Nicholas Tier

Sorry: I know this won truckloads of awards, but it didn’t work for me. Depressing, and didn’t really seem to go anywhere. Wasn’t sure I believed in the characters: and some of the “Irishness” of it seemed cliche-ridden and to be taking the mick (pun intended) out of simple, Irish islanders. One star for the beautiful filming: but when it finished, I’m afraid my first thought was “well: that’s 2 hours of my life I’m not getting back”. A bit “Emperor’s new clothes”: everyone who “knows” (critics, etc) loves it: so it must be great. But not for me…..

Cannot understand why anyone would rate this anything other than one star. Predictable, plodding schtick. Holes in the overall plot; overly-convenient coincidences; stereotypical characters delivering platitudes. I fully expected (and very much wanted) to love this movie: the story of black soldiers being sent out to fight for a country that didn't respect them, against a foe with whom they had a lot more in common, is a fascinating and rich topic for a film maker. And the use of the music and the visuals from the time was interesting. But I was terribly disappointed. I watched "Dolomite is my Name" about a month ago, and halfway through this I realised that it reminded me completely of the films they were making then. In a very early scene, a chopper is downed: white pilot and gunner killed immediately; only other white soldier on board shortly afterwards; none of them mourned or mentioned again. Vietcong (seemingly not bothered about taking any sort of cover) killed in numbers by remaining 5: despite still clearly outnumbering them, they simply run away: no attempt at flanking or just waiting for the GIs ammo to run out. The crashed plane looks like it has been down for several days, and is already surrounded by VC: so how come the box of gold (which only requires a shot to unlock the padlock) not only survived the crash intact, but has been left there and not looted already? All these in the first 10 minutes of the film starting. I watched until the end, and was left with a deep sense of frustration. Spike Lee has done some wonderful films, authentically showing the anger and desperation felt by the black community in America. I so wanted this to be another one, but I thought it was truly awful. However, looking around at other reviews, it seems I am very much in the minority. What did I miss....?

Brilliant season one - with a couple of slightly weaker episodes. Season two’s opener was incredible: enough nods to Star Wars fans, but with an excellent sense of timing, and a strong plot line. And as for the last 10 seconds: just AMAZING!!!