marchusweller
This was an awesome independent film, really well made and well acted. I loved the story absolutely original and well thought out. The lead Tino Struckmann did a fantastic job leading this film, a great supporting cast, some well known faces compliments Struckmann's performance. But Struckmann belongs in great studio films to really shine and when Hollywood gets a look at him, I know he will get a chance to be a great star. Great movie, if you are a war film fan you must see. I absolutely do not understand some of the negative reviews they are definitely not merited. it is not Saving Private Ryan but on an Indie budget its pretty damn good.
miklank
I read the reviews after hiring this movie and decided not to even bother watching it. However I was doing some other work on my PC and put the movie on. I was surprised to find the movie to be interesting with a good story and the character of the German Captain especially was interesting and well acted. The story of the dangers of the Russians - Soviet Union - to the world is a story that needs to be told and retold. There were some poor special effects at times including trees not showing bullet damage when being shot at but ignore the minor errors caused by low budget movies relying on CGI effects and missing some of the realism but concentrate on the story and characters which are quite decent. This movie is not a dud at all and is an above average movie. I think that most viewers, both male and female, can enjoy an interesting story about a group of different characters coming together to escape from evil and to tell the truth about what a totalitarian society was doing. The movie showed both the Nazis and the Russians to be evil - a very real truth that was ignored by Western Governments at the time. I have now added this movie to my 7,500 movie collection and given it 4 stars out of 5..
Marlonius
I picked this up for $5 from the Bargain bin at Walmart. It had the low/no budget vibe all over it – I didn't recognize a single name, or production company. It also had a very ambitious plot description and box art, replete with many, many airplanes.I'm a big war movie fan, and I also have made or participated in the making of several local amateur projects. I was curious to see what these guys had achieved with their efforts and ingenuity. Would it be a low budget WWII gem like Keith Gordon's "A Midnight Clear", or would it be unadulterated crap? As I often do, when I got home, I logged onto IMDb here and saw the reviews, noticing that most, if not all were bad, and actually quite hostile toward the filmmakers. This surprised me as surely anyone else who bought or rented this should have reached the same conclusions as I did before doing so, and decided to view it regardless. So, I'm going to try my best to give it an honest and fair review.Spoilers Below: The plot itself is not bad per-se. The bones and major plot points are actually pretty well thought out and plausible too. It centers around the closing days of WWII, and the Russian defeat of the German army in Poland, and the eventual occupation of East Germany. A British officer observer with the Russians becomes suspicious of the Russians motives, and as the viewer we learn that they have no intention of leaving "liberated" Poland free in the Post War world order, nor Germany. Meanwhile, the main German guy, for reasons I already forget, finds himself behind the Russian lines and witnesses them murdering the Polish Government officials. The British guy and the German guy team up to escape the Russians and try to evade capture while contacting either the English or American front lines to warn them of the Russian treachery. Along the way they learn to trust each other a bit because they're both Masons, and they also end up with a Polish nurse along for the ride.The viewer's knowledge of Post WWII world events supports the plot, and I had no problem with the overall idea.However, it is fairly amateurishly executed. I'm sure a lot of the issues were due to financial constraints, but there was also a fair bit of awkwardness and poorly thought out moments in the script. The frequent refrain of the script is that the "Russians are coming", but in spite of that, the main characters seem to be able to wander through the woods without ever meeting a front line, and only seem to have to avoid enemy soldiers who are wandering through the woods as well.The whole "Mason" storyline seemed tangential to the story, and was barely exploited as they could have. I wondered why it was in there at all, and speculate that perhaps some funding for the picture came from a lodge or 2 that maybe the filmmakers are affiliated with. Not sure about that one though.With such a stilted script, the acting isn't great either. However, I would like to mention that I thought the kid who played the young German soldier, Emile, did a good job.The music is pretty well composed, but mixed in pretty homogeneously over the whole plot, and is often inappropriate to the action on the screen. Plus it was hard to make out the dialogue during many of the scored scenes.On the plus side, it was a very, very ambitious project, and the filmmakers managed to pull off quite a bit of action with what must have been a very tight budget. They have several tanks, including what looked like a period correct Russian T-34. I was frankly shocked by how much hardware they managed to gather in one place.The uniforms, weapons and artillery all looked very good and seemed well researched. I'm pretty sure that the small arms fire was all CGI effects, but it was reasonably well done, as was the limited (i.e. not overused) tracer fire. The bullet hits on the soldiers seemed to be CGI as well, and I expect that that was done to expedite filming and also to avoid putting holes in what was probably a finite amount of uniforms used over and over. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by how much bang for the buck they got on the screen. There were even a few airplane scenes that were again discretely used CGI.They might have been able to enhance the scale of the battles by some clever split-screen multiplication of their numbers of actors and tanks, but besides that observation, it was as I said well done for what I'm sure was a musicale budget.Finally, the line by the German that he knew no English besides "A few swear words and the lyrics to Chattanooga Choo-Choo", was a brilliant bit of writing and made me laugh out loud, both at how funny it was, but also how real it felt.Anyhow, that's my review. It wasn't a great movie, but I went in with my eyes open and still managed to be impressed by what they managed to accomplish. I will say that I'm sure that all involved in its making worked their butts off, and I admire them for getting it done and released.
arnsvensson
A few poster seems to have problems that at the beginning of the film some Germans are using Russian weapons, and Russian use German tanks. One even made a comment about the Germans call it a panzer. And for this call it an unrealistic militarily and a joke. Well...About the history, plot, characters performance, etc, I leave for others to judge. But a simple note regarding uses of weapon.1. It's a well know fact, that the Germans and Russians used each others weapon during the WWII. Especially at the end of the war it become more and more usual. Both the Finish and Germans repainted the Russian tanks and used them. Just as the Russians repainted captured German tanks, etc... For you non belivers regarding this, I suggest you take a visit to a WWII museum in Finland or even better the fantastic tank museum outside Moscow, Russia... Enough said! 2. What's so funny that the Germans calls a tank a panzer? Panzer happens to be the German word for a tank. Panzer Division, etc.So claiming this movie is historical wrong, well yes it have it's flaws. But does it claim to be based on true story or actually events? Even the sun have it's dark spots, and movies like Enemy at the Gates and Saving Private Ryan that some praise, are surely more fiction then facts just as well, and they surely have their own flaws. But who cares, they are both damn good movies. For you WWII fanatics I recommend the movie "Talvisota" (possible buy with English subtitle).
