Call me a sucker for stuff like this, but I really ilked 1982's The Atomic Cafe. It's a roughly 90-minute film constructed entirely of bits and pieces of government films from various sources, news footage, and a soundtrack chock full of period pieces which further illustrate the tone of the picture.

We start the film with the infamous Trinity bomb test in New Mexico, and quickly move on to the August 1945 "Fatman" and "Little Boy" drops in Japan. From there, through the use of all these stock sources, we get a glimpse into the progression of the United States' nuclear program as seen (or should have been seen) from the public perspective.....

Enemy at the Gates is a dark, bleak, ultimately depressing look at one of the major bloodbaths of World War II, namely the siege of Stalingrad. More to the point, its about the battle between two snipers. Not that it improves the overall tone of the picture or anything.

Right from the get-go, you know how the rest of the film is going to be. As the Russian soldiers are herded onto the trains toward Stalingrad, and they are basically dumped into the thick of it, facing the German bullets on one side, or their own if they attempt retreat. So who's side are we supposed to be on, here, anyway?

I'm really a fan of Michael Caine, I just think he's one of those actors that really is a true professional. Throw any role at him and he'll turn it into something unique. However I was a little disappointed with 1968's Play Dirty.

Continuing in the vein of "getting the criminals to do the dirty work" movies like The Dirty Dozen and the recently reviewed The Secret Invasion, Play Dirty takes a bit of a unique twist on it. This time, a British Colonel sends this band of misfits off to blow up a German fuel depot far behind enemy lines in North Africa, in an attempt to validate his techniques of employing the local talent. However the higher-ups have other plans, instead using this group as a 'scout' to flush out the enemy resistance in front of the real expedition. But really, a fuel depot in North Africa? We could have been a little more original. (Dirty Dozen meets Tobruk? Yeah.)

Long-time war movie consultant Dale Dye is taking a shot at the director's chair! If you don't know who Mr. Dye is, he's been a sort of staple of modern war movies, from Platoon to Saving Private Ryan to Band of Brothers and lots more. He's usually got at least a minor role in the films he works on.

Quoted from the official movie site, http://www.nobetterplacetodie.com/

It is known as the bloodiest small-arms battle in the history of U.S. warfare. Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division jumped in the night through a torrent of gunfire into the swamped Normandy countryside. Hundreds were killed before they landed. Many drowned. Those who survived faced a deadly and vital mission. They were outnumbered and outgunned.

To the brave men whose blood and guts made possible the D-Day assault of June 6, 1944, there was “No Better Place to Die.”

Based on the true story of a young private who defied death to deliver orders from the commanding officers to the front lines at the La Fiere Bridge Causeway, “No Better Place to Die” relives the horrific fight that opened a route to victory for troops storming Utah Beach on D-Day.

The American soldiers had two heavily defended bridges to overtake and capture. They had 800 yards of hell to cross. Their only passageway: a narrow, elevated road surrounded by floodwater. As the hours and days passed, the water turned to blood in a battle of no turning back. Victory would bore a hole into Nazi-occupied France. It all came down to the heart, courage and will of heroes like PFC Charles DeGlopper, Gen. James Gavin, 1st Lt. John "Red Dog" Dolan, Private Bob Murphy and Lt. John Marr who could be found everywhere on D-Day.

They've got a blog, but it seems to be empty!

Found via the Armchair General Forum

You might well call The Secret Invasion, "The Filthy Four." Why? It's sort of a similar picture to The Dirty Dozen, except instead of twelve convicted criminals hand-picked for a suicide mission, this time its four.

The mission? To rescue an imprisoned Italian General from the Nazi prison in the Balkans, and return him to his followers who, its hoped, will turn against the Germans.

British Major Mace (Stewart Granger) picks the four miscreants, Rocca (Raf Vallone), Scanlon (Mickey Rooney), Fell (Edd Byrnes), and Durrell (Henry Silva) each for their "unique" talents. And much like the Dirty Dozen, they waffle back and forth between attempting escape, and following through loyally with their mission.

"The men who fought. The women who waited. And the stolen moments they shared." Ick.

For those of you wanting the short-and-sweet version of this review, here it is: 1955's Battle Cry is short on Battle, and long on Cry. In it, we follow a squad of Marines from enlistment in 1942 all the way through Saipan in 1944. Or do we? I gotta say, I feel gipped!!

Instead of following the Marines in action, we mostly are treated to a few shorter stories involving the mens' involvement with various persons of the female persuasion. It looked like it could be an interesting picture, but the whole "soap opera" nature of the film left me throwing up my hands and going "WTF?! Where's the war, man!"

What a strange movie The Secret of Santa Vittoria is. Just, well, strange. That's the only word I can think to describe it.

When Mussolini is gone, the citizens of the small Italian wine-making village place the inept drunken coward, Italo Bombolini (Anthony Quinn) into the office of Mayor. When they discover that the German army is occupying villages, soon to be including theirs, they devise a scheme to protect their 1.3 million bottles of vino from the pillaging Nazis. Yes, that many!