The Freedom Of The World Rests On "Dunkirk"

Dunkirk (2017)

Rated PG-13

Starring Fionn Whitehead, Damien Bonnard, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh,

Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan

The Story:

Late May 1940, the Allies have been pushed out of Europe and now are desperately bunched up on the beaches of Dunkirk awaiting transportation back to England. Thankfully, Hitler decides to stop the advancement of tanks on their location and this gives the Allies the small window to charter boats (and lots of them!) to cross the channel and save the troops. They hope to get a small fraction out... they end up saving them all.

For those that failed to read up on their history, this is indeed based on the true story of a pivotal moment that saved Europe from completely falling under Hitler's relentless march.

Nolan's three-headed tale bounces between land, sea, and air to show different people trying to escape death or heading straight into it to save lives.

It's a good film, but I didn't find it nearly as great as much of the hype that followed it.

Best war movie ever? That's pretty lofty praise.

I would argue that it wasn't even the best war movie of last year. I'd give that title to yesterday's film that I reviewed, Darkest Hour. They even touch on the Dunkirk evacuation, and I felt in the brief moment of that mission, they almost conveyed it in a better scope than the entirety of this film.

But that's just me, feel free to judge for yourself.

Final Grade: B

Against All Odds..."Into The White"

Into The White (2012)

Rated R

Starring Florian Lukas, David Kross, Stig Henrik Hoff, Lachlan Nieboer, Rupert Grint

Directed by Petter Naess

The Story:

In the early days of World War II, the Allies and Nazis were hoping to gain access to the mineral deposits in Norway. As both sides waged aerial battles for dominance, on one mission, a German bomber is shot down as well as a British aircraft. The 3 Nazis (Lukas, Kross, Hoff) find an abandoned cabin to wait for the weather to die down and allow them to march back to the sea. The next day two British (Niebor, Grint) arrive and are taken prisoner. To survive the elements, and each other, both sides will need to work together to outlast a severe Norwegian storm.

Yes, it's based on a true story.

Not nearly an action or war film, it's a drama about 5 men who are thrust together in a desperate situation and forced to survive.

As the time in the cabin stretches, so do the nerves of the men as they must put aside their differences if they have any hope of survival.

This keeps the movie running at a slow pace, though it does attempt to keep you riveted as the situation becomes more and more desperate and the men become less hostile to one another.

Naturally, there will be a few curveballs thrown at everyone along the way.

Humanizing the faces of war, you'll find these are likely the 3 "best" Nazis to appear on screen in likely forever.

Nice to see this true story of men overcoming the element and each other brought to the screen.

Final Grade: B-

Righting History's Wrongs..."Woman In Gold"

Woman In Gold (2015)

Rated PG-13

Starring Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Bruhl, Katie Holmes, Tatiana Maslany, Max Irons

Directed by Simon Curtis

The Story:

Maria Altmann (Mirren) decides after the passing of her sister that she should attempt to reclaim a painting of her aunt that was stolen by the Nazis during WWII. The problem, it's been hanging in a museum in Austria for decades, and they aren't interested in giving it back. She enlists a young lawyer (Reynolds) to help her. The two set out on an uphill battle to reclaim what was stolen from them decades earlier.

Here's a sweet little movie that's base on a true story.

Through flashbacks that show Maria (Maslany) attempting to escape the Nazis after they invaded Austria, the viewers get to know her and her family's story.

That the portrait of her aunt was stolen by the Nazis is criminal, what the Austrian government did with the painting in the decades that followed was genuinely unforgivable as well.

That's where this movie shines, in the David vs. Goliath scenarios where they take on the Austrian government to correct this historical inaccuracy.

I wanted to like this movie more than I did, but the pacing of the film is a bit on the slow side, which is saying something for a movie that goes past the 90 minute mark of most movies but falls short of the 2 hour running time for most dramas.

Still an enjoyable movie to say the least, and the performances are very well done, which is always the case with Mirren. It's nice, if odd, to see Reynolds as a bit of a timid nerd who doesn't have the snarky comebacks that we've come to expect of Ryan Reynolds, or any character played by Ryan Reynolds.

Plus, I know I badmouth other films for excessive use of language which makes movies that could be PG-13 into R rated films, so I would like to commend the writers/director here for dropping only 1 f-bomb in the movie, and when it hits, it resonates. You can feel the frustration of the character.

That's how language is supposed to work, and shows how effective a good script that doesn't consider profanity as necessary as nouns and verbs can be.

Bravo.

Final Grade: B

The "Fury" Of War

Fury (2014)

Rated R

Starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Pena, Logan Lerman, Jon Bernthal

Written and Directed by David Ayer

The Story:

Army Sergeant "Wardaddy" (Pitt) takes his Sherman tank and his crew deep into the heart of Nazi Germany during the end of World War II on a daring mission.  Everyone dies.

The end.

This is one of the most disappointing war films I've seen in quite some time.

It's bloody.
It's violent.
It's...

boring.

Didn't care for this one in the least.

At least Saving Private Ryan had interesting characters to care about as they were picked off one by one.

This one, you knew they were pretty much all cannon fodder early on, and they just drug it out to the end of the film.

They kill lots and lots of people along the way, but after awhile, even killing Nazis gets old.

That's a sentence that I never imagined typing.

I expected more. Or better. Or something.

Maybe next time.

Final Grade: C-

There's Something Dangerous on the Dark Side of the Moon... "Iron Sky"

 

 

There is nothing new coming out of Hollywood...

But over in Finland....

The Story: 

At the end of World War II, the Nazis fled to the Dark Side of the Moon.  There they have been patiently waiting and building the ultimate weapon for their eventual return to the Earth as conquerors.  In the year 2018, the President is trying to figure out a way to win re-election.  Her idea?  Head back to the moon, this time with a black astronaut.  He's captured, turned white, and...

But wait, why spoil it?

: )

So what's harder to accept?  Space Nazis or Palin as President? 

Both are equally far-fetched, but one made for much more interesting premise than the other. 

The satire against Palin and the Tea Party Republicans is handed its head by showing how easily the Nazi ideals are adopted by the party to ensure a winning re-election campaign.

That said, the Nazi moon invasion is actually the strength of the film.

It's an amazingly amusing premise, but one that is sold so believably, you just kick back and enjoy the film. 

The actors, aside from one, I had never seen or recognized from anything else I've ever seen.  Yet all were competent in their abilities and did not drag this "B" movie into grade "Z" schlock-ville.

No, even the Special Effects are given their just due in the film, and it plays like a big budget versus a SyFy channel low budget affair.

It was amusing throughout with an occasional zinger to punctuate the whole affair.  Switching effortlessly between English and German with appropriate subtitles, the film never misses a beat.

Good stuff, and much more enjoyable than I was expecting.

 

Available to stream instantly as of this writing on Netflix.

Final Grade: Solid B... could be higher.

Would I Own It: You know, if I find it at the right price, I could see shelling out for this one.  Hopefully Hollywood will start coming up with their own crazy ideas soon enough?