Queen & Country

Writer/director John Boorman set a high standard for his war memoirs with his beautifully scripted and acted HOPE & GLORY in 1987. That original bears little resemblance to this off center amateurish sequel QUEEN & COUNTRY. We wonder where the wonder went.

In the hilarious highlight of HOPE AND GLORY 9-year-old Bill Rohan rejoices in the destruction of his school by an errant Luftwaffe bomb. QUEEN & COUNTRY picks up the story nearly a decade later as Bill - Boorman's alter-ego - (Callum Turner) begins basic training in the early Fifties, during the Korean War. Bill is joined by a trouble-making army mate, Percy (Caleb Landry Jones). They never get near Korea, but engage in a constant battle of wits with the Catch-22-worthy, Sgt. Major Bradley (David Thewlis). Richard E. Grant is their superior, the very, very, infinitely put-upon, aptly-named Major Cross. The boys begin noticing girls (Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Vanessa Kirby – Bill's sister - and Tamsin Egerton) but that does little to help this thin plot.

Boorman is responsible for it all and though it has a few nice moments, it is a cake that falls.