Sem Retorno

Those of you bored by the lack of movies out at the moment might be tempted to take a punt on this indie war film. The cover looks quite good, there's battles and tanks and loads of action.

Don't judge a movie by it's cover. Never has saying been more true. The tank on the cover? Not in the movie. The war ravaged buildings on the cover? Not in the movie. The barbed wire fences on the cover? Not in the movie. The soldiers running through battles? Not in the movie. You get the picture.

This is a disappointing movie. Instead of "this is hell on earth" the tagline should have been "a walk in the countryside".

I could go on about the bad props, the mismatching uniforms, the terrible British and American accents, the anachronisms, the fact that none of the soldiers know how to use their weapons, they have guns with infinite ammo, weak editing, poor directing, etc. but you would be as bored as I was watching the movie.

I can't say I am an expert in WWII overview and detailed scrutiny of the events our grandparents witnessed. Yet I can say I've gone through enough literature to claim this film has nothing to do with either WWII or dramatic interpretation of it at least. It seems like men who shot the film do not have an understanding of what they are portraying.

Atmosphere. As many noted it is just a walk by countryside landscapes. It is not like that at war. The war is about the thought you could die next second. Is about endless tension wrenching out your guts. It is about disgust and nauseating feeling gripping you unrestrainedly. What we have here is debates over what we do next and how it would feel like when we do.

Behavior of characters. Let me think...From odd to sometimes foolish. German soldiers are polite, gentle and even nice at their actions. Good guys ended up in a wrong time and place. Just read what was happening at the front from chronicles. Russian female soldiers are gentle, sympathetic yet witty. The scene they convince their enemy to spare their lives in exchange for nursing a wounded German the truthfulness of the film events is questioned firmly. The seen a fragile medic easily shoots a combat German thug carelessly strolling out - kills the film instead of a character.

War. Where is it? We see a group of men in uniform and it doesn't mean the war is happening somewhere around.

Plot. I am a hater of low-budget Russian series devoted to WWII, yet watching this movie I had no other option but to redeem my point of view to a better, much better level.

Total - disappointment. Not recommended for watching.

This movie is a mildly interesting story about some women caught up in the eastern front during WWII. Unfortunately the implementation is pretty dire. I'm assuming that the director made this as his student film, so I don't want to be too harsh, but it's hard to make a movie this weak. It looks like it was filmed in the actors mates garden with a collection of very British and American actors who made no attempt to pretend to be German. This is all well and good but the Russians in the movie all had phony Russian accents.

As expected for a very low budget film the historical accuracy isn't great; the uniforms aren't right, the guns are unlikely and the vehicles are implausible even if they are the right vintage. You really need someone who knows about guns and the army if you are going to make a war movie. There was clearly not a single person on set who knows anything about army tactics.

There is no sense of urgency throughout the film even though the characters are constantly talking about the impending Russian assault. I guess there wasn't the budget for a real battle.

If you don't have the budget to do the story justice, then maybe the film should have been about a bunch of lads on a camping trip on a golf course. Write what you know.

I hope the director got a good grade, but he really shouldn't be charging people to watch this.

Unfortunately this movie exhibits all the normal amateurish flaws that result when a movie is written, produced and directed by the same person. A lot of hard work, time and expense wasted in a final product which should never have been released in its current state.

Nothing to say in favor, but that it is worthless.....