So, a coupla nights ago I had the great misfortune to see “Lions for Lambs,”  the new Tom Cruise/Meryl Streep/Robert Redford juggernaut.

Why? The TV trailer shows a buncha troops in a helicopter ready to shoot some shit up–and I liked “Black Hawk Down” a whole lot, so … .

All the actors are excellent–but if you see “Lions for Lambs” at Marina Pacifica, you’re in for a double hosing. This is a terrible, one-dimensional, hamfisted premise for a film–and even the commercials they run before the movie suck.

One of the commercials is a National Guard advertisement, which traces the Guard’s history all the way back to the Revolutionary War–complete with a bunch of re-enactors dressed up in powdered wigs!

The soundtrack is 3 Doors Down, playing their latest, “Citizen Soldier.” Did I miss it? Were these guys the new Fall Out Boy, say, five years ago? (On the plus side, they did kinda make me want to shoot something.)

So, after that, they turn loose the movie, which is equally lame and preachy from the liberal point of view. I’ll spoil the ending for you: the Iraq war is a bad thing.

Was our political system always this stupid? I walked out of this movie pissed off at the Right and the Left.

This is why people stop voting. And caring about the outcome of elections.

Also, where did Robert Redford’s brain–and a suitable ending for this movie–go? Is it going to be like “Pretty in Pink” where, like 10 years from now he’ll come out with a collector’s DVD and a totally different ending?