A mediocre film which could and should have been far superior. It is based on the true story of the iconic four-man team of combat photographers and their experiences in South Africa during the civil war of the early nineties. One of the four is Kevin Carter, who would go on to snap the infamous shot of a starving Sudanese child and a nearby vulture, which won a Pulitzer and generated deafening controversy. There is so much fascination and potential here, from the specifics of the South African conflict to the complex, undefined, maybe amoral relationship between the photographers and the conflicts they shoot; it's not their fight, so what responsibilities do they have? Are they shining a righteous light on people in need or exploiting Third World bloodshed and misery for personal glory? Maybe both?

Writer/director Steven Silver, alas, simply doesn't have the talent and vision to deliver a film worthy of the subject. The action sequences are as exciting and upsetting as they should be, but the human drama--including a too-Hollywood romance between brooding photographer Greg Marinovich (Ryan Phillippe, solid) and newspaper pictures editor Robin Comley (Malin Akerman, unconvincing)--is absolutely inert. The specifics of the South African conflict remain fairly opaque, and Carter's moment of infamy--the photo seen 'round the world, the reason many people will pursue this tiny movie--is shoehorned into the third act, playing more as a distraction. As Carter, Taylor Kitsch is fine early on--when the character is a swaggering adrenaline chaser--but can't sell the later scenes when he's called upon to convey suicidal sorrow.

C-