(Review originally written at 23 May 2007)
This movie really had the potential in it to become one of my favorite movies; Horror and Nazi's. I always found this combination to be an intriguing one and I in general always enjoy and admire movies that try to combine several different elements such as different genre combinations and time period combinations. Plus I like watching movies with Nazi's in it (OK that sounded just wrong) because they're basically the ultimate movie villains.
The movie is from a period when the WW II genre was hot and popular again. A period that was launched by the success and critical acclaim of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan". This movie is just like any other genre movie that tried to gain some money after that success.
The movie lacks in basically everything; tension, mystery, character development, plot. On top of that the movie is obviously also made with a low-budget, which really shows on screen.
The concept of the movie sounds good enough for a scary, tense and atmospheric horror movie. The movie is perhaps more atmospheric than anything else but this just isn't enough in this case, since the movie builds up and builds up to basically nothing. Nothing extraordinary, tense or even mysterious ever really occurs in this movie, which is of course a huge miss and rather weird and disappointing to watch.
The movie has some good actors in it but none really shine in this movie. The characters remain too flat for that and the movie has too many characters in it and lacks a good- and likable main character. And yes it's definitely a bit weird to see some 'British-as-they-can-get' actors play a couple of Nazi's. As a matter of fact is there any reason that the characters in this movie are Nazi's, rather than British or American soldiers? As the movie progresses it becomes obvious why; they did it because the characters in the movie are far from good guys, as strongly becomes obvious at the end and with the help of some flashbacks. Having Americans, British or any other allied group as the main characters would had been far too sensitive and would had aroused far more criticism and controversy.
It's definitely not an unwatchable movie but I just can't think of any reason why anyone should ever watch this movie.
5/10
Watch trailer
This movie really had the potential in it to become one of my favorite movies; Horror and Nazi's. I always found this combination to be an intriguing one and I in general always enjoy and admire movies that try to combine several different elements such as different genre combinations and time period combinations. Plus I like watching movies with Nazi's in it (OK that sounded just wrong) because they're basically the ultimate movie villains.
The movie is from a period when the WW II genre was hot and popular again. A period that was launched by the success and critical acclaim of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan". This movie is just like any other genre movie that tried to gain some money after that success.
The movie lacks in basically everything; tension, mystery, character development, plot. On top of that the movie is obviously also made with a low-budget, which really shows on screen.
The concept of the movie sounds good enough for a scary, tense and atmospheric horror movie. The movie is perhaps more atmospheric than anything else but this just isn't enough in this case, since the movie builds up and builds up to basically nothing. Nothing extraordinary, tense or even mysterious ever really occurs in this movie, which is of course a huge miss and rather weird and disappointing to watch.
The movie has some good actors in it but none really shine in this movie. The characters remain too flat for that and the movie has too many characters in it and lacks a good- and likable main character. And yes it's definitely a bit weird to see some 'British-as-they-can-get' actors play a couple of Nazi's. As a matter of fact is there any reason that the characters in this movie are Nazi's, rather than British or American soldiers? As the movie progresses it becomes obvious why; they did it because the characters in the movie are far from good guys, as strongly becomes obvious at the end and with the help of some flashbacks. Having Americans, British or any other allied group as the main characters would had been far too sensitive and would had aroused far more criticism and controversy.
It's definitely not an unwatchable movie but I just can't think of any reason why anyone should ever watch this movie.
5/10
Watch trailer
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