Way, way, way oversold.

What else can you say about a movie that is photographically well executed, but has no discernible plot, story line or character development? Even if there were a story, it was impossible to hear because the audio effects were so loud as to render 75 percent or more of the dialog incomprehensible.

Sure, war is hell. And it's loud. What war movie since the days of "Sands of Iwo Jima" hasn't made the same point? And Christopher Nolan spent how much to reiterate that message?

The first aerial combat scenes of "Dunkirk" were beautifully photographed, but practically every subsequent scene was a replay of the first. Sure, Spitfires, BF-109s and Heinkels are hard to come by, but, seriously, the aerial sequences struggled to rise above the campy, repetitive air work of the late 1970s series "Black Sheep Squadron."

The only saving grace of "Dunkirk" is that it was mercifully short at 106 minutes.

It doesn't even come close to challenging "Saving Private Ryan" for bragging rights as the best war movie of all time.