Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A hard-nosed, hard-living Marine gunnery sergeant clashes with his superiors and his ex-wife as he takes command of a spoiled recon platoon with a bad attitude.
Clint Eastwood delivers a commanding performance that elevates familiar material. The plot follows a well-worn military training-to-combat arc with few surprises, and the Grenada invasion climax feels rushed and somewhat anticlimactic. Cinematography is functional but unremarkable for the era. Novelty is limited as it treads well-trodden ground of the gruff-sergeant-shapes-ragtag-unit formula. Eastwood's charisma and the interplay with his ex-wife add some character depth above the genre average.