72

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 110,908

My Rating

Movie Info

A career soldier is forced to choose between following orders and saving lives in this action thriller. Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) is a veteran Navy SEAL whose commander (Tom Skerritt) has given his team a special assignment. A Central African nation is expected to explode into war at any moment, and Waters and his cohorts are to escort any American citizens in the area to safety, most notably Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a doctor from the United States who has set up a clinic in

R,

Mystery & Suspense, Action & Adventure

Patrick Cirillo, Robert Orr, Alex Lasker

Jun 10, 2003

$43.4M

Columbia Pictures - Official Site External Icon

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Cast

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Tears of the Sun Trailer & Photos

Critic Reviews for Tears of the Sun

All Critics (169) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (51) | Rotten (102) | DVD (28)

Will a thinking audience really buy the image of helpless, grateful people bestowing kisses and victory songs upon Willis as the representative of all things American: power, guts, compassion?

April 22, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comment (1)
Jami Bernard
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Deserves the bad reviews and the lackluster earnings it has accumulated thus far.

April 4, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Observer
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Raping and pillaging and blowing things up is mainly what this movie is about, although it claims to show how the most robotic, dehumanized soldiers can be transformed by human suffering.

March 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Observer
Rex Reed
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Fuqua ... can stage action, but he can't save a trivializing, reactionary script featuring a Hollywood star (read America) as a global savior.

March 12, 2003 | Comment (1)
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This Black Hawk Down theft is a trial by cliché.

March 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In a movie with so much graphic suffering by innocent Africans, it's a bit disconcerting that so much loving attention is paid to Bruce Willis's anguished mug.

March 9, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Shamelessly one-sided with cheesy wooden dialogue.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment (1)
Nell Minow
Common Sense Media

The movie regales us with the heroics of a (mostly) white American platoon picking off anonymous black savages.

September 23, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comments (7)
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

An action film with a conscience.

September 16, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
James Plath
Movie Metropolis

A huge screaming bore of a war flick with a big plate of pretentiousness on the side.

May 28, 2005 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com
Scott Weinberg
DVDTalk.com

...an unapologetic paean to the nobility of the American foot solider.

January 29, 2005 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A tale of courage so facile and off-handedly racist that only Hollywood could have invented it. It confuses slaughter with action, and it's stupid, too.

July 6, 2004 Full Review Source: F5 (Wichita, KS) | Comment (1)
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS) Source: F5 (Wichita, KS)

... Fuqua relies on old-fashioned, gung-ho heroics and the stern face of Bruce Willis to carry the show.

January 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)
Greg Maki
Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)

Tears of the Sun... [tells us]how the chain of command can be ignored if you 'feel' you have a better idea. Let's hope no one takes this seriously.

January 4, 2004 Full Review | Comments (3)
Daniel M. Kimmel
Worcester Telegram & Gazette Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette
View all critic reviews (169)

Audience Reviews for Tears of the Sun

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"Tears of the Sun is one of those films that left me feeling gutted after seeing it. It's been a while since a film has left me feeling so many emotions. I had a lot of mixed feelings going on throughout this film. Many of them being disgust, anger, saddness, horrified, and lastly proud. I know these characters are fictional, but the events that take place to these unfortunate people is very real. Just knowing that people have lived through these kind of events really is sickening and terrifying. So when you see A.K. (even if he's not real, I'd like to think someone would have done what he did) turn the plane around and take his group of solidiers to a fight that is not theirs just because it might save lives and is not only the right thing to do, but the human thing to do, is greatly satisfying. I was sickened with what these armed guerillas not only did to these poor people, but to these women and children. I was even more horrified by what they did to nursing mother's. It really just broke my heart and made me cry. I can't imagine seeing this in real life let alone living in it. It's truly a film that makes you not only feel grateful for the life you have and the country you live in, but that their are people out there fighting for these countries and sees that it is wrong and want to help prevent these things from happening anymore. We are all human and deserve to be treated as such. It's really scary knowing these things are still happening. See the film. You won't be able to get it out of your head days or weeks after seeing it. I know I won't."
June 8, 2009
LWOODS04
♥˩ƳИИ ƜѲѲƉƧ♥

Super Reviewer

An American military unit is dispatched to extract a doctor and US national from a civil war torn region of Africa and is pursued relentlessly to the border by rebel forces. It's the turn of Nigeria to get rescued by Team America: World Police as stone faced Bruce Willis and his team of be-haloed tough guys set the world to rights once more, using just truth, justice and the American way. The American way involving grenades, sniper rifles, automatic weapons and air strikes, as usual. As a political drama it is incredibly simplistic and self righteous, all the Africans in the film being either murderous savages or helpless victims and there are plenty of shots of wailing mothers, murdered children and rape victims to help bludgeon the point home. The characters are the usual mix of morally courageous babe (Monica Belucci manages to look even more gorgeous covered with sweat and grime) and noble US grunts bucking orders to do the right thing; in other words, it's a typically weakly plotted and characterised Hollywood thriller and as such is sugared by some very impressive action scenes. The final showdown is extremely well handled by Antoine (Training Day) Fuqua and it's a shame it's kind of ruined by the inevitable parade of teary-eyed brown faces that are overflowing with gratitude for their American saviours at the end. It's just another example of America rewriting history to make themselves the heroes, but it is entertaining enough if you don't think about it too hard. F**k, yeah.
May 2, 2007
garyX
xGary Xx

Super Reviewer

Tears of the Sun Quotes

View All
    1. Dr. Lena Kendricks: Open up! I'm American.
    – Submitted by Giovani G (6 months ago)
    1. Lt. A.K. Waters: I need you to Cowboy the fuck up!
    – Submitted by Melissa D (10 months ago)
    1. Lt. A.K. Waters: Now cowboy the f**k up!
    – Submitted by Dje R (15 months ago)

Discussion Forum

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