Jack Brown

Brief and concise, it is a stick of dynamite as film. Story is simple: how to take a German Hill although most of the men, in the French unit will die. Two senior Generals used the men as pawns. They decide to kill three men for cowardice for knowing full well the odds were against them. And the film begins there and ends there. But it shows the wickedness in high places and how ambitious men forget their humanity. Apart from the acting, the camera work and the gritty feel makes this a beautiful yet riveting and painful watch.

Apart from Eammon Walker, Star of OZ, and a real Londoner, the acting struggled. Script was derivative and the direction seemed amateurish.It was as if a bunch of sixth formers got together for A level drama, cobbled a story together about a foreign girl in a hole, on a mountain, and rescued by a group of mountaineers. Then,as an after thought, one of the students added, lets make her deaf,another said, "nah,let's make her unable to understand English..." Third chipped in, "yeh, let's put some baddies in the mountain too,with guns, and they start killing everyone like in the cowboys..." So, out of this half-baked porridge, you get this mess. Totally unappetizing, and a waste of a good evening. . play feel

I came,I saw, I was going to leave before it ended. But it grew on me,just. This film makes no sense,in the beginning, and I pressed the rewind button twice just to see if I was missing the early plots points. No use. Freeman is a fine actor with many weird film choices on his resume and Cusack is normally good. The plot is simple: dad trying to get some hiking time with his troubled son and they meet,in the woods, a man on the run from assassins. So three are now trying to escape the assassins. There's no depth,or deep character development and the usual hype about rogue military types now operating as hired mercenaries. Freeman's character both nasty and polite has no redeeming qualities,though he bonds with the son,a bit. It's all black and very white. Cusack and son were quite good but looked like they walked on to the wrong set,and Freeman was doing his best with the material,and made it watchable if predicatble nonsense.

Dark backdrops, shadows and light like in clasic Noir, leave a gritty almost documentary feel to this gripping yet slow paced film. Ebert gave in a 4/4 for its classic portrayal of the cowboy genre, but what adds nuance to it,is the subtle interplay of characters both morally and racially. Its works on a simple premise: good s good but bad is never really absent even from good men.

Bad film well acted. Guardian's Peter Bradshaw said it was absurdly unbelievable, and I agree. Wife framed for murder,imprisoned,and husband rescues her. That's the story. Neither music, nor British actors, add anything to it. It seems Hollwood likes to portray most detectives as black,but that's also a sign film has lost sense of fiction mimicking reality,and is moving into condescension. There's a lot of that here. However, women with a soft touch for love and devotion, might give it a 5, but I give it a 2. This is just a drab and boring film like the Piitsburg where it's set.

Van diesel was best actor . He died too soon,a thing that happens too often with pretty tanned skinned actors.

If you ever tuned in to a film near the end,and regret missing the beginning, that's how this film feels from the start. Pendatic sounding medical terms and Pentagon jargon add to the confusion. Acting is,however,excellent,though the plot is contrived, and even gnostic. What I understood was CIA are into corrupt activities again, and are working with top chemists to make mind- controlling drugs for their operatives. Jason Bourne is one of the Special Ops,but he's missing here, and just mentioned by name. But a fellow Operative has an enlighting experience, and wants to know who drugged him,and why. He decides to get to one of the chemist working in the lab before the CIA kill her. He finds her,saves her,and both go on an exotic journey to find the head lab, while dodging bullets and assassins. That's the plot in a nutshell, but padded out with trendy locations, and beeping sounds of Hitech. In this Post-Coronavirus World, with the Wuhan conspiracies still alive, the film will be relevant to first time viewers. As with source of the pandemic itself, it will keep them guessing until the end.

Watched this bitter-sweet masterpiece as a kid in 70s. Did not understand much. But between throwing Action Men behind the Christmas Tree, I'd freeze, turn around, look at the TV and get lost in the imagery of real war, brutality and death. Adding to this Wagnerian tragedy is the opening theme score, and the voice of Laurence Olivier, shockingly matter-of fact in tone, but conveying a heavy sadness at the cruel banality of War. Christmas 2019, here I am and still struck by the beauty and authenticity of this warning from history!

20 minutes in, I wasn't sure where I was going, but I sensed I was going into the deep. I thought: Surprise after surprise, Lee has even put Trump in there.... But it doesn't stick. Film is all over the place,despite the excellent acting.Any film trying to capture the black experience of Vietnam must, like new boxer, take on the Champ of Dead Presidents. Spike lost the fight,for me, when he put 70 year old men in the flashbacks rather using younger actors to capture their teenage years in the war, an editing move that was foolish.

Terrific little movie,and Naomi,from my area of Isligton,in North London, was the initial attraction. She is an A class actress and shines in everything she's in. Nothing unusual in the story: bent cops, the real gangsters, exploiting the poor and the conditions created by politicians (another kind of dangerous gang,so to speak). A good cop,Naomi's character, witneses police murdering drug dealers. She has it filmed,and this sets the basis for the chase, as they hunt her down for the film recording. Aside from the banal aspects of the plot,the film's gripping tension between survival and the racial tensions turned a pedestrian script into an exciting movie. From supporting cast to main actors, everyone shined.Naomi playing a rookie female cop, from a New Orleans hood, was credible, and she brought the right balance of hopeful optimism touched with regret. A black female cop, with a social conscious, hints at the divided loyalties in the title. Entertaining and solid drama, and one of the best on Netflix at the moment. .