There has never been a mutiny, legal or otherwise, on board a US Navy vessel.  Ever.  At least not in real life, but in 1954's The Caine Mutiny, that's exactly what happens.  We're borne witness to the events leading up to the eventual takeover of the fictional USS Caine, and the events that happen after.

The story follows one newly-christened Ensign Keith (Robert Francis) as he's sent aboard the rather unkempt and unoccupied minesweeper, the USS Caine, and its ragtag crew.  When their captain is called away, and replaced with the overbearing Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart), their lives are changed, and so is their path towards the inevitable downward spiral which follows.

Queeg starts off on a well enough note, like a lot of commanding officers, doing things by the book, changing things for the better, turning this motley crew around....  but it quickly becomes apparent to the Caine's subordinate officers that there's much, much more to it than that.

Well, he's back.

In Rambo, Vietnam vet and disillusioned mercenary John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) finds himself approached by a band of Christian missionaries, eager to head up river from Thailand into Burma to deliver medicine and supplies.

You can pretty much guess what happens next.  And, of course it does.  But really Rambo puts a hell of a close on the franchise, and actually does so with a fair amount of thought behind it.  Well, at least more than I expected, anyway.

It doesn't hurt, either, when you're Stallone, and you write, produce, direct and star in the thing.  I'm almost more impressed it turned out like it did, despite all of that.

You know, I'm all for epic war movies.  Especially with an all-star cast such as you find with In Harm's Way.  But quite frankly, I didn't much care for this one, and I'll tell you why.

First off, lets get to the plot.  Basically you're looking at the Pacific fleet in some made-up operations against some made-up islands.  OK, I'll give you that.  Gavabutu and Levu Vana or something or other.  Operation Skyhook!  Woo.

The big problem is that In Harm's Way is just long, and lacks direction.  The movie starts with a rather convincing and stark portrayal of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  I was thinking, "hey! this is going to be good!"... Until the attack was over.

A pair of war movies make their DVD debuts today, without any further....

In The Valley of Elah (2007)

A career officer (Jones) and his wife (Sarandon) work with a police
detective (Theron) to uncover the truth behind their son's
disappearance following his return from a tour of duty in Iraq.

Redacted (2007)

Meh. Redacted.  Read my review of Redacted if you care to.  If you like good movies, then don't even bother.  Instead watch Casualties of War, a much better telling of this same story by the same director.  What else is there to say but, Blech.

Oh. My. God.  I think I just saw the world's worst movie.  Ever.  Hell Raiders is (I'm guessing) supposed to be about a band of army demolitions experts set out to destroy a building where they've stupidly left some very important classified papers hidden away in the floor.

But jeez is this thing terrible.  From the opening sequence where they use a bunch of stock footage to get to where they're going, you think "hey, this might be alright!"

Then the acting starts.  If you want to call it that.  This thing is so full of bad acting, bad direction, bad camera work, bad editing, bad makeup, and a bad soundtrack.  Quite honestly there's nothing much I could take away from this that I remembered as good in any way shape or form.

I've seen From Here to Eternity a few times now, and each time I wonder how it continually winds up on the top of the "best war movies of all time" lists.  Is it a bad movie?  Absolutely not, but I think it makes a better "chick flick" than war movie, and the reasons are pretty obvious.

We have Sgt. Warden (Burt Lancaster) going after an affair with Captain Holmes' (Philip Ober) wife Karen (Deborah Kerr.)  Without a doubt these are the steamiest parts of the film, and produce the famous "beach kiss" scene we've all seen a million times over.  In the end though, she wants more than he's willing to give up, and it basically ends.

OK, so maybe Once Upon a Honeymoon falls under the "romantic comedy" category rather than "war movie," but it is set during World War II, and in fact most of the plot has to do with the war, so here we are!

Here's the deal:  Wayward radio broadcaster Pat O'Toole (Cary Grant) is following the story of an American girl, Katie O'Hara (Ginger Rogers) who is set to marry one Austrian aristocrat, Baron Von Luber (Walter Slezak.)

What Katie doesn't know, but O'Toole suspects, and is trying to prove, is that Von Luber is in fact a member of the Nazi party, and is pulling strings behind the scenes to affect the Nazi takeover of Austria, and every other place he visits.

Well, O'Toole manages to sneak his way into see Katie in the guise of a wedding dress fitter, and becomes infatuated with her on a personal level.  From there he follows her and his story around, trying to get in her good graces in the process.