The Need for "Deep" Characters

Over at the Movie Blog today, they're running a review of The Alamo. The reviewer praises Quaid and Thornton but calls all of the other characters stereotypes and painfully two-dimensional. It never ceases to amaze me the number of times you hear movie reviewers, actors, and directors speak about shallow, stereotypical, one-dimensional, and/or (a new one for me) two-dimensional characters.

The desire for deep characters takes me back to Harrison Ford's comments comparing Indiana Jones to Han Solo. He likes the depth of the Indiana Jones character but would never reprisde Han because he's such a one-dimensional character. Which character seems more like a real person to you? Is it the archaeologist by day, adventurer by night comic book style Jones, or is it the cocky pilot with a bit of a soft spot for doing the right thing?

Maybe one-dimensional characters are more a reflection of life than the hallowed "deep" characters.