War > Sinatra, Frank War

Saving Ryan's privates

Advantages: Great action sequences
Disadvantages: Slow to start, but gethers pace nicely

...any factual or historic event, Von Ryan's Express stars Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard and tells the story of survival against the odds in a war torn Europe. Released in 1965, Sinatra plays Colonel Joseph Ryan, a smart thinking American Pilot who after getting shot down by the Italian Army is sent to an Italian run Prisoner of War camp for what is expected to be the remainder of the war. Upon arrival Ryan is immediately made the head of the Allied ...
...turn the soldiers call him Von Ryan for collaborating with the enemy. In fact the heated discussions that take place between Ryan and Fincham are great to watch on screen as you see Sinatra in a different light to other roles that he has played before, something which leads to both men trusting each other by the end of the film. With the help of the Italian Commander, who has now switch sides, Ryan and the Allies hatch a plan to escape and steal ...

Timbo3107 23.08.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Von Ryan's Express (DVD)

all aboard

Advantages: good action movie
Disadvantages: --

This is the first film that I ever watched in which the main character was killed. (I first saw it as a child.) The final scene has Sinatra gunned down as he is stretching out his hand to be pulled up into the back of the train. You are watching willing him on, hoping that the outstretched hands of his comrades will meet his. They don't and they are left watching as the train continues on with him receding further and further into the distance lying ...
...of Allied POWs led by Sinatra trying to escape to freedom. They nearly get caught out several times. One time that particularly sticks in my mind is where Sinatra's pilot watch becomes the attention of a German who attempts to barter with him for it. Of course, Sinatra's character speaks no German and he is getting ever more tense as the scene goes on. He is eventually rescued by one of his colleagues who does speak German. As far as I remember ...

oclumhain 04.03.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Von Ryan's Express (DVD)

The three wiremen of Baghdad

Advantages: An intense gripping film
Disadvantages: Can make you a bit edgy and nervous

The Hurt Locker is a film that made me edgy and nervous while watching it on the big screen. I found the whole two hours and eleven minutes very uncomfortable to watch. Mainly because the director, Kathryn Bigelow, had placed me exactly where she wanted me to be - directly inside the war torn net of life in Iraq. I have seen a few movies about Iraq but this film is far superior although it may not be the most explicitly defined film. Hurt Locker ...
...momentously heroic battles or even the odd skirmish amongst troops. Alternatively, the film encapsulates itself with the special group of technicians who risk their lives by disarming and taking away bombs from the streets of Baghdad. The three man EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team at Fort Victory have lost their leader to a fireball explosion and the new Staff Sergeant, William James (Jeremy Renner), has arrived to replace him. Still mourning ...

Praski 02.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Hurt Locker (DVD)

Tarantino does it again

Advantages: Every aspect of this film is brilliant !
Disadvantages: Mike Myers acting, and possibly the subtitles if your not into reading them.

What a film ! Going into the screening i had heard mixed reviews, alot of people telling me it just wasn't on par with his older classics. In my opinion they were completely wrong, Tarantino has once again created a masterpiece. From start to end i was in the most uncomfortable theatre seat you could imagine, hard and sending my lower body numb, but i would do it all again to see the film. I wasn't anticipating a good show from Brad Pitt, personally ...
...knows how to get the best out of him. The rest of the acting was as good as i expected too, with Waltz playing magnificently and Melanie Laurent a joy to watch. The only questionable acting i could tell was Mike Myers, who seemed to think he was playing Austin Powers still, constantly looking at camera as opposed to the characters in a way that just didn't fit with the film. A vast segment of the film is subtitled, but rest assured that should not ...

asfolath 29.10.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Inglourious Basterds (DVD)

'Nam' Without Tears

Advantages: A slight, honest and moving war film
Disadvantages: Not for those who like their war films loud and bloody

When watching the better-known American 'Nam' pics we might be forgiven for thinking that the Vietnam War was simply a struggle between 'grunts' and 'gooks', between blue-collar guys from America who didn't really want to be there (but were there because they were drafted and didn't have rich daddies to get them into the Coast Guard or Yale) and members of the Vietcong or North Vietnamese Army who did want to be there because it was Vietnam and ...
...most of us did) but the Vietnam War was really America's drama because only Americans went to 'Nam'. But that's not strictly true. Australians and New Zealanders also went to Vietnam to fight (though you'd never know it) and despite there being hardly any films about their exploits, there was one that, coincidentally, was released the very same year as that ruinously-expensive exercise in controlled chaos, Apocalypse Now, and which tells us ...

Templar19 20.10.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Odd Angry Shot (DVD)