I will admit to the fact that I’ve always had a soft spot for the film “Top Gun” (1986), even though in that film, I found the relationship between Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Charlie (Kelly McGillis) to be a pile of fantasy. At least in that film, before we found out Charlie was an advisor to the pilots, she was serenaded to ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”. How times have changed. In Justin Lin’s “Annapolis”, we meet the pretty female love interest who happens to be a superior in the same fashion with one difference: now she’s mistaken for a call girl. That’s just one of many story problems in “Annapolis”, which follows the story of Jake Huard, (James Franco) a working class guy who gets accepted to the Naval Academy across the river.

Huard’s father doesn’t want him to succeed in the Academy. His friends also have a office pool of sorts on how fast he’ll drop out. From the start this film rings false, considering the extreme contrast of one of Huard’s roomates: a pudgy overweight kid nicknamed Twins. When Twins was accepted, the mayor of a small town gave him a key to the city, there was a parade in his honor, the pictures are on the internet, and gosh, everyone back home roots for him. Yet Twins sneaks Twinkies into the room, can’t complete the obstacle course – really the film should be about this character, even if a later incident causes a break in character that is unrealistic and manipulative.

Other characters come and go, we don’t get to know them much, except they drop out for the most minor of reasons. I figure if one person can strike an officer and only get a string of demerits and x amount of push ups, then one white lie about not taking a bath should be a mild warning. The story zeroes in on Huard, his flirtations with Ali (Jordana Brewster) the cute looking instructor, and his rivalry [?] with Lt. Cole (Tyrese Gibson) who is written as cruel and abusive, but never comes across that way. As the scenes with Cole and Huard progressed, I really couldn’t figure out what was the friction between the two characters. The conflict between them never works, not even in the boxing ring.

Boxing ring? Oh yes, the big chunk of the film deals with Jake Huard whipping himself into shape for the Brigades, an amatuer three round boxing match with help from Twins who slips him candy bars, Ali to give him flirtatious workouts, and Lt. Cmdr. Burton (Donnie Wahlberg, who should have had more of a role) who gives him good pointers. Guess who he fights in the finals? Guess who happens to show up in the crowd at the finals? Do Huard and Ali finally kiss? Do fish swim?

The photography for the fight footage is lame and unexciting. The music score is inappropriate. The actors are fine, but the only standouts are Wahlberg and Shannon, and only because their characters feel fleshed out. Tyrese’s Cole nearly makes that same cut- if they didn’t attempt to make him out to be a borderline gestapo. The movie lacked focus. It could have even been about building ships in Chesapeake Bay shipyard, even though the impression the film gives is that that line of work is less than great and there is a lack of pride that goes with it. It isn’t, although that would make a nice story – and then you can date pretty Navy instructors on top of it. As to what the film is, it should have either been about The Brigades or about the Naval Academy. Sadly, it is essentially about neither.

It’s about how buff can Franco and Gibson get and how cute Miss Brewster looks in uniform, after her character is mistaken for another sort of working girl.

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Annapolis
Directed by: Justin Lin
Starring: James Franco, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Vicellous Reon Shannon, and Donnie Wahlberg.