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Reviews
Iron Cross: The Road to Normandy (2022)
An attempt was made...
Another WW2 film that takes footage from a fairly impressive large scale re-enactment and attempts to edit it into a film. Yes, there are a bunch of these littered around streaming services. This one is pretty much par for the course; you have a sort of boring, poorly acted story crafted around fairly elaborate staged battle scenes.
On one hand a lot of effort was definitely put in by the re-enactors. There are lots of actual WW2 vehicles and equipment on display, which is actually pretty neat. Unfortunately this is supposed to be a film and none of it really 'feels' real. The soldiers often move sort of clumsily, uniforms are pristine clean, and the editing often makes things something of a mishmashes mess. It really is sort of uncanny watching a scene where some elements look convincing and then you have someone fall down in what can be best described as real time slow motion. There is also a combination of fairly impressive re-enactment pyrotechnics combined with some far less convincing after effects style ones. Technically it is really all over the place. Besides the confused editing at times, you can watch a 2 minute scene of this film with color grading that is different in almost every shot. It is all very jarring.
My relative is a re-enactor and I can understand the thought process. We look like WW2 soldiers (basically act as them) and have all this equipment, how hard can making a film be. Sort of ignoring the fact that writing a convincing script let alone convincingly performing it are what actually constitutes a convincing movie. I can respect the effort put into the battle scenes on a sort of technical level. They are at least from a scale/equipment perspective something. Unfortunately some re-enactment footage alone does not a good film make. Really, when you see that the lead actor is also the producer, director, etc. It becomes quite clear. One fairly amateur auteur is spread way too thin on his passion project. Unless you want to watch a bunch of re-enactors live out their own little WW2 German war scenario for almost 2 hours, you can do much better. This would have been MUCH better served as a short film that was tightly edited. Land that before attempting a feature film.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
A cinematic achievement
A phenomenal period piece. The Napoleonic War is in full swing and we follow the crew from Patrick O'Brien novels. Master and Commander is a masterfully crafted film from top to bottom. The casting decisions were inspired without a weak link in the cast. Brilliantly built ship sets with excellent effects. All following an entertaining story that oozes an authenticity you rarely see in period films. Highly recommended for anyone who even has a passing interesting in the era or naval warfare.
Awake (2021)
Interesting idea, shakey execution
A great concept wasted. The premise is simple, some cosmic event happens, and no one can sleep anymore. Well almost no one. Along with the unraveling of humanity we have the story of an estranged mother trying to save her children, one of whom is able to sleep. The film is competently shot and I found most of the performances adequate. Gina Rodriquez is solid enough, and I was happy to see Jennifer Jason Leigh, who unfortunately only has a minor role.
The film really falls apart on the screenplay level. Mainly because there is almost no consistency in the scenario. Our main character already started 12-24 hours less sleep than most people, and she frankly never really seems to that much acuity. I mention this because there is almost no consistency with how people fall apart. One day without sleep and a law enforcement officer is willing to execute someone, and people are considering sacrificing a child. It just does not parse.
While some reviewers found the film boring, I did not. I thought the scenario was interesting enough to see it through. When we are talking about consistency this really comes to a head at the end. We spend all of this time watching society and people unravel, it is all fairly dark. Have no worries though, NONE of our protagonists die, but even better they basically fall upon a solution that should have been discovered when the first person somewhere was revived.
A missed opportunity sadly. If the idea of a world where no can sleep intrigues you, but you want a scifi/horror film with a happy ending, well this is the film for you.
Army of the Dead (2021)
A watchable but disapointing entry for Snyder
Oof. I went into this with reasonably high hopes. Dawn of the Dead (2004) is one of my favorite zombie films. That is a fairly solid mesh of Zach Snyder's directing with James Gunn's writing. Army of the Dead is a pure Snyder project and it is clear that he simply does not have the writing chops for a project like this.
The film does start reasonably promising, with the fall of Vegas actually being fairly well done an compelling. THIS is the film I wish we had gotten, but after this promising introduction we transition to the main heist story. It is best to not really spend too much time thinking about it, because Snyder really didn't.
At a 2hr30min runtime you would expect some fairly decent character development and world building. There is some talent in the cast, but there is only so much you can wring from one-dimensional character writing. Batista's is the best developed and the big guy delivers a solid performance with what he is given. You probably could have trimmed the whole daughter subplot and lost absolutely nothing.
You can sprinkle in a little dense 'social commentary' with the occasional spectacle and you have Army of the Dead. An excellent opportunity that was sadly missed. I was never bored though, so I guess that is something. The film strongly sets up a sequel, but it is hard to really be too excited given this entry.
The Filthy Thirteen (2019)
The worst 'WW2' film to date
Probably the worst WW2 film I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot. I am willing to account for some historical inaccuracies, but this film had essentially no accuracy. Soldiers walking around with plastic GI helmets, unit insignia that do not match, and the icing on top was not a single 'GI' had a correct weapon. This might be the first WW2 film where essentially no actor had a proper weapon. Instead you have US soldiers with replica made winchesters, some oddball single shot bolt actions, and an SMLE replica here and there. Apparently US infantry also use a luger as their main weapon in this universe, with the recoil of a Desert Eagle. The weapon handling is also something to behold. No one was even told to close the bolt on the rifles or that non semi-automatic weapons have to be actuated with every shot.
I am dwelling on all of this, because if you are going to do a WW2 film it sort of behooves one to make it feel like it is WW2. Even if you could forgive some of the comically inept costuming/armory issues it just gets worse. All of the Germans are apparently parade uniform dressed SS soldiers. One of these buffoons in a tree manages to wipe out half of our heroes in what has to be the most inauthentic 'battle' I have seen put to screen. It just gets better and better though, with a final hospital showdown where SS officers decide to manually storm a hospital to kill our heroes. A couple of 60 year old guys and some 40 year old decide the best course of action is to assault a hospital themselves with nothing but pistols and knives. At this point I am not even sure if the film takes place in England or France anymore. If you think I am ignoring the other 60% of the film which is the embarrassing old veteran recalling the war bit, don't worry I am. It basically just bookends the rest of this clownshoe film with little worth mentioning.
To conclude this film is simply pathetic, with nothing redeeming. There is no reason to watch this. It does disrespect to an actual interesting story of WW2. You can look up the Filthy 13th, to read about the real story of heroism, of which this film has essentially no resemblance. I get making a film with limited resources, but this is just something else. This is making a film with zero clue or talent. Avoid unless you are showing this to basically troll your favorite historical film fan.