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allanradman
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Storming Juno (2010)
It's okay
The story of the Canadian invasion of Normandy on a beach called Juno. The Canadians were under the command of the British. They were tasked, like everyone else, with certain objectives and given a timetable. And like everyone else, there was a great deal of chaos the night of June 5th and the morning of the 6th. For example, at 5:35 AM June 6th (sunrise will occur at 5:58 AM) 29 amphibious tanks are launched from the US 741st Infantry division, 6 km from Omaha beach. 27 will sink. There are a crew of 5 per tank. The Canadians will experience similar losses at Juno. Paratroopers will land far from the rally point the night prior to the invasion. They will be dispersed and need to find their own way and meet objectives such as taking out German 88s before the bulk of the invasion forces land.
At 6:15 AM, landing craft from Commonwealth forces head towards the beaches.
At 7:20 AM, the naval bombardements on Gold, Juno, and Sword end.
At 7:25 AM, obstacle clearing and demining tanks and vehicles land on Gold, Juno, and Sword.
At 7:45 AM The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division lands on Juno. They will take many casualties securing the beach.
Note: The timetables I provided are the correct ones. The ones in the film may not be as the sunlight on the actors does not jive with the time. If you can get past the hokey special effects this is a very watchable and accurate docudrama based on real events.
Der Hauptmann (2017)
When the Uniform Makes the Sadist
A very dark film about a German deserter two weeks before Germany's unconditional surrender. Droves of German regulars are fleeing toward the Western Allied lines to save themselves and put an end to the slaughter. Our main character is one of them being chased by former comrades who want to gun down the coward. Though the war has long been been decided, Hitler declared a fight to the last man, woman or child. If the war is lost then Germany itself should die with it. The black uniforms of the Hitlerites gave little men swelled heads and egos that matched. Men became beasts once they put on that uniform. At the Nuremberg Trials there were stark differences noted between big German generals who once gave orders to annihilate countries and the meek little man at the trials, later at the gallows. This film shows what happens when good becomes evil, and evil good. Put on that uniform of murder and terror, assume the new personality that goes with it, and become a servant to none but the devil. BTW, wait through all the ending credits a little extra.
Seules les bêtes (2019)
Une fin stupide
A cleaver crime thriller with a number of Inter woven coincidences that will leave you wanting to reach in the screen and strangle the main characters by the time you reach the ending. For most of the characters there is no ending. You never find out. All of the one in a billion coincidences come to an intersection where the story focuses on the final chapter. Every one of the crew of main characters have a variety of personality dysfunctions. Only the beasts are normal which is where, I suppose, the title came from. With a little more thought and effort this film could have been much better albeit longer. It's worth watching once and that's it.
Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan (2021)
The history behind the rise of Japan as a world power
If you love history, this was made for you. A docudrama on the rise of Japan, well written, acted, and narrated. I don't describe the details of the film because it would take away from the account and I probably couldn't do it justice. Fans of history won't be able to stop watching. If you hate history but enjoy the Hollywood dribble, move on; You'll hate the series.
Ófærð (2015)
Season 1
I'm not a crime series fan normally. However, season 1 is fantastic (have not seen season 2 yet). Great story lines, solid performances from all characters and nothing to do with political correctness / politics / Hollywood pinheads. That's a winner for me. Keep Hollywood and politics out of it and it's more enjoyable. Once you believe you're smarter or better informed than your audience, you've lost it.
Mayans M.C.: Perro/Oc (2018)
Boring!
I had high expectations. Yikes...so hard to give a rip. Boring...
Darkest Hour (2017)
Lacking & Disappointing
One, Churchill had no lisp in his speech. I found that lisp highly distracting. And Churchill's voice was much deeper. This actor had far too high pitched voice for my tastes. I also wish they crew had studied Churchill's speeches a bit more carefully. Other than that I found my mind wondering and thinking about other things - something I would not do if I found it engrossing.
The Killing Fields (1984)
Dated
When I first saw this movie I loved it. Now, 32 years later, it looks dated and I wonder why I liked it so much in the first place? This is Hollywood getting holier than thou again. And surprise, the enemy is the Khmer Rouge who are initially welcomed by the Cambodians. It turns out to be a, be careful what you wish for because you just may get it.
On the one hand Hollywood rarely, if ever, criticizes Communism. On the other hand, the film blames Nixon for the entire thing whereas the US involvement in Indochina was cranked up due to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Later the Communist Viet Cong / NVA soldiers would flee into Cambodia as a means of escaping US attacks. But that's Hollywood - judge, jury, and executioner.
The main issue I have though is the acting. It seems a bit forced and substandard the second time around. I'm not saying acting is better today, I am saying this was not top-shelf stuff.
Dunkirk (2017)
Not a Masterpiece but Okay
Wow, all the hype about this movie. And as history buff (mostly WW1) I couldn't wait for Dunkirk. However, I kept waiting for the epic bit that makes the film memorable or classic. It never came. Not only was Dunkirk not an epic, it wasn't entirely historical either.
Missing were the French army defending the city which enabled the other some 330,000 to evacuate. Missing were epic radio speeches from Churchill. This, in my opinion, would have sent chills down the spines of audiences. Churchill was a masterful speaker with a command of the English language never before or since seen. And missing were the fleets of boats - yes there were maybe 50-75 boats of all sorts, but if you're going to use an airplane CGI scene, it's not a stretch to use CGI to show the armada of boats going back and forth, the ports of England to the beaches of Dunkirk.
Other goofs I noticed were a scene where it seemed obvious that this was the filmmakers water line of demarcation. In other words, you can see lots of boats to the right of the camera but zero boats to the camera's left. Very obvious though I'm not looking for miscues, I just want to be entertained in the way the Longest Day entertained. When the tiny ships did arrive there should have been hundreds of soldiers wading into the waters towards the little boats...nothing in the film but a single soldier going where - to swim to England?
Also missing and very noticeable were soldiers firing their rifles at the Luftwaffe. All those armed soldiers on the beach and nobody firing a single shot at attacking Luftwaffe dive bombers (in the film)? Doesn't seem believable that an armed soldier would just stand and watch an enemy fighter come down on him and his comrades.
Dunkirk was a lot more than queues waiting to be rescued. The French army (mostly French and some British) fought ferociously to keep the Germans away from the beaches. The city was mostly reduced to ruins.
In the end, some 330,000 soldiers were evacuated, of which roughly 35- 40% were French. Most of the French went back to fight the Battle of France while some 3000 stayed in England to become the Free French Forces. That was lost on the filmmakers.
This was the opportunity to make the next Longest Day film. It missed badly though it is still an okay film - very watchable. But never in the course of human events on film has so much been lost by so few - in Hollywood.
My Honor Was Loyalty (2016)
Watchable
Despite other, accurate reviews on this board, I found the film watchable until the very end when I was to believe that a group of SS soldiers were just there to defend their homeland from being invaded by others. Really? If the average SS was only their to protect their homeland from the hordes, then they should have stayed home from 1933 on-wards. The Great Depression of 1929 was bad for everyone, not just the Germans. The German economy was built from the backs of slave labor and stolen lands and wealth from other neighbors of Europe. They took no pity on the Russian civilian nor his village or city. Nor did they have a micro-gram of mercy on many of their own people. And the SS more or less got away with it because of the cold war that followed. We know that most Germans were peaceful people and were led by the devil at that time. And that the victors do write the history. However, the German soldier, particularly the sadistic SS, took a personal oath to the devil himself. And if one did not recognize that after all the murdering then he should suffer the consequences. At the very end, the gull of the writer to have his female "victim" move to the United States after laying all the war guilt on others made me want to puke. Someone should slap the writer(s).
I give the film a 5/10 because it is somewhat watchable despite the valid criticisms of others. I did not expect Saving Private Ryan and really had no expectations before watching this on Netflix.
14 Tagebücher des Ersten Weltkriegs (2014)
Absolutely Brilliant!
The Great War Diary can be found on Netflix. It is tremendous. In English and can be seen with English subtitles. The 8-part series is not as in depth as many documentaries. In fact, this is more of a docudrama mixed with real, almost never seen footage of the First World War. I would recommend watching this series along with the series entitled, The First World War, to get a fairly good flavor, if you will, of the horrors of that world calamity. Both series do complement the other though the second is an excellent documentary.
The Great War Dairy encompasses a lot more of the Eastern front than The First World War documentary. Other than the disaster at Gillopoli, I don't believe that documentary covers much more of the Eastern war.
We all know how it comes out at the end - no winners, only losers.
The Man Left Behind (2012)
Return
An interesting documentary of a Vietnam veteran, a retired US Army colonel, who returns to Vietnam for the first time since 1968, when his unit, who were greatly outnumbered, was overrun by the North Vietnamese army at Lang Vei.
Colonel Paul Longrear, then a lieutenant, had several men in his command at the Lang Vei outpost when the Tet Offensive began. Lang Vei is significant in the history of the war because it was the first time the NVA used Soviet made tanks in battle.
This is the story of a young man with a troubled past who joined the army and found the structure that had eluded him for the first time in his life. It is the story of survival and how a young soldier, initially an agnostic, found God on the battlefield, met his former adversary, and looked for his missing men.
Completo (2009)
Right out of the Coen Brothers
A short gem of a movie - or is it a gem of a short movie? Ask and you shall be rewarded - only not in a way one would normally expect. Who would have thought delivering milk in the middle of Nowhere, Brazil could have its moments? Sometimes it does when two ordinary guys load up milk in what appear to be 5 gallon gasoline containers and travel about very rural Brazil to deliver their goods to their customers. This very watchable gem seems as though the Coen brothers wrote and directed this right out of No Country for Old Men.
I think the film, including the credits, are shorter than this review. Nevertheless, the story flows wonderfully and seamlessly. Just make your delivery, collect the money, and move on to the next customer. One customer, it seems, is just a bit delinquent with his account. And apparently he's a lot of trouble to collect from.
Adira (2014)
Not very believable
A story of a young woman who hides from the Germans after her family is sent off to a concentration camp. It's not very believable, nor very interesting. Not sure, really, how it got such high ratings. The woman's hair never grows though she's been living in an abandoned and dilapidated house in the middle of nowhere. She never gets dirty, nor grimy, though she lives in squalor. Her clothes are never tattered nor even frayed. The blanket she sleeps on is always washed. Then one day her hair is much longer.
One day the worst British paratrooper in the British army happens to wonder into her house. So after being on her own for years she looks fine (rosey cheeks, red lips, perfect hair and clean) but she takes his food and gives the impression she hasn't eaten properly for 3+ years. You only know the British soldier is a paratrooper from his maroon beret and English accent. Otherwise, there are no insignia's on his overcoat/cap/undergarments. By the way, only the Germans speak their native tongue. Everyone else is fluent in English as if it is his/her first language (filmed on location in Canada, perhaps?).
As for the costumes it looks more like the wardrobe department found the surplus uniforms at the local Salvation Army thrift store. It just looks as if something is wrong.
Aside from that, and given 1960s era TV filmed WW2 shows mostly in Southern California, I found myself looking for other titles to watch 30 minutes into the film. Over the course of 3 days I finally finished the film. 5/10
Kapringen (2012)
Now for something completely different
If you're expecting Hollywood, forget it. There is no cavalry to the rescue. The film takes place inside the cramped quarters of a small Danish freighter and a cramped conference room of the parent shipping company in Denmark.
The story opens with the CEO (Peter) of a Danish shipping company negotiating his way to successful deal with a Japanese firm which was nearly lost. After closing he lectures his sales director that the next time things turn sour to give him a heads-up long before crunch time. We are led to believe Peter is the master deal maker, which is why he is the CEO. Suddenly he finds his company's cargo ship has by pirated by Somali bandits in the Indian Ocean. Normally, one would think to call the authorities since pirating is an international crime not taken lightly. There are governments who've been forced to negotiate with terrorists for decades and have untold experience dealing with these psychopaths. For some reason Peter decides to do the negotiations himself and brings in an experienced consultant. I kept wondering, where is the Danish Navy or special forces? Dealing with criminals of the high seas is vastly different from negotiating with Japanese corporations. It is common sense. We see Peter counter with a very low- ball offer for the demanded ransom. The negotiations inch forward over nearly four months. Obviously the crew is anxious to go home. Only the cook is allowed to perform his regular duties on-board. A Somali pirate guards him and is armed with an AK-47. The pirates taunt the prisoners. They're constantly inserting a gun's barrel into the back of the head of some crew member. When the trigger is pulled the chamber is empty.
Later, after having his job threatened by a tired board of directors because these negotiations have dragged on for so long, Peter ups the ante. Over the months, the Somali pirates have come down from their initial demand of $15 million to $8.5 million while Peter has come up from $250,000 to $900,000. In the interim we believe the Somalis may have murdered the cook to force Peter's hand. Later we find he is alive but not well, as are none of the crew. At the last minute, against the advice of the consultant, Peter makes a final offer of $2.8 million to the Somali negotiator (Omar). Upon the advice of his staff, Peter tells Omar he has $500,000 of personal savings and he is willing to offer that as well, making his case for a final offer of $3.3 million. The Somalis agree. The money is dropped to the pirates at sea. They are about to leave when one Somali pirate shoots the ship's captain in the head over the cook's necklace. There is no justice meted out to these bandits of the high seas. Crime pays and people make mistakes because they don't always use common sense. And sometimes that can cost someone his life.
Ballada o bombere (2011)
Among the best
SPOILER ALERT: You've been warned.
Like others who've posted before me, I loved this series. I watched this as a TV series on Hulu. I was hooked from the first episode forward. The acting and writing are first rate. The subtitles follow the action - sometimes you find the subtitles are either wrong or not timed properly. This was not the case with the Hulu TV version. I do have to say when the dialog was in German, there was a Russian language translator speaking over the German language (you can hear both German and Russian) with English subtitles on the bottom. Nevertheless, it was not too distracting and did not take anything away from the film.
This is a story about a WW2 (aka The Great Patriotic War in Russia) pilot who becomes engaged and separated from his fiancé only to find he is ordered to drop a "package" to the Russian underground in the occupied parts of the Soviet Union. There is plenty of suspense and drama mixed in with a love story that moves at a nice pace. I was never bored or thinking this series is dragging.
Like others, I was completely surprised at the low rating when I looked it up on IMDb. It is far better than the surprising lower ratings. If there is something negative I'd say the special effects are not quite (but close) to some of the better special effects in either an English or American film. But it does not take anything away from the story.
Two Thumbs and Ten Toes Up!
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979)
Fried Fish
Giving this movie a 4.7 is overly generous. Imagine watching grass grow. That was more exciting and filled with a better plot than the Fish that Stunk Pittsburgh. Like a lot of other reviewers, I was also an extra in this boring movie. And I went to LA after the shooting and met some people who told me they'd change the name and you'll never recognize it after editing. Wrong. I was a college student at Pitt and there was a lot of hype and radio ads looking for unpaid extras. Not as many people showed up as you'd think. There were maybe enough people to fill only 1 part of 1 section of the Civic Arena. They shoved as many people into this 1 section to make it look like the arena was filled. And over and over again we had to act surprised or shocked at something, I don't remember what it was now. And that was the best part of being there. Otherwise it was horrible. You could tell the ball players were bored and everyone there was bored too. It was so bad nobody could stand it. Whoever paid good money to make this movie should have taken a page out of Night of the Living Dead, a low budget classic horror film made in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. The creatures could have eaten the director, the producer and everyone associated with that piece of trash, which would have made a better plot.
Don't Tell Santa You're Jewish! (2010)
Bad and stereotypical
Spoiler Alert ---- If you yearn your Political Correctness then you can keep your political correctness because this is for you...what? No "oye vay" in a Jewish cartoon? Oye Vay, whatsa Yiddisha girl to do? But thanks chhheaven there is an obligatory Yiddish word still there. Complete with a Canadian hockey mom with a weak Eastern European accent, this is a waste of 4 minutes. Stereotypical Jews is getting really, really, really old. It was really old in the 1970s and this is the end of 2013. Oye Vay! Happy Pagan Seasonal Winter Solstice Holidays Everyone (I might get booted from IMDb if I use the C-word). I have to add more words because there is 10 line minimum. Just made it. Whew!!!
Pain & Gain (2013)
Pain(ful to watch) & Gain(ful when you walk out early)
Based on the 7/10 score the reviewers gave on IMDb, I went to this travesty expecting to be entertained with good writing and acting. It was neither. Junior high school acting and a script that seemed to be written in less than 5 minutes were the foundation of Pain & Gain. The pain was me having to sit through this. My girlfriend fell asleep. 3 guys from a gym come up with a stupid plan to rip off a client. Then bumble their way through it. I think I've seen this at least 5 times in 3 Stooges shorts. At least Moe, Larry & Curly were funny. These 3 idiots were not though there were several moviegoers in the theatre who apparently have never seen the 3 Stooges. I couldn't take the stupidity, poor acting, and rotten script any longer. I walked out. You could do yourself one better and not go.
Ralphie May: Too Big to Ignore (2012)
Awful and not funny
The majority of his jokes are not funny. Some are outright stupid and juvenile. His agent must've turned on the laughing gas full blast over the audience. Either that or the video producers used a laugh track and video of a different audience. I kept trying to figure out why the audience was laughing at jokes that were not close to being funny. Sometimes they would just laugh in the middle of a stupid story. It made no sense. Don't waste your time. Speaking of which, watching the second hand of any clock spin around the dial might be better entertainment. I gave this video 2/10 only out of generosity for the not-funny comedians who need to find other work.
Side Effects (2013)
Michael Moore meets Alfred Hitchcock
I knew nothing about this movie and was fearful that it was another boring hate flick ala Michael Moore vs another evil American corporation. And for the first half of the film - or more - it was. I was sucked into the anti pharmaceutical part of the film - unintended side effects of a new anti depression pharmaceutical that went largely and sometimes intentionally unreported. I suspect half of that is probably true while the unintended consequence in this film was taken to the extreme. However, just when you thought you had pegged this movie, it twists as if Hitchcock were still behind the camera directing and rewriting the scripts. And then it twists again with a surprise ending that I won't give away. I was happily shocked by this film and though the the first half was stodgy and overly predictable, looking back it was probably done intentionally to draw the audience in to thinking this was just one of those anti something movies. And just then, it takes off and becomes a film worth watching. I gave this 7/10 only because it took a long time to make those wild turns and when it did, the film did so very abruptly. As it is, it is very good. You won't be disappointed when you walk out of the theater though during the first half of this you will think it's time to find something else to watch.
Grizzly Man (2005)
Grizzly Lunatic
You either have to be half out of your mind or you have some sort of narcissistic personality disorder to do what Treadwell did. Maybe both. For Timothy Tread-medium-well and his equally deranged girlfriend, have they never seen the many hundreds of television footage of people feeding alleged tame wild animals only to be "surprised" when the animal turns on them and becomes...wild? It should not come as a shock, at least to a normal, sane human being. No one should be shocked by the fact that Treadwell and girlfriend were both killed by a 6 1/2 foot, 760 lb. eating machine whose claws are as long as your fingers, maybe longer. And as you would expect, neither Timburger nor the girl bothered to do any real or imaginary research on the species they chose to live with. Surprised about that? You shouldn't be considering how these two behave among creatures known for the past 10,000 years to consume human flesh. All this film is, is a study in stupidity - period.
Katyn (2007)
Just a thought
OK, I may have a spoiler so beware!!! Anyway, if you're a history buff, especially of WWII, you probably already know the story behind the Katyn forest. Nevertheless, it occurred to me while watching this film that the Polish army was made up of about 8-10% Jews, which was roughly the equivalent percentage of the population. And if you've read first-hand accounts about German-held POWs at the very beginning of the war (for example, the Shoah project), then you realize that Polish soldiers underhandedly betrayed their Jewish (and Polish) brethren soldiers to the Germans in exchange for extra food, blankets, shoes, or what have you. Not all but enough did. There is no mention of this in the film. However, the film makes a point that the Polish POWs held by both the Germans and Soviets were Gentiles, probably Catholic. And while I'm not belittling what happened to pro-Western Polish partisans during both the German and the Soviet occupation of Poland, it seemed a little strange those that had influence in the film ignored that nearly every Jew in Poland was either murdered or, had they survived the war, emigrated to Israel after-wards. Therefore, one's neighbors' apartments were looted and taken over had they been owned by Jews of Poland. And while the plight of the families of those murdered by the Soviets at Katyn is no small tragedy, it really pales in comparison to that of Polish Jews. I understand that this is a story about Katyn. But the irony of course is that while some in Poland were no doubt happy about the Jews being deported and gassed, their Christian brothers, who happened to be their neighbors in Germany, occupied a predominantly Christian country (Poland) and brutally murdered very many Gentile Polish civilians as well. That is the irony that no one talks about. Just food for thought.
Era notte a Roma (1960)
I Just Don't Get What All the Excitement Is About
SPOILER ALERT (Shortened Review: Nowhere near the drama I was expecting):
I watched the 133 minute version on Netflix based on the positive reviews here. But after watching the film, and I don't care about the masterful, under-appreciated directing etc, I just want a good story and something to care about. It doesn't happen. The title led me to believe there was an escape from occupied Italy to somewhere in liberated Italy. This is World War 2 after all and the Germans had occupied Italy for some time after the Sicily invasion and the eventual Italian surrender to the Allies. Even the history is wrong. I don't believe the Germans held Soviet prisoners with the rest of the Allied POWs. Soviet POWs were used as slaves and worked to death. Almost none of the Soviet POWs returned alive after the war. But that is trivial to the plot of the movie. What is awkward is that none of the 3 former Allied POWs escapes - or at least the one who did escape just vanished and the audience is told he escaped. The POW escapees go out on some nights from their attic hide out and into the street on another occasion but that's it. Not really much of an escape for hardened veterans, and officers at that. There are a very few moments of drama when the film picks up. And miraculously, all the non-Italians learn fluent Italian by reading a book and hiding in a dreary attic of our beautiful Italian hero-ette. Even the Russian speaks decent Italian. I knew there was something hokey about the cast when the American POW kissed his Italian male acquaintance on the cheek. No American male would ever do that in an infinite number of centuries, let alone a soldier. The film just didn't flow enough for me and the story dragged with very few moments of drama. It's an above-average film but that's it.
The Longest Yard (2005)
Garbage
You know, you need 10 lines before they let you publish a review. Are there ten lines to describe garbage? I was overly generous by giving this a 2/10. All the time I wondered, "Were the writers stoned when they "wrote" this?" This movie is stupid and a rotten re-make of the original - -- unless you're in second grade. The original is so much better. Don't waste your time with the Adam Sandler version. Acting is second grade. Writing is second grade. And it is so predictable....yawn. You'll have a better time watching grass grow than watching this piece of trash. Better yet, watch the original Longest Yard with Bert Reynolds and Eddie Albert. The acting, directing, editing, filming, camera work, music, originality, story line, and absolutely everything else was better in the original Longest Yard than the remake. Other than that...