Rules Of Engagement

A knee-jerk valentine to American military honor, carefully disguised as a scrupulous examination of the split-second decisions that define courage under fire. Marines Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) and Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones) served together in Vietnam, where Childers saved Hodges' life. Twenty-eight years later, Colonel Hodges, now a military lawyer, is retiring, while Colonel Childers remains on active duty, an éminence grise in a Corps he hardly recognizes. While on routine duty in the Gulf of Aden, Childers is ordered to the American embassy in Yemen; it's surrounded by hostile protesters, and Childers' orders are to assess the situation and, if necessar...