Act of Honor - L'unité War Pigs

Of all the people who worked on "War Pigs" in front of or behind the camera, only Dolph Lundgren survives more or less intact. His character was written with a few interesting quirks, and Lundgren does put in some effort in his performance. The rest of the cast and characters have nothing special about them to report (Mickey Rourke only has three brief scenes, for one thing.) The drab characters and performances are just part of the reason why this movie is surprisingly dull. The first half of the movie (mostly to do with training the title squad) has almost no action. And the training is nothing special, just routines you've seen in other special mission movies before, with not even any comic relief to stir things up (at least, comic relief that's funny.) Once the movie moves to the actual mission, things aren't that much better. The movie is still slow moving and boring, even when they throw in some token action (which always ends not long after it begins.) I've seen documentaries that had much more life than what's found in this movie.

Action-filled movie set at end WWII , it follows the reckless adventures of a valiant platoon , some courageous soldiers during WWII in France to locate a giant tank gun . On D-Day , the 6th of June 1944 , Western allied forces landed in Nazi-occupied France on a quest to liberate Europe . In September , they stood at the heavily defended German border , ready to launch an all-out assault . President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill believed in a victory by Christmas . But for the US Infantry , each day was about a simple staying alive . Colonel AJ Redding : Mickey Rourke , a battle hardened WW1 veteran assigns a risked mission to Lieutenant Wosick : Luke Goss , who is leader of the motley pack together thwart the Nazi schemes .With the help of Captain Hans Picault : Dolph Lundgren , a German Anti-Nazi serving with the French Foreign Legion execute the perilous assignment . That's why the brave army lieutenant takes offbeat soldiers on his next , on a dangerous mission to explode a German-built cannon before it's used against the Allied forces that could have changed the course of WWII . Nothing's ever easy. Victory is the only option .

Luke Goss assumes the character of commando leader of a rag-tag unit in this ordinary wartime movie middlingly directed by Ryan Little .This is a regularly conceived WWII with action filled , brief studio character , drama and exciting battles , but nothing special . Medium budget European war film that packs frantic thrills , perilous adventures , relentless feats , and buck-loads of explosive action and violence . The noisy action is uniformly well-made , especially deserving of mention the rip-roaring final scenes in which the motley group is really besieged , including some spectacular shootouts and bombing . The first half of the film allows the colorful cast of character actors to have their fun as they get their tails whipped into shape and develop shaky relationship with their leader , as the two-fisted Lieutenant must train, lead and earn the respect of his new squad to become a functioning reconnaissance unit . The final part is all action , as the brave commando wreak havoc , exterminating Nazis by any means necessary and then run for their lives . Apart from the values of team spirit , cudgeled by Luke Goss into his misfit group , the film is full of feats , suspense , and thrills . Luke Goss gives an acceptable acting as a disgraced World War 2 Army Lieutenant called Jack Wosick who is given the opportunity for redemption when asked to lead a rag-tag unit of misfits . He along with Dolph Lundgren dominate this adventure war with only one thirst : to carry out the nail-biting as well as puzzling mission . It tells the dramatic story of a bunch of Allied soldiers trapped behind enemy lines and to execute their mission . It has action , crossfire , thrills , warfare feats and dramatic situations . This is a war movie in which predominates the stories and situations of the protagonists on the war itself made , so although there are moments of action and struggle there are also thought-provoking events about the worried lieutenant who feels guilty of death a friend . The story is a typical strategic military adventure where they have to complete an assignment , which is used to move the story filled with interesting ideas and thoughtful dialogues . The good thing is its ambiance and photography, with excellent landscapes and dense atmospheres of war and violence.This is a wartime typical vehicle and into the ¨warlike commando sub-genre¨ in 60s and 70s style , which also belong the American classics as : ¨Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich)¨ ,¨ Where eagles dare (Brian G. Hutton)¨ , ¨Kelly's heroes (Hutton)¨, ¨Tobruk (Arthur Hiller)¨ , ¨Devil's Brigade (Andrew V McLagen)¨ and many others.

The motion picture was regularly directed by Ryan Little . Ryan was presented with a Student Emmy at the 1999 Academy of Television Arts & Science College Television Awards, for "Best Dramatic Film": The Last Good War . Little has directed a few but decent movies such as ¨Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy¨ , ¨House of fears¨ , ¨Forever strong¨, ¨Age of the dragons¨ and ¨"Saints and Soldiers : Airbone creed" that is the sequel to the award-winning ¨Saints and soldiers¨ and the third part titled ¨Saints and soldiers : the void¨ .

An hour of "training for the mission" consisting of lame buddy banter, then some action about as menacing as paint-balling, and a mercifully abrupt ending.

Photography and sound-track were acceptable. I could actually see and hear what was going on, unlike so many "straight-to-DVD" cheapies. And no pretentious gimmicks like flashbacks or twists, nothing "arty" at all. But the script and plot were like something a thirteen-year-old could come up with.

Normally in these "group of misfits thrown together" movies, whether war or disaster efforts, you get the same bunch of stereotypes, the Jew, the Black, the coward, the racist bully, the traitor, the alcoholic, the naive farm-boy, etc. This film was so half-hearted that none of the group even got depicted at that superficial level, remaining totally anonymous.

Honourable mention for Luke Goss, who gave a passable Clint Eastwood imitation. Should be considered if they ever make a Clint biopic.

This must rank as one of the worst researched and acted war movies of recent years. US soldiers disheveled and unkempt, dirty dozen-like, an absolutely absurd scenario and on top of it all, no research as to uniforms and army traditions. Foreign Legion officers never wear or wore the kepi blanc and the character of the tooth-pick chewing long-haired US "colonel" complete with his cowboy hat is absolutely ridiculous. The acting is terrible throughout and full of boring stereotypes. One wonders if this is meant to be a war movie or a B-movie parody. 1 out of then 10 is too good for this disaster of a movie!

Let's be honest, you saw the cast or description and thought this would be an action packed war movie. Sad to say, War Pigs is a slow trudging march of bad acting and unappealing script. Even the supposed big names like Mickey Rourke and Chuck Liddell only appear briefly and what little action it has is done without finesse.

Story follows Dolph Lundgren and Luke Goss as they assemble rag tag squad to overcome Nazi advances. This is practically the whole movie, they recruit some people, train them while creating bond of brotherhood. It may sound good if it had better material, yet the plot is barren and tedious. Be it may the actors or dialogues, neither are interesting.

War movie is tricky, it inherently has some expectations and emotions involved. Many movies with better cast and production have mixed result, War Pigs have none the polished delivery nor the gritty nature to pull off this kind of scale. It's simply a few men bantering for an hour and half. The subject may have been engaging, but the presentation offers barely any battle of wit or actual battle at all.

If the slow pace hasn't deterred the audience, the flimsy action would. With the leading action stars, the movie could have done at least action sequences right, instead it only produces a very amateurish effort. The camera lacks focus and gun fight doesn't even look remotely real. It probably wouldn't help much since the cumulative action is probably only ten minutes or less.

War Pigs certainly doesn't have the depth to present cerebral war theme, it lacks the production to capitalize on the action oriented cast and it's far from authentic to appeal to military fans. It only gives a sense of desolation and tediousness for the audience.