Take the crew of a cargo ship that hasn't been on leave in over a year, and a hard-nosed captain, a disillusioned cargo officer and a misfit laundry officer and you've got Mister Roberts.

The plot of Mister Roberts revolves around, well, Mister Roberts (Henry Fonda), the cargo officer who wants desperately to be transferred off the ship and into real combat. He's a hero to the men on the ship and an all around nice guy. On the other side is the "by-the-book" Captain Morton (James Cagney), who proudly displays his palm tree award just outside the bridge.

This is a curious one, an anime-style series set in Russia during WWII, and featuring such amazing things as undead Nazi samurai on horseback(!) Well, at least its stylistically interesting.... Here's a trailer. I guess I'll have to see it. Not a huge fan of anime, but I'll give it a shot.



Link: Official First Squad site
Link: WWII Anime: Nazi zombies & Soviets with superpowers

The Counterfeiters (or Die Fälscher as its known in its native Deutschland) is a sad, sad, depressing, and somber look at the Nazi's effort to undermine the economies of its enemies during the war by dumping millions in counterfeit notes into their systems.

Unfortunately they utilized Jewish prisoners who possessed specific skills for their nefarious deeds. The story is told from the point of view of one of them, Salomon Sorowitch (Karl Markovics), who was a gangster and counterfeiter in his former life. Just the kind of man they need. Early on, he's betrayed, arrested and thrown into prison by Friedrich Herzog. Herzog will later re-appear as the leader of this "project."

In a word: Ick. In two more words: Don't bother.

Robert A. Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers was a story about the conflicts inherent in anybody in military service. The tear between duty and what's right. The often necessary evils one must do in order to save the greater good....

Then there was the 1997 film of the same name. While taking most of that and chucking it out the window, it at least served as a strange sort of parody of war movies and war-time propaganda, with the smiling faces of the young attractive folks torn to shreds by the bugs, and the constant happy recruitment and gung-ho going on around them....

And then there is Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation. Directed by visual effects genius Phil Tippett, this travesty should have been left as a proposal buried on somebody's desk.

Well, I finally got a chance to see it. I have to say, "YEAH!" Not bad at all. Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder manages to lampoon the entire war movie genre, and liberally thrash the Hollywood "system", while still delivering a damn fine movie, comedy or not.

Just as in the eternal classics Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and Zoolander, the more-or-less inept underdogs get through their trials and emerge victorious. Really that's what's at the heart of it all. But as is the case, the fun is in getting there.

I'm not even sure how to begin with (or end, or even put the stuff in the middle of) this review. On the one hand, Stalingrad is a stark depiction of what it must have been like during the battle of the same name. Full of vivid, graphic, and disturbing imagery, it paints a depressing picture, and rightly so. Not only in the production and effects, but the main characters, a squad of Germans, themselves get torn apart, inside and out, until the very end.

On the other hand, I found the film lacking in a few respects. The characters themselves don't seem to have much personality at all. The one exception might be the company Lieutenant, Witzland (Thomas Kretschmann.) He is the epitome of the man thrust into the heart of an evil situation, trying hopelessly to do the right thing, and it winds up the method of his destruction....

Yet another addition to the "all time best classic war movies" list, 1954's The Bridges at Toko-Ri stands as a shining example of quite possibly the perfect war movie. Well, maybe that's stretching it, but man, this is really hard to beat.

The film starts on board the aircraft carrier Savo Island in the middle of the Korean war. These carrier deck scenes are just truly incredible, as a near documentary of early navy jet aviation. The Navy provided extensive support and access for this film, and the Grumman F9F Panthers nearly steal the show. Nearly.

One pilot, Lt. Harry Brubaker (William Holden) has to ditch due to mechanical trouble, and is rescued from the cold and choppy waters of the North Pacific by Mike (Mickey Rooney) and Nestor (Earl Holliman). It's from here that his descent starts.