The Great War

Just skip the positive reviews, reading those for this movie is just a waste of time, actually just like watching this movie, just don't bother as there are tons of better war movies. The acting isn't good at all, below average, mediocre at best. The two names Ron Perlman and Billy Zane are just poster fillers, they have minor roles. But besides the acting it's the story that is really poorly executed, maybe it could have been something with a good director and better actors, but in this case it's pretty lame. The fighting scenes are just ridiculous, it just feels like somebody was filming a bad reenactment of a battle in the woods, or filming his friends playing paintball or so. If any of those characters would have served in the war they would be dead after one second. Just skip this movie, trust me it's not worth your time.

The Writer is the Director - if the two roles had been separate then one would have picked up on the many historical inaccuracies, particularly in the dialogue, where many of the phrases spoken are things that have been common language in the last decade, not 100 years ago. Other aspects, such as the over-familiarity between the ranks were simply not the way it was...

I understand why people are giving this movie straight 10 and not judging that but even dialogue between officer and soldiers feels off and too formal. I saw one enemy soldier dying with a smile on his face... Of course there are negatives but movie itself is still okay but there are some points which doesn't let you enjoy it as much as it could be done.

It's just a really bad remake of Saving Private Ryan. The bunker scene without the bunker, the same church scene without the church, the same first meeting of private ryan just without a tank, the same scene deciding to fight just without a rustic French village and if i'm not mistaken the same music and dialog. Obviously the writer/director would get a F if this was a school assignment which it looks like, but in the real world I'm surprised he hasn't been sued by Steven Spielberg.

I understand the importance of highlighting forgotten issues. And the effort made into doing so.

But honestly. This movie is really really bad.

So bad that it became funny.

A spectacled German sniper, just standing there, beside a tree. It made me spit out my coffee (okay okay, it was beer). German soldiers falling like flies with a few gunshots. Enemies meeting each other on a straight (!) path just staring at each other, then starting to shoot and charge. Blood that looks a lot like the ketchup I had earlier on my food.

Bates Wilder did a pretty good job though. Perlman and Zane... no idea what they were doing there.

Again, all respect for the historical references and the sacrifices that have been made at the time in the Great War.

But I'm looking at not just the message, but also at the movie.

And quite frankly, this movie sucks.