Blood & Gold

It is an action-packed German film set in the chaotic backdrop of post-war Nazi Germany. It shares a similar style to the film "Inglourious Basterds" but on a smaller scale. Created by German filmmakers, it is incredibly entertaining and engaging. Every moment of the film is filled with thrilling action scenes. Each character has a prominent and compelling role, keeping the audience guessing about what will happen next. The comedy is sharp and satirical, adding an amusing and provocative twist to the Nazi narrative. The film also doesn't forget to address the plight of the Jewish people, but this time it is the work of German villagers themselves, a perspective not often seen in other films. It is an unexpected in the action genre on Netflix, and I highly recommend not to miss it!

For a 100 min long film, it felt much longer, especially after the first act, of which was the best. It set up the narrative nicely and suspensefully, but started to drag its feet by the second act, and then the third act just became riddled with cliches and ridonculous estrogen-filled girl power antics that were all too predictable. Although the score was adequate, the soundrack throughout became annoyingly loud, overbearing and out of place. It's like the director thought he was being fancy, when it was really more annoying than stylish. There were some great action scenes up until the third act, when everything became overzealous to the point of eyerolls and cringes. It's an ok one time watch if you're bored, but you wont be missing anything if you skip it altogether. It's a generous 6/10 for great cinematography and sets, and some decent acting and the few well-done action scenes.

This is straight up the plot from an old spaghetti western, complete with hangings, gold, a woman on the farm, and everything in between. Even the music, the font and color of the credits is an homage to the western movies of yesteryear telling the tale of one man versus many.

Now, change the setting from the Old West to the final days of WWII and you find yourself asking why is this not been done before? Add in some gratuitous violence and you'll be surprised how perfectly well the two ideas pair together and you won't be disappointed.

Comparisons to Tarantino are accurate but there's nothing wrong with that!

BLOOD & GOLD is a blackily comic action adventure about Nazis invading a small German village in a hunt for Jewish gold. It's unusual to see the Germans handling a subject matter they used to avoid like the plague, and I wasn't sure of the outcome, but rest assured this has the same kind of very European humour as many recent Scandi flicks. The Nazis are presented as dastardly comic book villains and much fun comes from seeing the various ways in which they're destroyed by our heroes. The film occasionally subverts tropes and keeps viewers on their toes, and the Down's Syndrome character is a great addition to the cast. A shame physical deformity is presented as monstrous (as per usual), but aside from that this is a pleasant surprise.

"Sisu" this is not. And that's very ok. Here, it's not one man against the Nazi; it's ordinary Germans against the Nazi - an army deserter, a woman, her brother, and some villagers. Oh, and there's gold.

Our protagonist, Private Heinrich, is just an ordinary soldier. Our other protagonist, Elsa, is just an ordinary farmer. And then the Nazis came to their village looking for gold.

The Good: People in this movie get hurt, they make mistakes. The action scenes are not too over the top. Some of the townspeople are bad, some are good. And the Nazis are all bad.

The Bad: There really isn't much that is bad with this movie. It knows what it is. It gives us the story and nothing more. The title tells us everything we need to know. Nearly perfect.