Johnny Got His Gun is a mostly little-known movie, which would be even more obscure if it weren't for Metallica's "One" music video back in the day.  But forget about that for a minute.

What you get here is a surreal trip into one man's nightmare after suffering extensive injuries on the battlefields of World War I... and a biting anti-war film to boot.

Anyone who thinks the Hollywood "Formula" picture is a new or recent creation is fooling themselves.  No Man is and Island is a direct ancestor of todays average fare, and unfortunately it just ain't that good.

As the Japanese rout the Allies from the South Pacific in the early days of WWII, George Tweed (Geoffrey Hunter) managed to escape the invading Empire on Guam, and was able to hide out until the Allies eventually returned.

What could have been a harrowing tale of survival ends up being, well, just meh.  From the greatly exaggerated stereotypes of the natives and the Japanese, to the incredibly forced love story between Tweed and one of the natives....  There isn't much to do but sit back and roll your eyes waiting for something really interesting to happen.

The actual invasion scenes aren't very well executed.  His initial escapees are all eliminated save for George, but not very compellingly...  I don't think I'll go on.

You might give No Man is an Island a go if you've got nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon... but frankly I dont' think I'd do it again.

OK, lets take a bit of a different take on events in Asia during the early part of World War II....

The Japanese are rolling through China and Manchuria in 1937, and to top it off, China itself has its own problems between the Communists and the Partisans....

Caught in the middle are a group of children holed up in an orphanage.  By a twist of fate, they and their part-time attendant Ms. Pearson (Radha Mitchell) are brought together with an English journalist, George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Chinese partisan Chen Hansheng (Chow Yun-Fat).

As Hogg is thrust into the role of taking care of these children, it becomes clear that they must abandon their orphanage and head for neutral territory.  But this means marching on foot across some rather difficult terrain, and through Japanese and hostile Chinese outposts.  The journey, as they say, is more than the destination, and this film proves it spectactularly.

OK, so maybe its not a "war movie" in the traditional sense.  But it is still a damn fine film regardless.  It's complex and engaging in about every way I can think of, it'll make you laugh, cry, cringe, and think about an aspect of the war that we in the west don't very often.

The Children of Huang Shi will probably never get the real respect it deserves, and thats unfortunate.  Check it out when you get the chance! Here's the trailer....

There are war movies that make you cringe.  Either because of the violence or the atrocities portrayed, or the sheer evil that is shown....  and then there are films like The Wind That Shakes The Barley, which make you cringe for some of the above reasons, but for other reasons a little less obvious.

The most obvious of which is that a country that we 'mercans hold in such high regard, namely the UK, could exact such a toll on such a nearby and similar neighbor, namely Ireland.  Yeah you could draw a similar (but not identical) parallel to the US Civil War, and I'll get to that, but there's just something about the way the situation in Ireland is brought to life in this film that leaves you asking yourself some questions.

The Purple Heart is of course the medal given to servicemen wounded in the line of duty.  The movie of the same name, really doesn't seem to have anything to do with the medal.  At least not what I could tell.

What it is, though is a perfect example of a World War II "propaganda" movie, again, for lack of a better term.

A Bomber crew is taken captive by the Japanese after they crash land in China after the infamous Doolittle raid.  What follows in this film is their "trial" by the Japanese, witnessed by a group of international journalists.

You'd think that a film about developing a one-off weapon that defies all logic would be incredibly un-interesting, right?  Wrong!! The Dam Busters takes a look at one of the more ingenious weapons devised and implemented during World War II, and then follow the men who had to deploy the thing in action....

"Don't go easy on them, just 'cause they're cute!!!"

Apocalypse Meow... at least thats what it'll be called here in the states, for obvious reasons...  "Cat Shit One" otherwise.  I just don't have words, and can't wait to see it.