This is one of the movies, I have watched many many times. First few times, Tom Cruise seemed to be giving an ordinary performance; probably my shortcoming that I was not able to understand his character. But, then I realized that he was playing exactly the character he was supposed to portray and he did it in a impeccable manner - wow!!!! He was just second to Jack Nicholson.

I could not imagine if anyone else could have replaced Jack Nicholson - his stellar performance (as always) and the intensity and ferocity with which he delivered his dialogues - man, even his facial expressions at times were worth a watch.

Story line and plot don't seem to be so strong and there will be many people who would not agree with its end and even with the message of the movie, which is although not so clear but definitely points towards some of the not so best practices being followed in any country's army (over discipline in the name of straightening the people and getting things in order or even avoiding any further chaos or things being run by certain people just to settle their personal scores and run in a way they think is the best, even disregarding other people's reasonable opinions). However, the other things apart, movie was a treat to watch. Director Rob Reiner and writer Aaron Sorkin didn't leave any stone unturned when it came to dialogues in the movie - in fact, the dialogues delivered by each and every character (not only Jack Nicholson) have been simply stunning.

Many powerful dramas have been made throughout the history of motion pictures. This is one of few to combine intense meaningful drama with a funny script, full of witty dialog. The ensemble of nothing but renowned competent actors ensures excellent performances throughout the movie. This would have been an almost perfect film if it wasn't for one little consistency issue regarding Colonel Jessep. Until the very end of the film, the script portrays the events from Jessep's point of view with gruesome accuracy, but after his confession he becomes a man with no apparent sense of causal relations. The fact that the man who formerly went to such extremes as to make entire flights disappear to protect his secret, doesn't understand the consequences of him confessing that secret, in the court of law, makes me confused. Of course you could argue that the colonel lives by the rules and notions of the Marine Corps and doesn't fully comprehend the world outside. I still don't accept it completely though, but that doesn't matter much overall. This is an excellent film. Watch it, watch it again and then re-watch it. You won't be disappointed.

(9/10)

Top Ten best reasons why 'A Few Good Men' is one of the best movies ever made.

#10 Direction: Reiner perfectly paces a 2+ hour film, giving all the cast freedom to actually act and develop the story beautifully without any scene dragging.

#9 Cinematography and score: excellent scenes and music; making you believe you are there.

#8 Despite your feeling on Cruise (God, I hate people who judge his couch-jumping to his talent on film) he delivers a perfect transfer from 80s hot-shot/top-gun to real acting. Watch him challenge Jessep in the closing.

#7 It simply had the unfortunate timing of coming out the same year as 'Unforgiven' and 'Scent of a Woman' and lost best pic. Both of those were excellent movies and it would be tough for any voter.

#6 All actors given time to show depth, creativity and originality. I absolutely loved Moore, Bacon, Sutherland, Pollak and Cruise.

#5 In addition, even though everyone's performance was spectacular and Nicholson's was a brief one, he still stole his scenes and strongly deserved an Oscar. (I mean, c'mon…'You can't handle the truth!' scene was worth an award.)

#4 The Dialogue. Please, the main characters were good enough at bantering back and forth, but just witness the conversation between Cruise and the newspaper man.

#3 Chess = Courtroom. If Cruise's Kaffee performance wasn't evidence the direct correlation between chess and courtroom, I don't know what will. (i.e. Where's the mess-hall?)

#2 How many movies since 1950 have you seen end with "The End"? They seemed to know this would be a classic, without excessive violence, language, no sex or nudity.

#1 Everything, and I mean EVERY THING in this movie worked…but simply judge it on one of the BEST SCENES of any movie ever: "You can't handle the truth!"