Not a movie, more a reenactment. So, how good? Let's just say, in a nutshell, this will be looked at as the honest 9/11 movie after Oliver Stones sappy piece of shit comes out. Where it falters is how hard it tries to be a gritty, oh-so-not-trying-to-be-narrative, documentary-like take on the day one of the four highjacked planes managed to not hit anything that would bring pride to the supporters of the retarded dune hicks that did the highjacking.

The film begins with an Islamic prayer being recited in Arabic over the black screen of the opening credits. Yes, spooky. We're beginning with the terrorists. Suddenly, the flick turns into not even an episode of NYPD blue, but a making-of special on one, only with the same camera man, and on the day of September 11, 2001.

Where the film lacks for the first hour is in its complete lack of daring (other than the movie's general topic). No characters to get attached to, no dialogue that reflects anything resembling real emotion, just "What?," "Play the tape again!," "Holy shit!," and a slew of other face-value reactions to the chaos on the computer grid (we're stuck inside different air traffic control stations for the most part).

The only character reflecting an actual human being is actually one of the terrorists, who is the first and last person to be seen here. Through his mere lack of quick timing on the suicide mission, we are shown more of a character in him than we are with the heroic souls who took out the (essentially) sick bastard. Still though, where the film's strength lies, and what makes this more than just a flick trying to cash in on patriotism and shock value, is in the final act -- where the Americans of United 93 came to the conclusion "Let's roll."

This final sequence, all the way until the last frame, is what makes this worth seeing NOW, not on DVD. There will be plenty of excuses to dodge this movie -- "Oh, I'm not sure I'm in the mood right now for that," "I think it's too soon for a movie about it," and so forth, but the last half hour of it all makes "United 93" something that demands our attention. It may seem like a bunch of handheld-camera chaos at first glance, but the emotion behind this sequence comes from more than how recent this event took place, it comes from damn well done filmmaking.

The confusion is the point, and we aren't allowed to look back and even try to make sense of it until the credits roll, which is the point -- because, man oh man, you will look back and try to make sense of it, and this isn't referring to just the movie. If only the screenplay took the extra dare of creating characters that could be embraced by someone who'd never even heard of 9/11, this would be an all-around powerful film. Alas, it still has what it takes to be deserving of a viewing.

(sorry, not gonna rate this one with bongs... it's... it's just too soon)