Donnie Wahlberg has never had a successful film career like his younger brother, Marky Mark, of New Kids on the Block fame. And Donnie's role in the navy/boxing/coming-of-age drama "Annapolis" isn't going to bring him out of his brother's Calvin Klein billboard shadow.
"Annapolis" is about working-class rebel Jake Huard (James Franco), whose only goal in life is to attend the US Naval Academy. When Lt. Commander Burton (Donnie Wahlberg) takes a chance on young ship-welder Jake, events at the Academy begin to heat up as Jake mistakes his lieutenant for a prostitute, punches his commanding officer and challenges the racism, sexism and weightism which runs rampant at Annapolis.
In a way, director Justin Lin makes it easy for the audience to identify with Jake. Just like it takes all the strength in our hero's body not to leave the Naval Academy, it takes all the audience has not to get up and walk out of the theater.
Franco took home a Golden Globe for his title role in the made-for-TV movie "James Dean," and judging by "Annapolis," it seems that he's destined to play James Dean in whatever film he lands. Franco is a veritable doppelganger of the late, great rebel, but his acting hasn't gotten any better since his portrayal of an awkward adolescent on "Freaks and Geeks."
One of the big problems with "Annapolis" is that some central character development seems to have been left on the cutting room floor. We find out through the course of the movie that Jake's "dream" to attend the Academy was actually the dying wish of his mother, who is referenced maybe three times during the film, leaving the audience perplexed. But what Lin sacrifices in essential character and plot development he makes up for in excessive montage use. Jake fails as the first half of the film drags out; then, in one montage, he becomes a star recruit.
"Annapolis" is, at best, a sub-par boxing film. But the issue here is that the entire movie is leading up to one fight - and it doesn't live up to the hype. A recent ad read, "At Annapolis, if you want to become a leader, you have to get past one man." That man? Tyrese Gibson. Gibson, whose musical and acting history rivals that of even Wahlberg, is the commanding officer who Jake blames for the attempted suicide of his friend and comic foil, Twins. There are no spoilers herein, but it shouldn't matter who wins the fight.
Here's a hint of the melodrama in writer David Collard's script: "When you step in that ring, you have three rounds to find out who you are." If everything else up to the point of the final boxing match didn't tell Huard who he was, then Lin could have saved everyone about 90 minutes of their lives and cut out the first three-quarters of the film. This first section is made up mostly of Huard's intensive field training. Most of these scenes watch like a GO Army commercial, complete with too many quick cuts and a nu-metal score.
"Annapolis" is, like New Kids on the Block, a product of a creatively stagnant entertainment industry, the result of a finely tuned formula. Just like pre-manufactured boy bands, this film is a mathematical equation: It Boy - Shirt + Sport + Love Interest = Box Office Sales. Save your $9 for Lin's next opus, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift"
