Home of the Brave begins its tour in Iraq. A number of soldiers (and an army doctor) have just found out they are going home. Before they can ship off for home, they have one last run to make, a humanitarian effort transporting medical personnel and supplies. As fate would have it, this journey goes south as they are ambushed. The attack will prove to have long-lasting effects on our primary subjects, both emotional and physical.

Vanessa Price (Jessica Biel) has lost a hand and must learn to deal with that, coupled with an inability to make connections with others. Dr. Will Marsh (Samuel L. Jackson) turns to the bottle to try to mask his memories. Tommy Yates (Brian Presley) must learn to live with the loss of his best friend, Jordan (Chad Michael Murray), who died in his arms. Finally, Jamal Aiken (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) must come to grips with his anger and his tragic shooting of a child. That pretty much covers all the bases, except to say they all happen to live in the same town and have ample opportunity to cross paths and bond over their collective experience.

Now, the health of of our soldiers home and abroad is something very important that needs to have some attention paid to it. The problem is that this film does not have much semblance of reality; it is filled with poor dialogue and the acting is mediocre at best. Everything is just a little too pat. I will say that Samuel L. Jackson does the best job of holding it all together.

It is not bad, not by any stretch, it just doesn't handle the material all that well. Back to the point of its theatrical run — there is no reason why it shouldn't have gotten the chance to flop nationwide along with the rest of the Iraq war-themed films. Is it worth seeing? Perhaps. I guess it comes down to how much you like any of the stars.

Audio/Video. It is well presented on DVD. The film is crisp, clear, and devoid of any digital artifacts. It is what should be expected from a DVD release from a major studio these days.

Extras. The extras are limited to a commentary track featuring director Irwin Winkler and writer Mark Friedman. It is a decent track with plenty of information regarding the development and shooting of the film.

Bottom line. Not terrible, not great, but the audience never had the chance to make up their own mind. Give it a shot. It covers an important topic in a heavy-handed way, but it is still a subject that must be broached. Toss it in the queue and give it a go.

Mildly Recommended.