This courtroom melodrama from French Connection director William Friedkin revolves around marine colonel Samuel L Jackson's decision to fire on a crowd of Arabs storming the US embassy in Yemen. Tommy Lee Jones reluctantly defends Jackson at his court martial, knowing only too well that his former comrade in arms has a tendency to buckle under pressure. A terrific cast (Ben Kingsley, Anne Archer, Philip Baker Hall) is wasted as the two leads do battle with tough prosecution attorney Guy Pearce, who gives good value in a performance reminiscent of Kevin Bacon in A Few Good Men. Alas, this film is scuppered by a Vietnam flashback that suggests the stars have not aged a day in 30 years, while the sequences in Yemen show Hollywood has lost none of its appetite for unsavoury stereotypes.

A Marine Colonel is brought to court-martial after ordering his men to fire on demonstrators surrounding the American embassy in Yemen.