This title is confusing because even after seeing the film I don’t know what it actually means. However, I don’t think it really matters, as Tears of the Sun isn’t a movie that sets out to make much sense. Its purpose is to showcase the wonderfully curvaceous Italian star, Monica Belluci, alongside bald-headed American star, Bruce Willis. A civil war in Nigeria is used as a convenient backdrop.

What’s unfortunate about Tears of the Sun is that as foolish as it winds up (with a closing battle scene that pales in comparison to just about every war movie made within the last ten years), it starts off quite well. Belluci plays Dr. Lena Hendricks, a widowed American who’s working at a Catholic mission deep in the jungle. Willis plays Lt. A.K. Waters, a Navy SEAL with a cleanly shaved head, two-day-old facial hair, and a 24-hour scowl. When civil war breaks out in Nigeria, the military must get Hendricks out, so they send Willis and his team in to do the job. The problem is, Hendricks won’t leave without her patients.

Had Tears of the Sun just stuck to that story, they might have had something. Trekking through the jungle on foot with bad guys chasing you can be quite compelling and exciting -- and Tears was for a while. For whatever reason, though, they didn’t want to leave well enough alone and what could have been a tight, cat-and-mouse feature ends up becoming an overblown wannabe epic where Willis isn’t just saving Hendricks, he may be saving the whole darn country. Wipe Tears of the Sun off your movie-going list.

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