Condor's Nest

Right, well I have to admit that I hadn't heard about this 2023 movie titled "Condor's Nest" from writer and director Phil Blattenberger prior to sitting down to watch it. And I wasn't exactly harboring much of any high hopes for the movie, as the movie's synopsis and cover wasn't exactly screaming top notch entertainment.

However, I opted to watch the movie and give writer and director Phil Blattenberger the benefit of the doubt.

And color me impressed, because "Condor's Nest" turned out to be rather enjoyable and entertaining. The storyline was far better than I had initially feared, and an interesting character gallery definitely helped bring the movie to life on the screen.

They also had a good cast ensemble of actors and actresses on the cast list. And I will say that the performances in the movie were quite good.

Visually then "Condor's Nest" was an okay movie. But luckily it was not a movie that was depending on having an array of over-the-top special effects. Whatever effects were in the movie served their purpose quite well.

What really was good here, was the fact that the Germans actually spoke German. I loathe it when you watch something where it is just English with a thick caricature accent slapped on top of it. Having the Germans actually speaking German just adds a whole layer of credibility to the movie.

I was genuinely entertained and surprised with "Condor's Nest". And it is a movie that is well-worth spending 102 minutes on watching.

My rating of "Condor's Nest" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Just like his previous film, Blattenberger has put together something that looks like it was filmed on a sony handy cam, littered with actors from his local improv class. Unfortunately, it looks like most of the budget was spent on casting Vosloo, Jorge Garcia, and Bruce Davison, and because of that it's cast a large, permanent stain on all of their acting careers. To go from an Oscar nomination, to playing any part in this abomination is nothing short of career ending for Bruce Davison, no matter how well he portrayed his own character.

The pacing is slow, the acting is awful, and the image quality, grading, editing, etc all looks very amatuer. If you go into this expecting what it is at face value, you may enjoy it. And what it is at face value is an extremely low budget, high school film class project. If you expect anything further than that, especially after seeing the 3 previously mentioned actors on the cast, you will be horribly disappointed.

I'd skip this film, as well as Point Man, and opt for something by a reputable director, and studio, if you value your time.

If Paramount Pictures places a movie in theaters there's some expectation of size and scale, especially for a movie that bills itself an action-thriller, but Condor's Nest falls short.

Story: 6/10. Nothing original here, a very standard revenge story that gets a few extra points for surprising me at times.

Performances: 7/10. This is the movie's strong point. Arnold Vosloo makes a great baddie. Newcomers Al Pagano and Corinne Britti bring deeply-needed color to an otherwise grim spectacle. Michael Ironside and Jorge Garcia have surprise cameos that drive the story along even if they aren't particularly memorable.

Production: 3/10. Perhaps expectations were too high, but I had a hard time believing the car chase was real, that the plane was really crashing, that we were really in the 1950s. The cinematography is on point but even that can't save it from low-budget malaise.

Final score 5/10.

This began like some of the better WWII flicks and captured our attention. There is intrigue as we ferret out the plot. But somewhere in the middle it degenerated into too much soap opera, with the realization that there was a writers' addiction to regular and over-used pistol-to-the-head killing. The wife quit and left for bed halfway through. I should have, but hoped it would wash out better... it didn't.

There was some good acting, but the overall movie sank, especially near the end where the main character gets hold of a heavy gun and starts killing dozens of bad guys, bad guys with automatic rifles, and that are dumb enough to keep incessantly running into the open in front of him, as comrades fall under their feet.

As realistic and engaging as this thing started, it sure degraded into just another lousy unrealistic shoot ''em up by its finish.

I'll start on a couple of positive notes.

There are two good things about this movie: 1) It's in color, and 2) It ended.

I'd say about 33% of this film is people being held at gunpoint, 33% is people being shot in the head, and the final third is people yelling at each other.

There's one long stretch with Heinrich Himmler (who here looks like a dead ringer for Hitler, which he wasn't in real life) heading up a meeting of 10 or so old Nazis (all speaking German so you have to read the subtitles throughout, whereas it would have been a good place for them to just slip into English with a German accent.

There's a long opening scene in which, after the Americans' bomber crashes near the "front lines" in France but most of the crew survives, a really bad SS guy (you'll recognize him from one of the Mummy movies) shows up, holds the crew at gunpoint, then eventually shoots all of them in the head just for giggles. It sets the thematic tone for the whole movie.

And did I mention poor acting throughout the film? Yeah, it's there and it's pretty consistent.

I dunno - maybe 2 stars is a bit generous for this one.