Wolf Hound

Wolf hound? You'll be the one howling with laughter at this thing. Come for the gigantic brass star of David pendants apparently all Jewish flight crew were issued. Stay for the big plastic swastika flag melting.

This flick ticks all the cliché boxes: We've got a creepy scientist who looks like a cross between the Nazi from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Gollum. We've got the now-obligatory Black soldier(s) and French resistance woman. We've got a guy yelling "nooo" when someone gets shot in slow motion, with the surrounding firefight thoughtfully remaining silent for a minute so dying guy can say his last words. We've got a big musclebound Nazi who strips down to his wifebeater for the big fight scene. We've got a guy saying "This ends now" and "Let's finish this."

We've got so much modern language going on ("brainstorm"? Really?), that you expect the evil commandant to bust out a "Hashtag Jews be bad, yo."

Four stars for the story managing to hold together and for the effort the Nazi officers put into sucking in their cheeks to have cheekbones.

Simply don't set any expectations and you'll make it through. It's a bit tough to chew on, but it's edible. The cover of the movie is perhaps the key feature. The actors do what they need to do to get paid and meh they pumped out a film.

The acting, the timing and direction are poor. Most of the action effects were probably made from home by using Adobe After Effects. Lots of silly moves that are unrealistic. This this movie is ok for the kids.

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.

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.