Opinion as a Movie-freak

Summary 
The true story of Desmond Doss, the conscientious objector who, at the Battle of Okinawa, won the Medal of Honor for his incredible bravery and regard for his fellow soldiers. We see his upbringing and how this shaped his views, especially his religious view and anti-killing stance. We see Doss's trials and tribulations after enlisting in the US Army and trying to become a medic. Finally, we see the hell on Earth that was Hacksaw Ridge.

Genre : War
Country : USA

Cast : 
Andrew garfield : Desmond Doss

Summary :
After the Battle of Gallipoli, in 1915, an Australian farmer, Connor , travels to Turkey to find his 3 missing sons. While staying at a hotel in Istanbul, he meets Ayshe, the hotel manager. And tries to find a way to Gallipoli.

Genre : Drama/War
Country : Australia/USA/Turkey

Cast :
Rusell Crowe : Connor
Olga Kurylenko : Ayshe
Yilmaz Erdogan : Major Hasan

Director : Rusell Crowe

Summary
France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk, the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.
 
Genre : War/Romance
Country : UK/France/Belgium

Cast :
Michelle Williams  : Lucile Angellier
Kristin Scott Thomas : Madame Angellier
Matthias Schoenaerts : Bruno von Falk

Director : Saul Dibb

Summary
Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

Genre : Biography/Drama/War
Country : UK/USA
 
Cast :
Benedict Cumberbatch : Alan Turing
Keira Knightley  : Joan Clarke

Matthew Goode : Hugh Alexander

Director : Morten Tyldum

English Here ...

Genre : Biography/Drama/War
Country : Australia/UK
 
Cast :
Colin Firth : Eric Lomax
Jeremy Irvine : Eric Lomax
Nicole Kidman : Patti

Director :
Jonathan Teplitzky

Summary
Eric Lomax was one of thousands of Allied prisoners of war forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway during WW2. His experiences, after the secret radio he built to bring news and hope to his colleagues was discovered, left him traumatised and shut off from the world. Years later, he met Patti, a beautiful woman, on a train and fell in love. Patti was determined to rid Eric of his demons. Discovering that the young Japanese officer who haunted her husband was still alive, she faced a terrible decision. Should Eric be given a chance to confront his tormentor ?

Genre : War/Drama
Country : USA/Germany

Cast :
George Clooney : Frank Stokes
Matt Damon : James Granger
Cate Blanchett : Claire Simone

Director :
George Clooney

Summary
The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys - seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 - possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind's greatest achievements.

Mijn mening

"If you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it's as if they never existed.”

"The Monuments men" is a terribly boring movie. Thank God there were people during the 2nd World War who were concerned about the cultural heritage and with a selfless commitment went to the battlefields of Nazi Germany to recover the looted artworks. It's a story based on true events, but I still doubt if it was necessary to make a film about those events. In "The Guns of Navarone" they gathered ​​a commando to destroy those damn huge cannons. In "Saving Private Ryan" a group of soldiers got orders to look for a certain Ryan (of course) whose brothers been killed on the battlefield. In "The Monuments Men" some old aged connoisseurs of art, sacrifice themselves to find stolen artworks. They also could have called it "Saving a Private Collection". But this one isn't that heroic and exciting. You would expect this to be a masterpiece with such a cast and such an original story about the 2nd World War. Ultimately, it isn't a movie of the same valuable level as those pieces of art they tried to save.

George Clooney co-wrote this film, has directed it and also plays the lead role as Frank Stokes, an art expert at age who puts together a group of eight other art historians, architects and professors to go to distant Europe and find some lost art. It's also a race against the clock since the Russians are also keen to get those artworks in their possession. For the Russians, it's a kind of payment for the losses they suffered during the war, while "The Monuments Men" have the noble aim to deliver it back to the original owners. The other members of the group consists of the three American greybeards Richard Campbell (Bill Murray), Walter Garfield (John Goodman) and Preston Savitz (Bob Balaban), the Englishman Donald Jeffries ( Hugh Bonneville ) who apparently has to make up for something, the Frenchman in exile Jean Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin) and James Granger (Matt Damon) and Sam Epstein (Dimitri Leonidas).

Again Clooney looks like the perfect son in law and behaves as usual as a charming Hollywoodstar. I'm constantly amazed about the fact that no matter what Mr.Clooney does, his hair always looks immaculate and well groomed. It seemed as if there is still a renowned stylist on every corner in this recreated-to-rubble Germany who has the time to fix his hair again. For the rest, it seems like an "Ocean's Eleven" in uniform. Even the conversations with Damon look like a duplicate of "Ocean's Eleven" : such a jovial, toneless and dry informal conversation between two close friends. Same routine.


Matt Damon plays again the smiling charmer who tries to help himself using his pitifully poor French (To be honest, I couldn't understand anything he said) on his way to Paris, where he will meet a woman called Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett). Claire is the curator of the Jeu de Paume, a former art museum that became a depot of stolen art. She could possibly point out the locations where the Nazis have hidden their loot. However, she is an old-fashioned young woman who stubbornly refuses to help him, out of fear that it would disappear in the hands of the U.S. The fact that this frigid aunt suddenly felt her hormones working and encouraged Damon to clean up the produced cobwebs during the war, after she was so kind to ask if he was a "good husband", I found a useless and meaningless filler which had nothing to do with the rest of the story.


The most enjoyable performances were done by the comic trio of the whole gang: Murray, Goodman and Balaban. Although their efforts unfortunately couldn't save the movie. Murray walked around again as if he could care less. The famous dry humor was briefly interrupted by one of the most moving moments: playing a vinyl record he received with a Christmas message of his daughter and grandchildren. An intimate moment between all the misery of war. Goodman was again the lame softy you expect anytime to emit a thunderous roar of laughter, but also has its sad moment when he and Clermont ends up in a crossfire between the two armed forces. Balaban is an irascible rascal who has one great desire when they arrive in Europe : the opportunity to kill somebody over there.


Don't expect action packed war scenes because the art rescuers follow the advancing forces during the whole movie and arrive in every historically known location after the Germans and allied forces have left. There are countless films about the horrors of the 2nd World War, but this story was still unknown to me. That made it more interesting to watch. The fact that there are two Belgian cities in the movie where valuable works of art were stolen , is also something that aroused my curiosity. The sometimes amusing dialogues and funny moments are interspersed with touching moments and a few moralizing and corny moments . But overall it was just a weak movie. In content it's not really an epic story : a group of elderly men running back and forth through Germany looking for paintings and sculptures . That they made a 2 hour movie about that, is in itself an achievement .

My rating 4/10
Links : IMDB

Genre : War
Country : Australia

Cast :
Johan Earl : Wilkins
Tim Pocock : O'Leary
Martin Copping : Jennings

Director :
Johan Earl,Adrian Powers

Summary
When an allied charge on the German lines goes horribly wrong, one man finds himself stranded in No Man's Land. Reuniting with two other survivors, together they must help each other as they charge into the unknown across the muddy wasteland as the Germans quickly hone in on the desperate trio. Tensions rise between the soldiers as they are surrounded by explosions of grenades with the constant rattle of machine guns in their ears. Time is running out as they make their way back over enemy lines as an impending attack could soon take them out.
My opinion
An Australian attempt to create an image of the terrible battles that were held in WWI. They managed to show that on a small scale. Military units in dirty miserable conditions, sitting in mud and other dirt waiting until they were driven into a certain death. The whistling of bullets and explosions of bombs. The fear in the eyes of young soldiers who probably didn't even know what this war was about.
The image I'll remind of this movie was that of the arrogant superior who, without hesitation, gives an order to attack, although this would lead to a needless bloodshed. Because this was totally unnecessary and pointless in this stage of the battle, since they were planning for a heavy bombardment on the German positions. It was a showcase of egocentric display of power. I don't understand how come those hundred men in the trenches don't jump on that fagot coward collectively and chased him on the battlefield with a gun.
Anyway, the introduction of this film is the rush towards the German position, realizing  that no one will reach the other side alive. Don't expect grand heroic scenes like in "Saving Private Ryan", but rather limited images and close-ups. A clear sign that this is a low-budget film. The three soldiers Sergeant Major Wilkins , private O'Leary and Corporal Jennings , survive the massacre and end up in no man's land between the two lines. The rest of the battalion is spread over the mud-filled grounds. From here on starts the biggest part of the movie, because going back to their own trenches takes time. Corporal Jennings is very badly injured (A full leg torn away) which makes that the withdrawal is not so evident. This section is therefore extremely boring. It's not because of the acting. The acting is still acceptable despite the circumstances . But to be honest, a slowly receding threesome is not much to work with and to get an exciting story.
Eventually they made up a parallel story in which the wife of Sergeant Major Wilkins plays a leading role. She's pregnant and wants an abortion. Something that wasn't obvious to do at that time. Eventually she asks the help of a nurse who doesn't have experience with this operation. Obviously this ends up in a complete tragedy. And what a coincidence ! This nurse is the fiancée of Corporal Jennings, who at the same time ceased to live on the battlefield.

"Forbidden Ground"  mostly succeeded in visualizing the atmosphere and the horror in WWI, now 100 years ago. In terms of content, it's a disaster and the story itself is a bit far fetched.
Het verdict 2 /10
Links : IMDB

Genre : Drama/Oorlog
Country : USA

Cast :
Jeremy Irvine : Albert Narracott
Peter Mullan : Ted Narracott
Emily Watson : Rose Narracott
David Thewlis : Lyons

Director :
Steven Spielberg

Summary

To his wife's dismay farmer Narracott buys a thoroughbred horse rather than a plough animal, but when his teenaged son Albert trains the horse and calls him Joey, the two becoming inseparable. When his harvest fails, the farmer has to sell Joey to the British cavalry and he is shipped to France where, after a disastrous offensive he is captured by the Germans

Genre : War
Country : USA

Cast :
Cuba Gooding Jr. : Majoor Emanuelle Stance
Terrence Howard : Kolonel A.J. Bullard
Bryan Cranston : Kolonel William Mortamus

Director :
Anthony Hemingway

Summary
Italy 1944.
As the war takes its toll on Allied forces in Europe, a squadron of black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen are finally given the chance to prove themselves in the sky - even as they battle discrimination on the ground. It's a tribute to the unsung heroes who rose above extraordinary challenges and ultimately soared into history.
My opinion

During WWII in Italy, a regiment of black pilots are flying around with outdated P40's to perform meaningless tasks because the white army top management doesn't believe that black people are intellectually enough to perform real actions. It's a bit like in the American Civil War, where they were seen as just cannon fodder. Eventually, they may prove themselves anyway.

Combine that with a love story and you have Red Tails.

It was a very entertaining movie, lots of action, some impressive dogfights (in my eyes anyway). I wasn't bored for a second watching this one. It wasn't a state of the art movie , but not as you read a lot, a total flop.

The strange thing is that on IMDB you can read totally different opinions from people who actually will know what they are talking about I guess. For example
1. As a retired USAF Fighter Pilot, having flown 100 missions as an F-105 Wild Weasel over the hottest areas of North Vietnam, and recipient of the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and ten Air Medals, I found the movie to be excellent.
2. I am a pilot in the Air Force.This is by far the absolute worst movie I have ever seen.
3. I'm a former US Air Force F-4 Phantom Weapons Systems Officer (backseater).You know this movie is crap when you start with a supposed fighter squadron commander who doesn't know the difference between a SQUAD (thirteen infantrymen) and a SQUADRON (48 fighter pilots).











Probably it isn't all technically accurate but it surely was thrilling entertainment.

My rating 7/10
Links : IMDB