Set in the aftermath of the tragic attack on New York???s Twin Towers, World Trade Center is a carefully constructed, respectful and dignified tribute the acts of heroism on that terrible day. It follows the real-life story of John McLoughlin and William J Jimeno, two Port Authority officers trapped amidst the rubble and chaos of September 11th. The film spends time with them, those trying to rescue them and their families, as their story hauntingly unfolds, and what emerges is a focused, human story, compellingly told.

Surprisingly, World Trade Center???s director is Oliver Stone, whose back catalogue is a mixture of provocative, controversial and challenging films. Here, he wisely pulls back, choosing to let the story unfold with little intervention. His direction is clever and underplayed, which serves to enhance the feeling of claustrophobia and emotion. It???s Stone???s best film in some time, even if it rarely feels like he???s the man behind the camera.

He???s helped by some fine turns from his cast, led by Nicolas Cage and Maria Bello, and while there???s an argument that the screenplay could use a little pruning, World Trade Center is nonetheless a strong piece of work. True, Paul Greengrass??? stunning, devastating United 93 is a superior film, but in this case, that???s beside the point. Because World Trade Center is still an important, well made film in its own right, and one that deserves, and perhaps needs, to be seen.--Simon Brew

The dvd's extras are as god as the film with commentary from survivors of the towers. Some acting from the supporting cast was, i thought, a bit suspect, until i found out that some were survivors of the 9/11 event and had never acted before. their appearance in the film was meant as a tribute to their fallen collegues. Even those who have a short attention span will appreciate Cage's acting and the gritty powerful effects that have been made closely factual. A must have for any Cage fan.

This really is as bad as people say!
TV movie quality at best, totally unconvincing, completeleley detached - try the far better UNITED 93 for the sheer terror and inevitability. This may well be Stone & Cage's worst film.
Just does not convince and feels more like a VERY bad Hollywood Disaster movie, in which case you may as well watch The Towering Inferno!
As a serious docu drama it's a miserable failure.

This film i put off watching so much as i exspected it to be rubish
and i was rong when i watched it i couldent stop watching and parts of it are real tear jurkers This Film is not a Action packed film but it Follows 2 of the officers and there familys it is not a films of exsplsions , death and blood its a nice Calm movie Thay i would recomend to anyone, if u looking for a movie that warms the heart and makes u cry Watch this film u cant go rong

I was longing for a film about this tragedy because it was one in a life time event that happened in my time. This tragedy was so unbelievable that it did not need much acting. I thought it ought to be good no matter what. But I could not have imagined how someone could trash such a big story. This film did nothing. It was very hollow and boring. I watched the first 10 min, fast forwarded the next 20 and binned it after an hour.

First of all a film about 9-11 should have been 3 to 5 hours long to cover all aspects. There were so many issues that needed to be included to get the whole picture and they picked the worst and ignore the most important ones.

They should have shown the terrorist planning to do this so we get an idea of WHY people resort to this in the first place and give some balance to the film.

The acting was appalling. There were too many long pauses and slow motions. I am no director, but character building is done BEFORE the climax not AFTER, so we have time to relate to the characters. There were only few characters and they were almost dead after 10 min. This works if the film was about 3 people trapped in a capsule going to Mars.

They did not show the plane crashing into the building at all. All I saw was the shadow of the plane and then a bang. The strike itself would have told half the story and cause enough shock to set the mood for the film.

The plane strikes happened right at the beginning. It should have been somewhere in the middle. With the new special effects they could have done something really special that would stay in your memories for life or even change your life.

The most frustrating aspect of this film was, when there is so much happening outside and thousands are dying they concentrated on few firemen trapped inside, which were acting so wooden that I did not have any emotional attachment to them anyway. The firemen being the hero and the subject of the film could have worked they covered less of the film and built up an atmosphere first.

This film in fact did 9-11 a disfavor and reduced the weight of the tragedy and made it seem like an average car crash.

This was an awful script, terrible acting, very bad directing and worthless in every sense. I just hope they put aside the politically correctness and a talented team make a movie to capture this event in its true light and produce something visually impressive.

This is a film designed to show the horror and devastation caused by the cataclysmic events of September 11th. Created to emphasise the harrowing ordeals of the individuals, families and friends of those involved in the terrible events that unfolded that day. Unfortunately it just seems, to me, to highlight the commercial, grab a quick buck, ideology of the film industry and, although I don't doubt the sincerity and genuine emotion of those connected with producing the film, I can't help but cynically feel that they will have been far happier with the guaranteed box office takings than with the fruit of their labours. This film must have been one of the cheapest modern 'blockbusters' on record, relying as it does on news clips of the events of the day and predominently on life in a mocked up dark hole set up on a stage floor somewhere. The film is based on sentimentality rather than the horror of the event and although it seeks to imply devastation and terror, I found myself studying the dust and girders for minute after minute and, instead of concentrating on the reality of the situation, wondering why the individuals involved didn't just move this or change that or even just get out by themselves, something far removed from the genuine emotion that I both wanted and needed to feel with the coverage of such a critical, life changing event. In fact, rather than feeling overwhelmed at the end of the film I found myself losing interest in the characters and wishing they would both shut up and hurry up, no matter what the outcome and I felt unreasonably guilty for both not caring what happened to them (as long as it was quick) and for giggling at the antics of the phsychotic ex-marine who, despite how tight security should have been, passed through all security perimeters and ended up finding our tortured souls. (or was it just my soul that was tortured.) (As this is a true story I don't think this gives too much plot away.) It is absolutely critical that this subject is covered, both grafically and emotionally, in order to ensure that we all have the holocaust mentality (lest we forget) ingrained in our minds. Unfortunately this commercial drivel isn't the way to give the subject the coverage it deserves. I'm ot sure what I expected but I know this wasn't it and I would recommend that for a more effective, emotive and real reminder of how lives were changed that fateful day, you look to the film flight 93. I give World Trade Centre 2 stars, not through merit of the film but because for such an important event it seems somehow inappropriate to give less.