“A Few Good Men” is a decent effort by director Rob Reiner (“This Is Spinal Tap”) but it’s weakened by a few poor performances and it never plays out with any sense of mystery or any real thrills. It’s well-made but lacking in terms of spark.

In “A Few Good Men”, Tom Cruise (“Mission: Impossible”, “Minority Report”) stars as a cocky military lawyer, who must defend two marines accused of murdering a fellow officer at Guantanamo Bay. The two claim they were acting under orders and now this arrogant kid named Daniel Kaffee must prove it is all the doing of their superiors.

Tom Cruise is pretty bad here as he’s really whiny and never fun to watch. Demi Moore (“Indecent Proposal”), Jack Nicholson (“Batman”), Kiefer Sutherland (“Phone Booth”) and Kevin Bacon (“Tremors”) all given good performances, in fact I’d say Nicholson’s is great. The guys playing the marines aren’t too good. The final confrontation between Cruise and Nicholson is good but it could have been a lot better if the film didn’t have you expecting it pretty much all the way through because we’re told way too early what’s going to be said and things follow this plan, meaning the heat of the moment in the courtroom you should experience is gone.

There’s no denying that aspects of “A Few Good Men” are not so pleasing but I enjoyed because of Nicholson’s performance as the bad yet definitely understandable, Colonel Jessup. We get a clear understanding of the mind-set of many marines and the loyalties that they have that while it may make them flawed as people, it does however makes them the flawless defender of others. I guess I kind-of liked it but I was also disappointed because it really felt like it could have been written a lot better and I’m pretty surprised that Tom Cruise couldn’t get the character to be at least somewhat likeable… as far as lawyers go at least (Jim Carrey did it in “Liar Liar”).