Operazione: Wolf Hound

In the real world KG 200 did a lot of special operations and had to check all enemy planes for the Luftwaffe. Of course these machines had no ammo or bombs, as the german types (mostly) did not fit into the guns or suspensions. Testing was mostly for weak/strong spots and maneuverability to guide own pilots, they were never used for attack missions. Planes had german markings and huge yellow wingtips and lower surfaces, so german AA guns won't shoot at them.

Well, in this movie they use a huge number of restored, real original aircraft, and all aerial shots are perfect and beautiful. But of course, all planes are different types except for a pair of P-51, and the storline uses them in an unrealistic way.

Two things may spoil your experience: First the lack of equipment and locations urges the story into outright stupid directions. Every car, uniform and weapon is different, the prison is in the hangar, and fuel barrels are stacked everywhere. Announcements of top secret informations are done over loudspeaker.

Second, and this killed the movie for me, the americans are sort of video game avatar, so they have to kill a lot of NPCs and some bosses, with predicable results.

IN A NUTSHELL: Inspired by the real-life German special operations unit KG 200 that shot down, repaired, and flew Allied aircraft as Trojan horses, "Wolf Hound" takes place in 1944 German-occupied France and follows the daring exploits of Jewish-American fighter pilot Captain David Holden. Ambushed behind enemy lines, Holden must rescue a captured B-17 Flying Fortress crew, evade a ruthless enemy stalking him at every turn, and foil a plot that could completely alter the outcome of World War II.

THINGS I LIKED: There are some beautiful aerial shots and impressive cinematography. The first 25 minutes are exciting aerial acrobatics in the sky over German-occupied France.

Real WWII Period Aircraft featured in this film include a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, North American P-51 Mustang fighters, Supermarine Spitfire fighter, Hawker Hurricane fighter, North American B-25 Mitchell bomber, and Messerschmitt Bf 109 (ME 109) fighter. Not a single computer-generated plane is in the movie! That's impressive!

For aircraft destruction/explosion shots, detailed scale models were filmed and then further enhanced with Visual Effects, but no shot is 100% computer-generated.

To film the skydiving sequences after two weeks of prep, Luke Aikins and Skydiving Double Andy Farrington performed a total of 14 jumps with customized parachute rigs on their helmets in 2 shooting days for the film.

The handsome and buff cast members include James Maslow, Trevor Donovan, John Turk, Michael Wayne Foster, John Wells, Taylor Novak, Michael Parrish, Brian Heintz, and more.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: The plot is kind of silly with basically one American defeating a ton of Nazis and saving the day. The movie is said to be based on a true story, but I don't know enough about the actual history of these events to know how accurate the movie is.

The most compelling moments of the film are when we're up in the air with the dogfights.

It's pretty cliched and extremely melodramatic.

Some bad editing moments.

The movie is simply too long for what it offers.

Some of the accents aren't very good.

One-note characters with very clunky dialogue. Most of the dialogue is grumbled through clenched teeth.

Some of the action sequences and shoot-outs aren't very good. For example, the Nazis conveniently jump out to attack the Americans one at a time.

There are some really dumb lines like, "Oh man, this does not look good! What are we going to do?" Another line that is spoken quite a number of times is, "No, no, no!" The blood on people looks really fake.

TIPS FOR PARENTS: Explosions and destruction Bloody deaths with a high dead body count Some German is spoken without subtitles.

Torture is seen and heard.

THEMES: Persistence Patriotism Revenge WWII Jews and faith War

YouTube channel.

The aircraft scenes are absolutely gorgeous because they used actual airplanes for them, however the rest of the movie sucks. Bad cgi bullets, things that make no sense, and an obvious push for woman power, etc.

Good for the aerial scenes. Acting unbelievebly poor. Stereo typed Germans from a bad 80's film. A long boring section in the middle that could have been edited down. Not the worst film I have ever seen. For most part had it on in the background whilst I was doing other things, until it got interesting again in last twenty five minutes or so.

The story had good potential but let down by really hammy acting. The aerial sequences were good considering that no CGI was used for the main scenes. Did feel that some of the aircraft performance was extremely exaggerated, especially the Hurricane taking down the Mustang P51.

Bad acting! These two words describe the movie in toto. The plot and storyline was good and I think it would have turned out to be a good movie only if the acting and dialogue was better.