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.

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.

Very poor. Combine pure cheese with laughable acting and amateur action scenes. Painful to watch.

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Again, all respect for the historical references and the sacrifices that have been made at the time in the Great War.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

I gave this movie a decent rating for the the subject matter that is rarely addressed in this conflict, and the I believe, period correct uniforms and weps, but the execution left a lot to be desired. The enlisted personnel were borderline insubordinate in their dialogue with the officers. Especially, when Sgt. Perry first met Cpt. Rivers and he informed the sergeant of his mission.The battle scenes were some of the clearest and cleanest I have ever seen in a war movie. No blood, no shell casings, no debris, no smoke, no mud, no rats, nor rotting bodies in the trenches...there was even a scene where the machine gun feed belt stopped moving but the gun kept on spitting out bullets.. a technique that we have yet to duplicate in today's weapons. And, of course, the reconciliation of the races before the climatic battle scene....Cpt Rivers why are you digging foxholes while the black privates are standing around pretending to be perimeter guards a few feet away? The "fix bayonets" charge reminds of Jeff Daniels' boys in "Gettysburg". And yes, "Saving Private Ryan" theme music dances in my head after the battle is over and during the Captain's final scene (he even sits in a similar position as Tom Hanks). If you gonna imitate, imitate the best! Nice try and worth a watch.