Two hours of Bruce Willis scowling

“Tears of the Sun”

Starring Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci

Directed by Antoine Fuqua (from… “Tears of the Sun”

Starring Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci

Directed by Antoine Fuqua (from Pittsburgh!)

Two stars

It would have been a routine mission. But Bruce Willis had to go and start caring about people.

He’s lieutenant A.K. Waters, leader of a small group of SEALS assigned to extract an American doctor, Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), from a Catholic mission in Nigeria that’s about to fall victim to ethnic cleansing at the hands of rebels taking over the country. When Kendricks refuses to abandon the mission’s 70 or so people to certain death, Waters, unmoved, first deceives, then forcefully abducts her.

Once he’s in the helicopter and headed out of the country, pretty much home free with his mission complete, though, Waters acts on an impulse to go back and try to save the natives. But of course, as soon as he, his team and Kendricks are back on the ground, Nigerian airspace goes all to hell and American aircrafts can’t get back in to save the bunch. Willis will have to single handedly protect everyone from the armies of vicious and well-armed rebels that are closing in.

“Tears of the Sun” – I can’t decide which is worse, that official title or the original one, “Hostile Rescue” – sounds like an action film, but there really isn’t that much action. That’s not the problem, though. The film tries to be something more than an action flick and that’s just fine. The problem is, it never achieves the kind of weight it wants. It succeeds in asking its question – What is it worth to do the right thing? – but doesn’t go too far beyond just asking. Is that enough? Well, consider Spielberg’s examination of essentially the same question in “Saving Private Ryan” and then decide if just asking is enough.

Willis’ character – whose change or awakening or whatever is supposed to be at the center of the whole thing – is a major weak point. From his first shot to his last, he basically just holds an emotionless face, not really even saying all that much outside commands. As far as insight into his transformation, all we get is, “I broke my one rule, I started to give a f—.” Needless to say, the character’s plight isn’t very affecting.

If the filmmakers had him change his mind because Monica Bellucci is so hot, that’d be more legit than what is actually there. Still, she is quite attractive and a fine actress as well, one who might even become a star – we’ll soon be seeing her in a prominent role in the “Matrix” sequels.

Late in “Tears of the Sun” when the big action finally does come, you’ll be longing for “Black Hawk Down,” which had nearly the same final sequence, but with emotion that rang true.

Are studios starting to recycle films at a faster rate? It sure seems like it. Two weeks ago, I was faulting “Dark Blue” for being not quite “Training Day.” Again already, I’m ragging on “Tears” for rehashing “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down,” neither of which are even half a decade old. Is there nothing new to say on film?