Thrilling wartime heroics take a back seat to a lackluster romance in "Puppet Masters" director Stuart Orme's atmospheric but disappointing British P.O.W. escape saga "Colditz." During World War II, the Third Reich rounded up all the worst Allied escape artists from prisoner-of-war camps and cornered them in an ancient castle. Although quite a bit of the action takes place in Germany with P.O.W.s struggling to get out of Colditz, the bulk of the action transpires in England. Murderous Irish soldier Corporal Nicholas McGrade (Damian Lewis of "Band of Brothers) escapes from Colditz and makes it back to London where his superior, Lt. Colonel Jimmy Fordham (James Fox of "Performance"), congratulates on his good luck and promotes him to lieutenant. Naturally, this upstart Irish decides to take revenge on a fellow prisoner, Second Lieutenant Jack Rose (Tom Hardy of "Black Hawk Down"), and tells Rose's girl, Lizzie Carter (Sophie Myles of the "Underworld" movies), that Jack is dead. Smug Nicholas eventually persuades reluctant Lizzie to share his bed. Things go awry when another Colditz prisoner, Captain Sawyer (Guy Henry of "V for Vendetta"), escapes and suspects that McGrade has lied to Lizzie and told her that her boyfriend Jack was shot while trying to escape.
The best scene in this dreary World War II romance thriller occurs when three escape happy Brits plunge into the sewer system to squirm out of Colditz. Otherwise, "Colditz" is barely worth watching for its lengthy three hour running time. The Germans are portrayed as thugs without any individuality. Jason Priestly is truly unsavory as Flying Officer Rhett Barker who scourges things for his companions to make their escape. The most pathetic character is Captain Willis (Laurence Fox of "The Last Drop" where he played an SS officer) who repeatedly tries to escape but never succeeds. His last demoralizing act of escape is valiant but futile.
It's easy to tell that "Colditz" is a post-World War II war movie. The Allies spend more time fighting each other than they do the Nazis. If you want to see a crackerjack World War II escape movie, check out John Sturges' "The Great Escape" with Steve McQueen. James Bond director Guy Hamilton had better like with Colditz in his own version "The Colditz Story." You'd think that the people at Granada who produced "Colditz" should have known better than to spoil a vintage World War II tale with a forgettable soap opera love triangle. Furthermore, the DVD presentation of this saga lacks not only English language subtitles but also closed captioning. Most of the dialogue is virtually muffled and you have to rewind scenes to understand what the leads are staying to each other. Finally, none of the protagonists are remotely sympathetic. Instead, everybody is selfish and egotistical, not exactly the kind of heroes that you want to root for.
The best scene in this dreary World War II romance thriller occurs when three escape happy Brits plunge into the sewer system to squirm out of Colditz. Otherwise, "Colditz" is barely worth watching for its lengthy three hour running time. The Germans are portrayed as thugs without any individuality. Jason Priestly is truly unsavory as Flying Officer Rhett Barker who scourges things for his companions to make their escape. The most pathetic character is Captain Willis (Laurence Fox of "The Last Drop" where he played an SS officer) who repeatedly tries to escape but never succeeds. His last demoralizing act of escape is valiant but futile.
It's easy to tell that "Colditz" is a post-World War II war movie. The Allies spend more time fighting each other than they do the Nazis. If you want to see a crackerjack World War II escape movie, check out John Sturges' "The Great Escape" with Steve McQueen. James Bond director Guy Hamilton had better like with Colditz in his own version "The Colditz Story." You'd think that the people at Granada who produced "Colditz" should have known better than to spoil a vintage World War II tale with a forgettable soap opera love triangle. Furthermore, the DVD presentation of this saga lacks not only English language subtitles but also closed captioning. Most of the dialogue is virtually muffled and you have to rewind scenes to understand what the leads are staying to each other. Finally, none of the protagonists are remotely sympathetic. Instead, everybody is selfish and egotistical, not exactly the kind of heroes that you want to root for.