Wolves of War

Out of loyalty to Rupert Graves for "Room with a View" (1985) and "Maurice" (1987) I can't go lower than a five for this, but it's really not very good. Indeed, that star of stage and screen features for just about five minutes of this otherwise rather cheaply presented story of a group of British soldiers sent to retrieve this brilliant (American) scientist and his daughter from the hands of the Nazis. Led by "Norwood" (Matt "Busted" Willis) and assisted by a terribly wooden Ed Westwick ("Wallace"), Sam Gittins ("Deegan") and Jack Parr's "Owens" we have quite an easy-on-the-eye group of squaddies facing a tough task navigating the forest to find their target, all whilst the dastardly "Von Sachs" (Max Themax) - straight from "'Allo 'Allo" - is routinely slaughtering the locals and anyone who comes into contact with them. Their escape plans suggests "Roops" only had one spare filming day, or that he lives next door to a favour-owed director, so much of the film is actually about their duel with the enemy as they try to escape. The cameraman has probably had the best of it, placing his kit inside bushes and trees and at times that does help give this just a semblance of menace, but for the most part this just looks like what it is. An assembly of seriously mediocre talent trying to tell a serious story in the manner of an under-resourced pantomime. I really wouldn't bother.

I love WWIi films but not this one. So bad in so many ways. Like a 1" thick wooden table could really serve as a shield against a machine gun. Like military men in that era turning their machine guns horizontally while firing or the two handed hold on a pistol grip? I don't think so. Or bombs being dropped and grenades exploding with nearly zero damage to soldiers going unscathed. So hard to watch this very misguided update to such small things that for me, made this film nearly unwatchable. Even though the the story was supposedly based on a true story, I didn't really care if the good guys finished their mission successfully or not. Total waste of time.

IN A NUTSHELL: At the end of World War II, a tough British officer leads a band of Allied commandos into enemy territory in Bavaria on one last impossible mission to extract an important American scientist held hostage by the Nazis.

The suspenseful war drama was directed by Giles Alderson. The story was written by Toby Kearton and Samuel Christopher Ellis. The screenplay was written by Ben Mole and is based on a true story.

THINGS I LIKED: I really enjoy World War II movies because there was such a clear line between the Allies and the Nazi enemies. In this film, the lines blur a little bit, offering unique insight.

Ed Westwick plays the leading man. I like him, although it was often hard to understand his subtle, facial expressions at times.

Matt Willis plays a large role in the movie. He kind of reminded me of a young Russell Crowe both in looks and voice quality. Did you know he's the co-founder and bassist in the band "Busted"?

Max Themak plays the sadistic Nazi leader. He is so over-the-top in his viciousness that it's easy to hate him.

There are some suspenseful moments.

The team looked like they were trying hard to create an interesting movie.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: There are some cliched moments stolen from other/better movies.

I wished I had captions to read during this movie because sometimes, it was hard to understand what people were saying.

The child actors were not very good. I feel so mean writing that.

As a Grammar Nazi, I wished they had added punctuation to the end card toward the end of the movie. I always appreciate reading "the rest of the story" at the end of movies like this.

The field gear and locations in the movie aren't accurate. True history buffs will be annoyed by that. The film would have definitely benefited from having a military consultant on set.

Ultimately, the movie isn't memorable.

TIPS FOR PARENTS: Brutal violence Bloody deaths Profanity, including 1 F-bomb

THEMES: War Hope Family Science The value of human life

This has to be one of the worst war movies ever created. I cannot remember the name of the worst one but it used plastic guns with rubber bayonets. You could see them wobbling when they ran. Wolves of War is almost as bad. Every gun shot sounded suppressed. The Allied forces were using handguns for most of the fighting and could hit every shot. The Nazi's were using rifles and missed just about everything. There was not attempt at any realism in the fight scenes.

Now the acting. It was absolutely terrible. There is not much more I can say except I wish I never watched it. I turned it off with ten minutes to go and should have done it much sooner. Don't waste your time.

This is possibly the worst movie I've ever been forced to endure. I really don't know anything else to fill up 600 charachters.

The story is bad. The directing is bad. The video quality is bad. The sets are bad. The actors are bad. The job of costuming the actors is bad. Even. The audio is bad. There are no redeeming features to this movie at all. There is no reason to watch this movie. This makes time pass slowly and painfully. You'd be better off banging your head against the wall until you go unconscious than use this movie to pass time.

I gave no idea why anyone gives this movie more than one star.