It’s hard to gauge how bad a movie will be before actually seeing it. I find that I often love films that professional critics hate, while despising films that they praise to the heavens (um, No Country for Old Men, anyone?). But there was one very telling sign that Annapolis, a 2006 film about the Naval Academy, was going to be a bust: the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense refused to support the production or give the filmmakers access to the campus.

In wartime. When recruitments and sign-ups are at an all-time low. When a rousing film about the Academy could spark interest the way Top Gun was said to do so back in the mid-1980s.

As soon as I read that the Navy distanced themselves from Annapolis, I knew I was going to be in for a looong couple of hours in front of my TV — and I was right.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): James Franco stars as Jake Huard, a working-class young man whose life has been spent gazing across the Severn River at the U.S. Naval Academy while welding together their ships and dreaming of one day being accepted as a student at that elite institution. Indeed, we soon learn that Jake promised his (now dead) mother that he would one day attend The Academy, so that’s clearly where his drive and motivation come from.

Sure enough, Jake receives his acceptance letter (after having been wait-listed) and gets ready to drop everything and attend school. His best friend AJ (played by Jim Parrack) supports him fully; his father Bill (Brian Goodman), barely says a word.

As soon as the setting changes to the Academy, the film becomes a blatant ripoff of An Officer and a Gentleman. Just like the Richard Gere character in Officer, Jake has no trouble keeping up with the rigorous physical tests that the Plebes must go through, and just like the earlier film, Jake even helps talk one of his weaker friends over a wall on the obstacle course. Just like the James Gossett, Jr. character in Officer, Tyrese Gibson’s character here, Cole, serves as the hard-ass commanding officer who loves to make life miserable for the cadets. And just like in the earlier film, these two main characters come to blows (in and out of the ring) before reaching a mutual understanding for and respect of each other.

My Reaction: Well, I can’t really say I was disappointed in Annapolis because I knew going in that it was going to be a terrible film. I guess the only thing I’m surprised about was the fact that there wasn’t a single fresh, original scene in the entire movie. It was utterly predictable from beginning to end, and didn’t offer anything worthwhile to me as a viewer.

Besides the obvious Officer and a Gentleman ripoffs that I mentioned above, there were several other things I didn’t like about Annapolis. For one, the whole boxing angle was a mystery to me. I’d never heard of the big tournament that was featured in the movie, and since its importance wasn’t explained, I simply couldn’t get excited about it.

Plus, we never got an idea of how Jake got into boxing in the first place, so that was another mystery. There was a boxing scene at the beginning of the movie and then no other mention of it until the sparring scene with Cole, but suddenly it was a big deal? Meh.

Also, I didn’t like the way this film implied that even at the Naval Academy, athletes get special treatment. Sure, that’s probably the norm at Ohio State, Florida, and USC, but the Naval Academy? I don’t think so! Yet that’s what this movie would have viewers believe. After all, Huard assaulted his commanding officer and was given probation and 95 demerits. Big deal; at least he was allowed to stay, right? Meanwhile, Twins failed the obstacle course test by a mere four seconds and was kicked out of the Academy? Whatever.

Overall, I felt that Annapolis was very deserving of all the bad reviews and ratings it has received. It’s not interesting or even entertaining, so I give it 3.5 stars out of 10 and recommend that you stay far away — just like the Navy did.