TIGERLAND

Of Late, Schumacher (probably best known for the embarrasing Batman & Robin) has been trying to take refuge in smaller, more indie-oriented pics, possibly in the knowledge that there’s nowhere left for him to go. Shot in grainy handheld documentary style, this strange Vietnam flick may lend itself to the guerrilla-style subject matter, but the visual technique does begin to grate after a while, rendering much of Tigerland inecipherable and disorienting to watch.

Most notably for Irish audiences, Ballykissangel refugee Colin Farrell does incredibly well in the central role, lending more than a measure of likeablility and charm to a character – a whoring smartarse – otherwise not hugely blessed with either, and thereby making his redemption considerably more plausible.

Farrell apart, Tigerland is far too trapped in generic cliches and stock characters to be anything other than a mediocre war-flick. All the usual suspects are present and correct, from the hardcore drill sergeants and singing negroes to the guy who goes nuts and tries to kill everyone – it’s not quite awful, but it inevitably suffers by comparison with the first half of Full Metal Jacket, the definitive portrait of army training as hell.

While Tigerland certainly goes some way towards capturing the jaded atmosphere wich must have engulfed ‘Nam conscripts in 1971, its impact is invitably somewhat lessened by the fact that we never get to the war itself. Factor in Farrell’s alarming resemblance to Roy Keane, and you’ve got a flick that, while recommended to genre completists, should be approached with some caution by the rest of us.