George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg are more than passable as jaded American soldiers. Ice Cube is merely OK as part of their team going on a mission to retrieve stolen gold.
It’s an interesting but uneasy balance of comedy, history and violence. The tone is all over the place and it doesn’t always work. It’s gritty without being believable, and it’s silly without being especially funny.
Directed by Jonathan Mostow, it’s a fast-paced wartime thriller that’s full of action. Matthew McConaughey is excellent as the man who unexpectedly finds himself as captain after his boss, played by Bill Paxton, is killed. Harvey Keitel does his usual thing (as the Chief Gunner's Mate) and has some presence. In an odd casting decision, Jon Bon Jovi portrays Lieutenant Pete Emmett, but brings nothing special to a minor role that could have been played by anyone. The other major failing is that the music is loud enough to obscure the dialogue at a couple of points.
At times you can clearly see the influence of the submarine masterpiece that is Das Boot. But where that film had long, brooding scenes that built up a claustrophobic tension, this one races from one dramatic moment to another. It does that very well, but ironically – given the subject matter – there’s a lack of depth.
Three Slavic-American friends (Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage) find their simple, low-key lives are shattered after they are shipped off to fight in Vietnam.
Brilliantly, the film establishes a long set-up in their hometown. You get to know the characters and their context. The war segment is merely the second part of the film. The third part then deals with what happens after they come home – the emotional fall-out of everything they've experienced.
Meryl Streep is excellent as a companion from their pre-war existence. De Niro and Walken are at their very best: highly convincing as young men under unbearable pressures. There's a strong anti-war message, handled with subtlety, but it seems to be primarily a story about friendship and the strength of the human soul.
The Russian roulette sequences won't be quickly forgotten.
It’s interestingly shot, and the firepower all looks real enough. The problem is an average script. Also, the characters aren’t especially well-drawn. Without a focal point, it’s harder to identify with anyone. Poor storytelling means that you’re unsure how you’re meant to feel about the characters and their situation.
Robert Vaughn plays a German general who seems troubled by his role with the Nazis. Unfortunately the actor doesn’t really bother with an accent. George Segal plays his American counterpart while Ben Gazzara is Sergeant Angelo (a.k.a. “Angel”), his likeable friend.
There’s a stronger, grittier film buried deep inside this one, but director John Guillermin is unable to draw it out.
Directed by Angelina Jolie, this is a long and slow true story of American Olympic runner Louis Zamperini (Jack O'Connell).
Zamperini survives two plane crashes, several weeks floating on a raft and two Japanese POW camps – and yet the film detailing these events somehow ends up plodding and dull.
O'Connell is OK, but he has few lines and little actual character. Even less well drawn is Sgt. Mutsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe (Miyavi), who is sadistic in a way that’s never really explained – despite the seemingly endless scenes of torture.
A good story, badly told, it's further proof that actors don't usually make for great directors.
Excellent war drama directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Colin Farrell.
It details the training process for soldiers who will be sent into the Vietnam War. Farrell is absolutely perfect as the rebellious Private Roland Bozz, who has a different outlook that gets him in trouble but makes his colleagues trust him.
It’s a more even and satisfying Vietnam training film than Full Metal Jacket.
Eastwood plays a US Marine who served in Korea and Vietnam. It’s now 1984 and he’s reaching the end of his career. He’s tasked with training a platoon of seemingly useless young marines who he will eventually end up leading into battle in Grenada.
It’s quite uneven but there’s lots to enjoy. There’s a wry sense of humour. And the thread dealing with Eastwood and his estranged wife (Marsha Mason) adds a welcome dose of human drama. I like the way the tough-as-nails exterior slowly reveals the vulnerability within, even if his croaky voice is difficult to hear.
Mario Van Peebles is good as the cocky young singer who eventually develops a begrudging respect for his leader.
Karel Roden plays a man who returns to his village after a spell in prison, only to find that it no longer exists.
Beyond the history lesson, I didn’t get a great deal out of the film. Not entirely sure why, as the performances were mostly strong. Perhaps I was just in the wrong frame of mind to witness more senseless killing and cruelty.
The film is slow and laboured. The sound quality is poor and the dialogue isn’t synchronised quite right. There’s a disjointed, awkward feel.
John Wayne, Topol, Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner all appear, but no amount of star charisma can make the script work. I do like Senta Berger as Magda Simon. She has a certain warmth and charm that is lacking elsewhere. Kirk Douglas is watchable, too, but seems much too chirpy most of the time, adding to a feeling that the whole affair is rather shallow.
On the plus side, there are a few good lines. For example, when David asks his wife why she’s up so late, she replies: “I worry better when I’m awake.”
Truly excellent drama set during the US civil war. It’s a war film, a love story and a historical epic.
When the war breaks out, the quiet, inarticulate Inman (Jude Law) is one of the young men from North Carolina who has to fight with the Confederate army. But he has just fallen for Ada (Nicole Kidman), the daughter of the preacher (Donald Sutherland), and has to leave her – just as their relationship is beginning. Injured in battle, he attempts to make his way back home to Ada while being hunted for deserting.
All of the leads are on excellent form. Renée Zellweger plays Ruby, a plucky free spirit who helps Ada salvage her farm and her self-respect. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a crooked preacher. Natalie Portman is a widowed mother. There are also parts for Jack White, Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson and Cillian Murphy.
It’s an emotional and affecting work that avoids cliché, especially since the romance is unconventional to begin with. The couple barely know each other, but their connection is overwhelmingly powerful. As a result, the film is too.
Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas lead a group of American soldiers in France on a mission to retrieve a stash of Nazi gold, aided by Donald Sutherland.
It tries to be a comedy, but isn’t funny. It completely lacks dramatic tension, too, so it can’t work as a war film either. The beginning is painfully slow. When the mission finally gets underway it improves a little but the ending is a major disappointment.
I have no idea what the film was trying to achieve. Clint Eastwood is wasted in his part, and there’s even a fake “Western” scene added in to make the most of his popularity in that field. His 1970 haircut makes no attempt to look like it’s from the 1940s. Likewise, Donald Sutherland’s awkward, embarrassing hippy character is a deliberate anachronism. But why? Is it intended to be a subversive parody of contemporary (i.e., 1970) American culture?
There could have been a decent wartime comedy or satire in there somewhere, but director Brian G. Hutton fails to find it.
One of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen, and not in a good way.
The set pieces are violent and dramatic. An extended scene set in a house with two German women is especially powerful.
It’s atmospheric and it looks convincingly grey, bleak and muddy.
Brad Pitt has rarely impressed me as an actor but he’s at his best here, finding a depth and charisma that sometimes eludes him in lesser roles.
Fox turns out to be fairly convincing as the squeaky-clean Lutheran who resists his sergeant (a believably on-the-edge Sean Penn). He just looks a little too fresh and healthy, even when he’s sent to hospital, and his hair never seems to get ruffled. In contrast, the war scenes are scary and realistic.
The music is by Ennio Morricone and – despite its appeal – seems a little too prominent for certain scenes.
It’s a violent and bloody drama that occasionally seems trashy (I would have ditched the slow-motion shots and intrusive music), but gains depth from focusing on strong characters and introducing some philosophical and ethical questions.
Cage is highly watchable, as always. He just “has it” – whatever “it” is.
Surprisingly, the film lost $38 million and received mixed reviews.
Towards the end of World War II, a singer named Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) attempts to flee the Nazis in the Netherlands. She is tricked by a traitor who has set a trap for those escaping, and her family are killed. Joining the Dutch resistance movement and adopting a new identity, she becomes a spy, tasked with getting close to SS commander Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch) to gain access to strategic information. But matters are complicated when she develops real feelings for Müntze.
This is a brilliant thriller, with so many twists and turns – as various betrayals and double crossings abound – that it makes your head spin.
Carice van Houten is superb in the lead role and by making her relationships with both sides believable the film does a good job of blurring the good/evil divide and building in shades of grey.
Director Paul Verhoeven moves away from the gleefully violent style of RoboCop and Starship Troopers, but his accomplished storytelling is still evident.
The only criticism is that the final scene (set on a kibbutz in 1956) doesn’t make much sense without any historical context.
During World War II, Operation Market Garden was an Allied operation that took place in September 1944. It aimed to secure key river crossings, enabling a route from the Netherlands into northern Germany – culminating with the strategically vital Arnhem bridge.
That real-life saga is brought to life with mixed results. Unfortunately, at nearly three hours it’s excessively drawn out. The film gets off to a very slow start, too, and it’s a full 52 minutes until the first shot is fired. There are a lot of characters and plenty of time is used up introducing them and generally setting the scene. It’s an extreme example of the all-star cast, cramming in key roles for Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O'Neal, Laurence Olivier and Robert Redford. The ensemble approach works reasonably enough and it adds scope, but it does mean you don’t get to know – or care about – any particular individual very well.
Despite the jaunty music at times and the sense that for the posh Brits it’s all just a jolly jape, there’s a strong message about the brutality of war and the film doesn’t hold back from showing the realities of injury and death.
It’s superior to the likes of The Great Escape and The Longest Day, although still oddly unsatisfying. It fails to convey why these battles are so important or to provide a wider context of how they fit into the war.
Peck has a compelling authority, as always, but overall the film is low on dramatic tension. There’s a lack of context that means questions go unanswered about the strategic value of the battle. In some ways that’s the point – it may be an entirely insignificant conflict that cost so many lives.
George Peppard and Harry Dean Stanton appear in minor roles, although I didn’t even recognise the former.
Disappointing all round.
George Clooney stars, writes and directs but unfortunately can’t decide if he’s making a comedy or a drama. It falls somewhere in the middle – neither very funny nor very exciting, with too much rather stilted sitting around. The all-star cast seems underused, with Matt Damon, Bill Murray and the dreaded John Goodman in underdeveloped roles and not really getting a chance to shine. Only Cate Blanchett (a sympathetic curator with an inconsistent French accent) comes out of it unscathed.
The tone is all over the place. The film flits between trying to make serious points at certain times and seeming like Dad’s Army at others, with “jaunty” music that’s especially jarring. Even the central message – art is so important that it might be worth dying for – is watered down by the way it’s something we’re repeatedly told rather than meaningfully shown.
The final scene – a modern-day glimpse of Clooney’s Lieutenant as an elderly man appreciating Michelangelo in a gallery with his grandson – is particularly awkward and naff.
An expert Russian sniper, Vasily Zaytsev (Jude Law) plays a cat-and-mouse game with German sniper Major König (Ed Harris) during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Vasily, who becomes a national hero, is aided by his lover Tania (Rachel Weisz), his friend Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) and Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins), who realises the marksman's value in terms of propaganda.
Some of the sets don’t look especially realistic (not sure if that’s because it’s early CGI or whether it’s something to do with the models they used), but the scenes of soldiers being shot down in their hundreds look all too plausible.
The relationships between the key characters are convincing, and Law and Weisz in particular create a strong chemistry together.
It’s one of the more compelling war films because it makes you care about the characters and understand their motivations – including those of the villain. And while the love story is touching, the overall narrative never gives way to sentimentality.
