The Plan

The U.K. has a strong tradition in making decent WWII movies. This, is NOT one of them! The acting, script, storyline, accents, special effects,... you name it, are just so awful. Mr. Madsen's appearance on the DVD cover drew me in but I was not rewarded with his capabilities. The same could almost be said of Mr. Zane who at least was capable and almost mildly amusing at times. It seemed he knew the film was rotten so he walked his way through the "action."

Mr. Tod (I do hope it is not Todd), I am sorry to see your money spent on this film. I do hope you will see the return of it due to rentals so that you can invest again in future UK films. In the meantime, I STRONGLY suggest avoiding this film at all costs. To see how a WWII film can be done in England, rent The Dambusters,

This could have been a good film if only people had taken it's production a bit more seriously. We see several clips of a Horsa Glider being towed over to Holland. On take off it is towed by a 4 engine Short Stirling, then its being towed by a twin engined DC3 Dakota (C47). As they cross the Dutch coast it is being towed by a Handley Page Halifax!

The CGI is poor compared with other recent films, and continuity is a joke. The glider in the air has RAF roundels which on the ground become French! The glider in the air has RAF roundels which on the ground become French! How can so much money be spent on films only to have such stupid mistakes? It doesn't stop there what with a very modern looking truck being used in one sequence and later a very poorly disguised Antonov AN-2 trying to look like a JU52 on floats. The countryside and settings look very little like Holland...its almost an insult to our intelligence and sad when you realise that it wouldn't have taken a great deal to get it right.

Lastly, is it meant as a gritty heist movie, a gritty war drama or a bit of a romp? I got the feeling that the makers of this film changed their mind on a daily basis. If they had only stuck to their original idea I might have found it more believable.

Let me start by saying I picked this movie up for $3 at a used book store. And frankly, I do not regret it. There is an interesting quality about this movie that leaves me satisfied with the movie experience. It starts with expectations. When your marquee actors are Billy Zane and Michael Madsen, no matter how high budget the DVD case would like you to believe it is, you know going in that it is a B-Movie. Kind of like anything with C. Thomas Howell in it. So if you go in expecting a Saving Private Ryan, that is your oversight, not the makers of this film. Clearly in the aerial shots and crash scene at the beginning, one gets a good idea as to the "budget". There is nothing quality about this movie except maybe the true events surrounding the plot. I'm a fan of art and art history and WWII provides numerous interesting stories about art theft and art rescue. However, whereas the quality of the movie stinks, it's at least interesting. Low-B actors, recognizable character actors from bigger movies (see Tommy Flanagan in Braveheart), bad accents, poor dialogue, and to make matters worse the movie can't decide what it is going to be. Initially it starts out as a serious war movie and by the end of the movie, it had tried to become a Guy Ritchie film. Somewhere in the middle as the Germans steal a truck, hard rock music starts playing and the whole tone of the movie changes. Regardless of how bad this movie is, it is still an enjoyable time waster just to immerse yourself in bad movie-making.

For me it was when Michael Madsen made his first appearance, probably fresh from the set of the mega-hit Bloodrayne sporting a look that could best be described as a biker dressed in uniform.

This movie is a 6/10 only because it isn't boring. Horrible acting by most of them and Billy Zane must have been reading the 0's on his paycheck rather than the script cause he was the worst. Oddly though his is the first Canadian character in a long time that talks fairly authentically, at least for a Midwestern. Only problem is his character is from Ontario so thats like giving a southerner a New York accent. The movie constantly reminds us he is Canadian by him saying "Eh" nonstop. His character has nothing but one liner jokes I had expected this movie to be a serious war movie ala "The Great Raid" but it could be confused for a TV movie.

This movie started off OK but then decided the Nazis were too evil so turned them into good guys I swear! How sad is it when a war movie loses the courage to paint bad guys and makes them all likable (even the greedy fat guy).

I suppose the entire cast and crew voted for this 9.1/10 rating cause no way would anyone vote that after seeing this.

This exciting warlike movie is plenty of action,suspense and shot during WWII in the important campaign called Market Garden , the largest airborne invasion though failed . In a last attempt to end the war,Winston Churchill conceives an extraordinary plan , 35000 soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines in the occupied Holland by the Germans . It was a flop by the allies to finish the war quickly by securing three bridges allowing access over the Rhine towards Germany, being the most important battle ,¨the bridge of Arnhem¨ (events filmed in ¨A bridge too far¨as well by Richard Attemborough). This historic recounting was an unsuccessful operation by British and Us forces to cross the Meuse,Waal and Neder-Rijn rivers in Holland Sept 1944 . British airborne forces were to capture vital bridges at Arnhem to open the way for an armoured thrust from the south . When the airborne operation failed, the armoured force was unable to reach Arnhem and the whole operation collapsed . But into British troops there are a misfits group,one small unit , codename ¨the matchbox¨ (Billy Zane, Sean Petwee, Tommy Flannagan, Nick Moran, Neal Jackson, among others) led on a daring mission . They must discover a rousing treasure formed by artist objects . Meanwhile , another band of German crooks formed by three renegade soldiers (Karl Roden, Alexander Skarsgard, Laurence Fox) has their own agenda to steal a fortune in gold from behind enemy lines . Besides , a American sergeant (Michael Madsen) has his mean purports as well.

The picture is an explosive combination of warlike feats , adventures and suspense . The plot is partially similar to ¨Kelly's heroes¨ , as also different soldiers find themselves separated from the Allied invasion who want to claim a loot . This stirring film contains an excellent plethora of players as Billy Zane (Titanic, Cleopatra, Total calm) , Michael Madsen (Kill Bill I, II, Sin city) , Karl Roden (Fifteen minutes , BladeII, The myth of Bourne) and Laurence Fox (The Hole) , among others . The motion picture was regularly directed by Colin Teague . Rating : Average although entertaining.