Iron Cross: The Road to Normandy

Hands down the worst WWII film I've ever seen. Acting and script stale and cliche at best. Unless you are in prison and forced to watch, skip over this waste of time.

I rarely write reviews but felt compelled to here. The film obviously had quite a good budget, given the amount of original (mostly) tanks, artillery and weapons shown and whilst it tried very hard to be realistic it failed in the basics. The first 40 minutes or so was a mainly non-stop battle scene where the heroic Germans had been pinned down and surrounded for some time, yet, everything was pristine. No rust on the barb wire, posts freshly cut, everyones uniform was spotless, most laughable the medical officer who wore red cross bib and armband that were immaculately white. Same thing when the action swaps to Normandy. I'm not being over picky here but as ex-forces I know that after 10 days of simulation we looked like tramps. This cleanliness took away for me any resemblance of reality and I feel a good chance to make a good film was wasted here. Also, terrible acting, bad sound, tedious music, awful effects and no real plot.

Interesting premise; WWII, promising action on the Eastern front and in Normandy. Could this be 'Cross of Iron' meets 'Saving Private Ryan'?

No it isn't!

This must be the worst war film I've ever watched. So bad it's good? - well nearly, it takes itself too seriously for that.

So poorly acted it looks like a comedic parody, sets and costumes are at AmDram levels e.g. All the soldiers uniforms on the Eastern front are clean and laundered (even the nurse's stockings look fresh out of the packet). Yet, the coastal gun emplacements in France look 80years old when really they would have been built <2yrs earlier.

As some sort of cross between Cross of Iron at the beginning and The Longest Day at the end, it didn't really measure up to either. The acting and the action really didn't come up to much, the CGI explosions were awful and, a bit of anorak on my part, the German MG-42 machine guns were firing at a rate of about 500rpm where in real life they fired at closer to 1,500 which made them sound more like velcro being ripped apart. On the plus side, to give it three stars rather than two, the vehicles were pretty accurate which is quite unusual for a film of this sort and it was great to see a genuine 88mm gun being set up on the cliff. It would be interesting to know where all the gear came from.

Whatever qualities the move may either have or lack, the listing shows Odessa, Russia, as the filming location. It's Odessa, Ukraine, despite Putin's efforts to make it part of Russia.