Touching story. However, the movie only truly succeeds in its most violent scenes, and even then I don't know if it was successful because its excessiveness or worse for it. The first half was forced and without passion; the middle, or rather the first battle scene, was one of the most intense moments of a war movie that I've ever seen; and the final act mirrored that of the first half more or less. A lot of weird casting choices. Like Vince Vaughn wrf??? Andrew Garfield was decent, but fit the part rather well.
I agree with most of the critical comments here, and was by no means blown away by this movie, but reading what you guys are saying, I feel I need to jump in and defend ol' Vince here.
He gets a lot of shit every time he's in something serious, but I personally haven't seen him fail yet. True Detectives second season, while certainly bad, didn't fall apart because of Vince. On the contrary. Same with Hacksaw. One of the few things it managed to pull of really well was humor. Vince Vaughn introduced some genuinely fun moments from an otherwise stern character. I think it was very well balanced.
Generally I dislike it when audiences have difficulty disassociating actors from previous roles. It's the same with Jim Carrey. I get why it can be hard, but I definitely wouldn't say poor casting. Vince worked in this role, and if you felt that his previous roles worked against him, I believe thats on you as an audience, not on the casting director.
This is of course assuming that's what didn't work.
This movie is worth watching once for the first battle sequence...But overall it's borderline laughable. It's a shame Gibson was behind the camera here, his inability to draw sincere emotions from his actors and his dependence on dated, on the nose storytelling techniques left me feeling I would have enjoyed an hour long special on tv about Doss rather than this film. It's right on the cusp of being a complete mess.
Inspiring true story...but the movie left me cold. The first half was very predictable and the war half was gruelling but very well made. It just didn't move me at all with too many religious methaphores.
It sure seems near impossible to make neutral war movies. Not to say that Mel Gibson ever even thought of making one, but this one in all of its absurdity has to be one of the worst war movies I've ever seen.
Oh joy, give me all the cliches, immediately as we enter the war zone, we are treated with the classic injured/dead soldiers passing the new patch of soldiers so I kinda figured it's going to be a shitshow from that moment on and, lo and behold, once again the enemy (in this case the glorious IJA) are depicted as a mindless horde of evil, until that one forced cliche moment where we are reminded that; "They are humans after all." This is how you tell a moving story People, take notes, Uncle Mel is in town!
But at least the battle scenes are realistic and gritty, right... RIGHT?!!?!?! Sure thing, nothing more realistic than a man picking up half a torso and using it as a shield while wielding BAR in one hand and mowing down them orcs, I mean Japs. I'm so happy, thanks again Gibsy!! :):):):)
But let's get to the BEST of the BEST. The wonderful Christian propaganda. I guess this was made as the spiritual successor to Passion of the Christ, because I can't explain all the bullshit any other way. Only thing missing were the filthy Jews spitting on the main character. There are scenes upon scenes of pure cancer, whether it's the scene where he washes away his sins after his heroics or the ending where he is almost literally hoisted to the heavens as a saint, there's no subtlety to be found in this movie, just cancer, pure unadulterated cancer.
If only I could go back in time to the days of Lethal Weapons and casual bigotry, Mel-Mels two strong points.
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Comments 1 - 15 of 31
RockHopper92
An amazing true story of bravery and conviction told through a cliche ridden, eye-roll inducing movie.God
i rolled my eyes so many times during this movie i thought at one point they were gonna pop outbalaclava
War is horrible, Andrew Garfield runs like NarutoSlylingual24
Touching story. However, the movie only truly succeeds in its most violent scenes, and even then I don't know if it was successful because its excessiveness or worse for it. The first half was forced and without passion; the middle, or rather the first battle scene, was one of the most intense moments of a war movie that I've ever seen; and the final act mirrored that of the first half more or less. A lot of weird casting choices. Like Vince Vaughn wrf??? Andrew Garfield was decent, but fit the part rather well.thekure23
I agree with most of the critical comments here, and was by no means blown away by this movie, but reading what you guys are saying, I feel I need to jump in and defend ol' Vince here.He gets a lot of shit every time he's in something serious, but I personally haven't seen him fail yet. True Detectives second season, while certainly bad, didn't fall apart because of Vince. On the contrary. Same with Hacksaw. One of the few things it managed to pull of really well was humor. Vince Vaughn introduced some genuinely fun moments from an otherwise stern character. I think it was very well balanced.
Generally I dislike it when audiences have difficulty disassociating actors from previous roles. It's the same with Jim Carrey. I get why it can be hard, but I definitely wouldn't say poor casting. Vince worked in this role, and if you felt that his previous roles worked against him, I believe thats on you as an audience, not on the casting director.
This is of course assuming that's what didn't work.
dajmasta94
This movie is worth watching once for the first battle sequence...But overall it's borderline laughable. It's a shame Gibson was behind the camera here, his inability to draw sincere emotions from his actors and his dependence on dated, on the nose storytelling techniques left me feeling I would have enjoyed an hour long special on tv about Doss rather than this film. It's right on the cusp of being a complete mess.CYF
Ok, then I'll be the first to say it: why didn't the Japs cut the ropes?fredalme
Rich Story, Poor filmaking.Earring72
Inspiring true story...but the movie left me cold. The first half was very predictable and the war half was gruelling but very well made. It just didn't move me at all with too many religious methaphores.Paulorsadv
Heavy handed directionynrozturk
What's with all the Christian propaganda? Absolutely destroyed the movie for me. Tone it down a little, holy shit.chunkylefunga
It was ok but will never compete with the classic war movies that we all know and love.Vince Vaughn was poor casting,
der Zorn Gottes
It sure seems near impossible to make neutral war movies. Not to say that Mel Gibson ever even thought of making one, but this one in all of its absurdity has to be one of the worst war movies I've ever seen.Oh joy, give me all the cliches, immediately as we enter the war zone, we are treated with the classic injured/dead soldiers passing the new patch of soldiers so I kinda figured it's going to be a shitshow from that moment on and, lo and behold, once again the enemy (in this case the glorious IJA) are depicted as a mindless horde of evil, until that one forced cliche moment where we are reminded that; "They are humans after all." This is how you tell a moving story People, take notes, Uncle Mel is in town!
But at least the battle scenes are realistic and gritty, right... RIGHT?!!?!?! Sure thing, nothing more realistic than a man picking up half a torso and using it as a shield while wielding BAR in one hand and mowing down them orcs, I mean Japs. I'm so happy, thanks again Gibsy!! :):):):)
But let's get to the BEST of the BEST. The wonderful Christian propaganda. I guess this was made as the spiritual successor to Passion of the Christ, because I can't explain all the bullshit any other way. Only thing missing were the filthy Jews spitting on the main character. There are scenes upon scenes of pure cancer, whether it's the scene where he washes away his sins after his heroics or the ending where he is almost literally hoisted to the heavens as a saint, there's no subtlety to be found in this movie, just cancer, pure unadulterated cancer.
If only I could go back in time to the days of Lethal Weapons and casual bigotry, Mel-Mels two strong points.
airi86ja
memorable & truly inspiringKaramAkerfeldt
Maybe the worst war film I've seen. Cliche-ridden and full of stereotypical characters. I wish I could give it two 'dislikes'.Showing items 1 – 15 of 31