WHEN LIVES ARE ON THE LINE, SACRIFICE EVERYTHING.
After a terrible accident, ageing Coast Guard rescue swimmer Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is forced to take a position as an instructor; at the Louisiana training school he finds a protégé in Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher). The filmmakers never miss an opportunity to steal a showy moment from Top Gun (1986) and An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), but the grand emotions they want us to feel for the characters never materialize. Entertaining at times, but overlong and the cast is problematic; Costner is just coasting here and Kutcher is at best a second-rate Tom Cruise.
2006-U.S. 139 min. Color. Directed by Andrew Davis. Cast: Kevin Costner (Ben Randall), Ashton Kutcher (Jake Fischer), Melissa Sagemiller (Emily Thomas), Bonnie Bramlett, Clancy Brown, Sela Ward… John Heard.