If Hollywood types are going to bank on their silver screen credentials by shooting TV commercials, shouldn't their ads be judged accordingly? In this installment, Radar's Spot Reviews parses Vietnam vet Oliver Stone's ad for moveon.org, "Video Vets: Bring Our Troops Home." The 30-second spot shows a pink-faced, all-American Iraq veteran named John Bruhns speaking soberly about his wartime experience. "To keep American solders in Iraq for an indefinite period of being attacked by an unidentifiable enemy is wrong, immoral, and irresponsible," Bruhns says, looking directly into the camera.

We gathered film critics Nathan Rabin of the Onion's A.V. Club, Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle, and Colin Covert of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and asked them to handle Stone like the Natural Born (critical) Killers they are.

Nathan Rabin: Unlike so much of Oliver Stone's headache-inducing oeuvre, this ad is fairly restrained, stylistically. Alas, like so much of the unending war on subtlety that constitutes Stone's career, it's also dull, shrill, didactic, and heavy-handed. Also, I was let down by the tragic lack of shock cuts, multiple camera stocks, and pretentious hallucinations involving Native Americans. At long last, Oliver Stone, have you some sense of shame?

Peter Hartlaub: What, no Willem Dafoe cameo? Noble intentions or powerful messages aside, this video wouldn't look much different if it were shot by your grandmother on an old Sony Handycam. And the Eyes Wide Shut single piano note musical score only adds to the minimalist why-did-we-need-to-get-Oliver-Stone-to-do-this? vibe.

Colin Covert: Oliver Stone has taken notorious liberties with history, such as creating composite groupies in The Doors, and in Alexander, giving everybody in ancient Greece an Irish or Scottish brogue. In this spot, he opts for his mainstream, play-it-safe World Trade Center mode. Sergeant John Bruhns tells his story directly to the camera, and his statement requires no embellishment. The problem with Stone's spot is it doesn't solve the occupation dilemma: How do we exit fast without triggering a shitstorm? Maybe there should be one of those fast-talk disclaimers at the finale. "Side effects of early withdrawal may include increased sectarian violence, human rights abuses, outflow of refugees to neighboring states, oil shock, emboldened jihadists, and a massive setback of American global leadership."

The final verdict: Despite good intentions, Ollie goes for minimal and ends up with a maximum bore. Where's that peyote when you need it? Two out of five stars.

PREVIOUSLY
• Spot Reviews: Film Critics Tackle TV Ads