Holy short guys with guns, Batman!! How did I miss this news!! Caramba! Check out the trailer, BEFORE you read the lamenting article below... Then read the review over at IMDB. Mixed reactions? Sure, but it looks like it could be good.



Link: Cannes Market Flash: Uwe Boll’s Vietnam Epic | SpoutBlog
Link: (IMDB) Tunnel Rats (2008)

Saigon.

Shit.

Few movies could pull off opening with those two words.  Apocalypse Now is that movie.  Period.

Apocalypse Now:Redux is a "director's cut" of sorts which puts back several scenes / episodes into the film that were dropped from its initial 1979 release.  Additionally it puts back the original ending.

A.N. is the story of one already-unstable Captain Willard (played by Martin Sheen) and his top-secret mission to "terminate the command" of one Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has gone stark raving mad and disappeared into the jungles of Cambodia.

Of course most of the film isn't so much about that, as it is about getting there, and how Willard prepares himself (and events prepare *him*) to meet this madman.

Along the way we're exposed to a lot of general madness.  A gung-ho surfer-dude Colonel in search of the perfect break, tigers in the bush, Playboy bunnies, the battle for a bridge that has gone completely out of control, what should be a routine riverboat insepction, native spear and arrow attacks...

... and in this release a couple of other deviations, namely the re-appearance of the aforementioned bunnies at a more-or-less abandoned "wild west" station, and the discovery of a group of French colonials defending their "plantation" in the midst of the war, complete with proper table settings.

I'm not sure putting these scenes back in was a good idea.  A lot of times the "director's cut" of a film rings truer to the original "vision" of a film.  If that's the case here, then its probably for the best that these scenes were dropped.  While the original "episodes" served to illustrate the madness of war, and prepare Willard somewhat for his final encounter, these two additions just don't make much sense at all.  The re-visited bunnies scene just comes across as twisted and morbid, and the French colonials just a boring sidestep.  I can somewhat understand the reasoning behind that bit being filmed, but the first?  It's just too "out there", even for this movie.

Of course eventually he and the remaining personnel on board "PBR Streetgang" finally meet up with Kurtz, and the journey towards madness is complete.  For both Kurtz and Willard.  The insanity of Kurtz is played brilliantly by Brando here.  And if nothing else, Dennis Hopper's short performance as the just-plain-weird photographer under Kurtz's spell is nothing short of genius.

I'm not going to spoil the ending, but the superimposition of the native's sacrifice with Willard's execution of his duties gets the message across.  Loud and clear.

The "fixing" of the final scenes in this version also tells us what happened to Willard.  The original it wasn't quite clear if he made it out before... well, I guess you'll have to see both to find out.





Technorati Tags: war movies, apocalypse now redux, vietnam, madness, dvd, reviews

...to star in Oliver Stone's "Pinkville," a film about the infamous My Lai masscre during the Vietnam war.

Willis will play William R. Peers, the real-life Army general who investigated the murder of about 350-500 people -- mostly women, children and the elderly -- by U.S. soldiers.

Channing Tatum ("Step Up") will portray Hugh Thompson Jr., an Army helicopter pilot who helped stop the killing by flying between the attackers and the My Lai villagers, rescued survivors and later testified against the soldiers.

Michael Pena is in talks to play Capt. Ernest Medina, the tough commanding officer of the troops responsible for the massacre who was charged in the crimes but ultimately found not guilty. Pena appeared in Stone's last film, "World Trade Center."

United Artists is in talks to finance the $40 million project, set for production next year. In the screenplay by Mikko Alanne, the audience pieces together the truth as Peers finds his way through the event's cover-up.

If it plays out like this it may not be quite as bad as I'm fearing.  I just have a bad feeling about this, that it will turn out to be some sort of statement on current military affairs or something worse.  Time will tell.

Link: Stone recruits Willis for My Lai massacre film | Entertainment | Reuters

Where do I even begin?  With the recent release of Redacted, director Brian DePalma has resurrected the spectre of the evil that men do during wartime.  Without going into great detail as to the failure of Redacted, I'll rather go into the huge success that his earlier telling of the true and near-identical story, Casualties of War, is.

Fresh into the Nam is PFC Eriksson (Michael J. Fox), who witnesses (along with the rest of his squad) his friend "Brownie" killed by an enemy sniper. 

His squad, Sgt. Meserve (Sean Penn), Clark (Don Harvey), and "Hatch" (John C. Reilly) decide to take revenge by kidnapping a Vietnamese girl (Thuy Thu Le) and, to put it kindly, treat her as "the spoils of war."  Eriksson stands as the voice of reason of the bunch, against it from the beginning, and refuses to take part in any of the evil deeds.  Brownie's replacement, Diaz (John Leguizamo) plays the "on the fence" character, who eventually (whether out of fear or just peer pressure) also damns himself with his actions.

I am in a world of shit, yes.  But I am alive, and I am not afraid.

Stanley Kubrick's 1987 masterpiece Full Metal Jacket is a somewhat bizarre animal.  Is it a hardcore war movie? Is it an anti-war movie? Is it a scathing parody of nearly any war movie that came before it?  Is it irreverent?  Disrespectful, true in many ways but so outlandish in others as to be laughed at?

Yes.  All of the above.  What Kubrick's done with this movie is simultaneously create a send-up of all those wonderfully optimistic war films from the 50's, with their portrayals of basic training as nothing but a two month camping trip and the job after as a picnic in paradise interrupted by brief portions of fighting.

The first half of the movie focuses on mainly three new recruits at Paris Island, One "Joker" (Matthew Modine), "Cowboy" (Arliss Howard), and "Gomer Pyle" (Vincent D'onofrio).  In the role that made him famous, R. Lee Ermey's drill sergeant character is a ruthless sadistic creature from hell, spouting endless streams of profanity and insults at our recruits.  Eventually, those insults, combined with the group mentality of the squad, bring Pyle (and the DS) to a very un-humorous demise.

In that first section of the film he not only parodies every other film portrayal of basic training to date, he does it in such an over the top and funny style, that only when its over do you realize how un-funny it all was.  He also says a great deal about the assimilation process and the indoctrination that goes on.

The second half of the film sends Privates Joker and Cowboy to different places and different jobs in Vietnam, with Cowboy (like most) in the infantry, and Joker as a writer for Stars and Stripes.

Just about every stereotype you can imagine is portrayed here, the not-so-bright heavy machine gunner, the everything-is-a-sports-metaphor Colonel, the Gung-Ho "I need to get in the shit" desk jockey... you name it.  All the while intermixed with just plain bizarre moments and strange speech-like dialogue such as posing with dead NVA soldiers on "his birthday" and booby-trapped stuffed animals.

There are moments in FMJ which defy explanation and stand out as just plain out of place.  Such as the scene where the documentary filmmaker is running down the line of Marines and they all spout off some overly scripted tripe while "The Bird" plays on the soundtrack.  Part of the parody?  Possibly, but its the "not executed well" parts of the movie that hurt it.

On an action-combat-and-mayhem level, there really isn't a whole lot to speak of.  There's a short firefight as the Tet offensive begins, another brief moment of panic as their squad is shelled as they approach some burning city, and not until the end of the film does the real shooting begin.

And in the end is where it all comes together, as... well I won't spoil it for you completely, but suffice it to say that Joker runs right out of jokes, and has to look death in the eyes and come to terms with it....

...While wearing a peace symbol button and "Born to Kill" scribbled on his helmet.

Don't go into to Full Metal Jacket expecting Platoon or Saving Private Ryan.  It's a fairly strange piece of film, but if you know what to expect you'll get more out of it than if you go in expecting another average action movie.

And if you see it on HDNet Movies as I did just now, be forewarned there are some strange digital artifacts that will drive you nuts during the last ten minutes or so.  It's just weird.

(I should mention, too, that every so often I see this UH-34D, YL-37 flying around the area.  These birds are featured prominently in FMJ, and hats off to these guys for keeping YL-37 going!)

Technorati Tags: full metal jacket, 1987 vietnam, marine corps, usmc, stanley kubrick, matthew modine, arliss howard, r. lee ermey, vincent d'ononfrio, uh-34d, yl-37, parody, satire, war movie review

I've always wanted to see "Jacob's Ladder" since it came out, and never had the opportunity. When it finally aired on HDNet Movies this past weekend I made a point of staying up and watching it. I'm glad I did.

I suppose you could say this isn't a "war movie" in the strictest sense, but it's premise relies on the Vietnam war experience of one Private Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins.) In fact the movie starts out with an ambush on his platoon's position by an unknown force.

And then it gets weird. And it keeps getting weirder. Part horror movie, part psychological thriller, part conspiracy movie, this thing just keeps your brain wondering just what the *@$% is going on! And it does it in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and sometimes hiding behind it.

I'm sitting here trying to come up with a way to explain it without spoiling it. If you have seen it you'll understand, if not then there is no other way than to see it. Period.

Tim Robbins as usual does an amazing job in his portrayal of Singer. Facing his angels and demons and trying to make sense of what is happening to him and his ex-army buddies. I will say that a big part of this revolves around him (seemingly) discovering that his unit was exposed to an experimental chemical agent that was supposed to make them better warriors, but had undesired effects. The film ends with a slide explaining that there are unconfirmed rumors that troops were actually exposed to a chemical called 'BX', but how that matters given the outcome of the movie really doesn't make any sense when you think about it.

When its over, you'll look back and see certain things that begin to make sense, especially when it comes to the whole angels-and-demons thing, and in particular Danny Aiello's role as Louis, Singers chiropractor.

Only tangentially a "war movie," "Jacob's Ladder" is an experience that must be seen to be understood.



Technorati Tags: war movies, movies, jacob's ladder, vietnam, reviews

If ever there was a definitive workhorse of a fighter jet, then the F-4 Phantom II was it. This documentary explores, in great detail, the history of the Phantom.

Actually, even though this DVD was just released, it appears from watching it that the material was produces sometime in the mid to late eighties. That's where the references to the Phantom stop, sometime after the British Falklands War. Not that it matters.