This curious little picture opens this weekend. I only mention it because it involves a young English boy whose mind is 'blown open' by watching Rambo: First Blood, the first movie he's allowed to see.

Unsure why they'd pick something like that, or how this will turn out. But it will likely be an interesting look at the effect war movies have on people....

Link: Son of Rambow (2007) - Plot summary

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.

Entertainment Weekly has psted their review of "Rambo."  Pretty short, but they do give it better than average marks, which does surprise me.  Haven't had a chance to see it yet (can't get away!)

This closing statement does give a little bit of hope that the old Rambo's not dead yet....

The brutality, tough enough to take, would be intolerable if Stallone didn't toss the movie like a cant-clearing grenade at notions of stay-the-course righteousness (not to mention at the sermonizing of more faith-based agonies staged by Mel Gibson). Rambo teaches that fighting sucks, good intentions can be futile, and coalitions of the willing are a charade: A man's got to do what a man's got to do. Sometimes that means tying on the old bandanna to hack one's way out of the Hollywood jungle so disorienting to aging action stars.

Link: Rambo | Movie Review | Entertainment Weekly

Technorati Tags: war movie news, new releases, rambo, review, stallone

This week all I could find releasing on DVD was this little tidbit from Argentina, a film about the local perspective on the Falkland Islands conflict of '82:

Blessed By Fire (2005)

A powerful Argentinean antiwar film in the tradition of American Vietnam films such as Full Metal Jacket and Coming Home, Blessed By Fire is the story of two young men sent to fight the 1982 war in the Falkland Islands (or as they are known in Argentina, the Malvinas) who return home bearing the brutal scars of war.

Twenty years after the war's end, journalist Esteban Leguizaman (Gaston Pauls) is informed that Alberto Vargas (Pablo Ribba), one of the men he served with, has attempted to commit suicide after suffering from years of depression brought on by his experiences in the war. Esteban visits the comatose Vargas at the hospital, and in a series of extended flashbacks, revisits the scene of Argentina's "unwinnable war."

Esteban and fellow soldiers Vargas (Pablo Ribba, the man in the coma) and Juan (Cesar Albarracin) are living in foxholes on the remote, windswept Malvinas, battling hunger, boredom, abuse, and the deprivations of war as they await the arrival of English forces. A series of harrowing battle scenes with English forces ensue, and the Argentines realize the futility and violence of their mission. They're cannon fodder, overwhelmed, outnumbered, pawns in a futile political game.

Back in the present, Esteban returns to the Malvinas to come to terms with himself and the past. These emotional final scenes were shot on location in the Malvinas, the first Argentinean film to do so, and as Esteban looks over the still off-limits battlefields filled with mines, live ammunition, and rusting military equipment, the futility of war is abundantly clear. Controversial in its homeland and politically relevant in the U.S, Blessed By Fire is a moving tribute to the veterans of all wars and the psychological burdens they bear.

Technorati Tags: new releases, war movies, dvd, 7/17, july 17, blessed by fire, falklands, 1982

Unsure when the promotion for this started, but I just saw the ads on TNT.  This looks like it could be good.  Really good....   Here's the blurb from the official site:

With this cast, and the same  minds that brought us Band of Brothers, I suddenly can't wait!

This summer, TNT proudly presents The Company, the story of the Cold War -- its beginnings in the early 1950s, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Bay of Pigs fiasco in the 1960s and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – as told from the perspective of the soldiers involved: the spies of the CIA and the KGB. This epic three-week television event stars an international cast headed by Chris O’Donnell (Scent of a Woman, Grey’s Anatomy), Alfred Molina (Frida, The Da Vinci Code, Spider-Man 2) and Michael Keaton (Live from Baghdad, Cars). It comes to TNT from Sony Pictures Television and acclaimed executive producers Ridley Scott (Gladiator), Tony Scott (Man on Fire), John Calley (The Da Vinci Code); and co-executive producers David W. Zucker (Numb3rs) and David A. Rosemont (Into the West). The series will debut in August in two-hour installments over three consecutive Sundays, with the Sunday, August 5, premiere being presented with limited commercial interruption, sponsored by Ford and Quiznos. In addition, a special 10-part broadband series Spy Toys of the CIA, hosted by O’Donnell, will be available at tnt.tv beginning Friday, July 13.

Directed by Emmy winner Mikael Salomon (Band of Brothers, TNT’s Salem’s Lot) and adapted by Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) from the best-selling historical novel by Robert Littell, The Company follows a game played over four decades, from the rainy streets of Berlin to the shores of Cuba, from secret revolutionary gatherings in Budapest to high-level meetings in the halls of Washington and Moscow. The chessboard is the entire globe, with pieces being moved and counter-moved carefully to try to gain advantage in the standoff between two super powers. In the end, the primary casualties were felt on the national and personal level by both willing participants and innocent bystanders.

Each night of The Company has a unique tone, with Night 1 presenting the early years of the CIA during the Cold War as a taut espionage thriller set mostly on the streets of East and West Berlin, where the cat-and-mouse games between the CIA and the KGB begin. Night 2 is an action thriller, with the primary focus placed on two violent and tragic events: the Hungarian uprising of 1956, which was quashed by massive Soviet involvement, and the Bay of Pigs, in which Cuban rebels attempted to oust Castro from power. And Night 3 is a complex psychological thriller, with the CIA desperately searching within its own ranks for a KGB mole who has been undermining CIA missions for decades.

Visit the official "The Company" site for photos and other info...

Link: The Company (Official Site)
Link: The Company on IMDB

Technorati Tags: The Company, Tnt, cold war, soviet union, CIA, central intelligence agency, chris o'donnell, alfred molina, michael keaton, ridley scott, tony scott, mikal salomon, john calley, david zucker, david a rosemont, ken nolan, war movie news

(insert that funky mechanical sound here...)

I know what you're thinking.  "Why are you posting a review of a film like Transformers on a War Movie Reviews site??!!!"  The answer is simple, but takes a bit of explaining... "More than meets the eye" indeed!  I should start off by saying that I never owned a Transformers toy in my life (really!) and didn't care much for the cartoon series... but none of that matters now!

The movie starts off at a fictitious military base in present day Qatar, where the evil Blackout attacks and hacks into the government network.  From this point it was clear to me that I had to post up this review here.  The action here is amazing, if a bit on the hokey side (hey it is Michael Bay after all.)  Blackout's goal is to find the location of an ancient plot device energy source called "The Cube" or in TF jargon, "The All-Spark" that will enable the evil Decepticons to revive their long-lost leader Megatron and take over the universe.

Of course the benevolent Autobots have arrived to prevent this from happening.  The result is a movie packed with more military hardware, war-room scenarios, and arguing generals than you can shake a rubik's cube at.

From the initial attack in Qatar, filled with flying tanks (do tanks bounce when thrown?) and small arms fire, the military action moves to a nearby village where the sand-digging TF (anyone have a name? I didn't catch it!) makes a last stand against a group of soldiers, and is nearly destroyed by a pair of A-10 Warthogs making a rather convincing low altitude run.  Any time you get to see a pair of 'hogs doing their dirty work is a bonus in my book.

Then they call in the venerable AC-130 to finish it off, and amazingly they seem to get some of the details right!  Circling around raining hot molten death on the alien menace, the Spectre blows a section of its tail off before it makes its underground escape.  The battle is an intense one, with bits of nearby buildings exploding in flurries of cement shrapnel.

The final battle brings yet more military hardware into play, including an appearance by the Air Force's latest weapon, the F-22 Raptor.  Of course the evil Star Scream has assumed this same identity, and takes down a few on his rampage.

There's lots of small arms action everywhere as well, but the big battle scenes are actually quite impressive in their carnage and destruction.  If you want to call it that.

The rest of the story? Well, you know.  It's your typical formula Hollywood fare.  Boy meets (smoking hot) girl, they drive a robot car, get into adventures, that sort of thing.  Throw in a dash of Area 51-ish top secret government agencies, a bit of nonsensical computer hackery (what was all that anyway? was it even needed?) and you've got a new action classic.

I will say this:  This movie was definitely made for the stereotypical child of the 80's, like myself who are now in their 30s.  I wouldn't recommend taking small children to see it, though.  It's just a bit intense during the combat scenes, there is some language and a couple of scenes that might take some, well, explaining ("Mom!")

The only gripes I have about this movie relate to some of the robot battle scenes.  The action is so fast paced and frenetic that the complex CG models of the TFs seem to disappear in a blur.  It becomes really difficult to make out exactly what is going on.  Even on the big screen.

And speaking of the CG, all I can say is wow.  How cool was that?!  I can't imagine the work that went into the modeling here, let alone the transformation sequences.  The detail and complexity of each model is simply incredible.

So if you can put away your preconceptions of this movie and the franchise (what does this say about our society, when a 20-year old cartoon that was made to sell toys becomes a big-budget feature...), and enjoy watching modern military hardware duke it out with fantastic alien robots who double as everyday vehicles... then get out and watch this!!  It's an excellent excuse to spend a Sunday afternoon at the movies munching some corn.

I'm giving this an 8/10.  It could have been higher but I thought they put in way too many pop-culture references and product placements, almost to the point of being corny (The TF's browse eBay? And learned to speak from the Web? What?)  Those will date this film severely in the long run.

Technorati Tags: transformers, 2007, war movie reviews, ac-130 spectre, a-10 warthog thunderbolt ii

And an un-promoted one at that.  Maybe I've been outside the areas its being released in, but I've heard nothing about it.  Guess I'll be waiting for the DVD....

Based on the true story of German-born Dieter Dengler, who dreamed of being a test pilot and thus made his way to America, where he joined the military in pursuit of his obsession to fly. On his first mission in Vietnam, he is shot down and captured by Vietcong guerrillas.

Here's the previous War Movie News on Rescue Dawn...

Link: Rescue Dawn (2007) - Movie Info - Yahoo! Movies

Technorati Tags: war movie news, rescue dawn, new releases