À Espreita

When I sat down to watch "Ambush", I figured that chances were that it would prove a good movie since it had the likes of Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Aaron Eckhart on the cast list.

However, prior to sitting down and watching this movie from director Mark Burman, I hadn't even heard about it. So I wasn't sure what I was in for here, aside from it being a Vietnam War movie of sorts.

Writers Mark Burman, Johnny Lozano, Michael McClung and Dillon Slack put together a fair enough script for the storyline here. And while "Ambush" certainly was interesting enough, the movie was ultimately sort of nondistinctive, and it sort of feels like a movie that snuck in under the radar and will just as quietly fade into oblivion. The movie didn't leave a particularly lasting impression with me. While "Ambush" was watchable, it should be noted that there are far, far better Vietnam War-based movies out there.

The acting in the movie was good, but I feel a little bit cheated out of something, as neither Jonathan Rhys Meyers or Aaron Eckhart weren't playing all that big roles in the movie. Meyers did, however, have a bit more on-screen time than Eckhart, but they weren't leading performers. I guess they were top billed solely to lure in the audience.

"Ambush" was filmed in a good manner, because it felt like the audience were right there alongside the US soldiers as they ventured into unknown territory as they realized that the Viet Cong troops were using subterranean tunnels in their warfare. There was a particular sense of intense tension and claustrophobia throughout the course of the 104 minutes that the movie ran for, and that definitely helped carry the movie.

For a war movie then director Mark Burman delivered a watchable movie, albeit not a particularly outstanding movie. This is the type of movie that you watch once, then shelf it and forget about it.

My rating of "Ambush" lands on a five out of ten stars.

The film begins in the middle of the action and the events building up to it are narrated to the audience over the course of a single dialogue exchange between the general and the captain. 10-15min invested on that through visuals would have definitely helped.

Though the core plot of tunnel warfare is nothing new, the story nonetheless is not gripping. The screenplay is also equally lacking and at places especially toward the end, it falls apart failing to keep viewers on the edge. Even the editing at the end becomes wayward with unnecessary cuts that's immediately obvious. Acting is decent and its only the likes of Eckhart that impede this movie from becoming another forgettable B-Grade school project.

What the actual F@#@.

Probably the worst film ever, Eckhart and Meyers must be desperate. Joke of a film.

Uniforms, props and storyline, it's like a ten year old write the script. The people involved in creating this film should be embarrassed and banned from making anymore. Udo Keir makes better movies.

The cast will likely never be offered any other roles ever again. I literally cannot stress how bad this film is and anyone dho marked it more than 1 star must be very easily pleased or have no clue about the military. If I could have given this movie a minus I would have, the director needs to be arrested for assaulting my senses.

Had the convoluted, disjointed, unremarkable and tedious screenplay from the three writers been cut down to about 80 mins, this may have been more enjoyable. Certainly more enjoyable than having to listen to cliched tropes and long dragged out and repetitive scenes of dead end turns in an underground maze. I get that this was a low-mid budget B film, and although I have seen much worse, this film actually could've been more enjoyable with better directing and major script cuts and edits. The cinematography was decent, and surprisingly for a B film, the score was on point. Even much of the acting was better than I expected. Nice idea, but sadly, terrible execution.

The lack of any effort to have a military consultant chime in and just fix the basic stuff around military customs and courtesy, or rank structure would have given this movie an additional 3 stars from me.

• Captains do not give orders to Lt. Colonels.

• Junior Non-Commissioned Officers do not command 50 guys at a forward operating base.

• Superiors do not address their juniors as sir. It is a courtesy shown to the higher rank.

Any recently discharged servicemember could have been hired for peanuts, probably just a movie credit alone, as a consultant to this movie, and it wouldn't have pissed off a generation of veterans, and would have improved the script.