bgdavenport

If you enjoy the police duo genre in the vein of Rush Hour and Bad Boys, you are going to love this one!

Though not as "in your face" funny as Rush Hour or laden with crash scenes as Bad Boys, it nonetheless pleases on a much more subtle, homage-laden level than either of its predecessors. If you are a hockey fan, you'll enjoy the character parodies and other references. But, as hockey-impaired as I am, I loved the class of cultures the movie represented.

A stand-out scene for me was when the duo meets with the Quebec M.E., "Jeff the Coroner," masterfully and hilariously played by, Louis- José Houde. I stopped the movie and replayed it just to see if I could follow the ripping medical soliloquy the actor delivers which reminded me of Jimmy Cagney in his final movie, "1,2,3."

There is a sequel coming out in May of 2017 which I will not miss!

Etheral like Thin Red Line, but grounded like saving Private Ryan. The movie is more of a poem or an ode to the soldier who fights for his loved ones in and out of uniform.

For the military crowd, the equipment used is quite authentic. Even the ersatz Panther looks good. There are some inaccuracies, but that is to be expected.

I found it to be engaging and realistic in the examination of a soldier's motives. The action sequences at the unit level were well orchestrated, and the window into the emotions of a combat soldier were authentic and treated with great respect. But, the sequences did not have the same gut level of intensity that we have come to expect. Even though the viewer is at ground level, immersed in the action, there seemed to be a level of emotional detachment that is mirrored throughout the story by the main character.

The sound design was a bit off-putting. It was obvious that the dialog in the field was ADRed in the studio which, again, added to the level of detachment I sensed. But, the sounds of battle were well done and authentic, and the narration was very appropriate, with the protagonist whispering at times when it was necessary to "be quiet."

I was a bit confused by the ending which means I need to watch it again and pay closer attention to the characters. And, I will gladly do that.

Laughable movie. Good CG, but someone did not do their history lesson. While B-17s did operate out of Africa, there were nowhere near the numbers the movie shows. Heck, there weren't that many in Europe at the time! The aircraft depicted are the wrong model and are sporting European camouflage schemes, not North African schemes. Crews in Africa did not walk around in sheep skin flight clothing during the day and it is near freezing at night in the desert. At the operating altitudes of the B-17s and B-24s, the temperatures are at or near 50 degrees below zero. No one is wearing light flight clothing. They are festooned in electrically heated flight suits and flak gear. No one is eating or drinking anything because it would be frozen.

In the aerial combat scenes, weapons are fired in bursts for a number of reasons. And, there is no such thing as a P-40 Warhawk dogfighting a Bf-109; the former was hopelessly outclassed by the later. In the more recent movie, "Redtails," there is a reason the black fighter units were employed only as ground support and not fighter escort. The P-40 was incapable of doing the job as fighter to high-altitude bombers.

I could go on. Basically, this movie is a video game in which you have no control. But, the crew interaction was well done.