Looks like this year will be an improvement over previous years, almost makes me wish I had satellite/cable again! Well, maybe not.  But to start with, Turner Classic Movies is going all out with an all-weekend war movie marathon, with a bunch of top-shelf classics....  and a bunch of titles I don't recognize!  Set... »

On the day that Platoon appears on shelves in a much-awaited Blu Ray format, MovieWeb has an interview with war movie consultant (and soon director) Dale Dye about both movies.... Oliver had been trying to do Platoon, or a version of Platoon for about 10 years, and couldn't get anybody to back him. The... »

Don't mistake To End All Wars for just another rehash of The Bridge on the River Kwai.  While the topic-at-hand is the same, the setting the same, and yeah, more or less the gist of the thing is the same, this movie delivers a bit more gut-wrenching reality to the screen, and a slightly... »

In 1995 Showtime released this miniseries/docudrama about the events leading up to, and including the atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The short version:  It's not bad, but its not great, either. The facts are pretty well known, as is the story, so I won't even attempt to lay it all out here. ... »

Thanks to indie director Chris Grega for sending me a copy of his film, "Rhineland."  Once again I have to cede my penchant for big-budget hollywood productions and go, "HOW did you pull this thing off?!" Because (for the most part) this picture is pretty danged good.  I "say for the most part" since,... »

Fires on the Plain manages to compress all of the inhumanity, desolation, and desperation of war into the scope of a two hour span, and yet still manages to maintain the humanity, albeit just barely, of the main character, Tamura. (Eiji Funakoshi) Taking place in the Philippines as Allied forces sweep over Leyte in... »

Take equal parts Black Hawk Down and Cloverfield, mix in elements from District 9, Aliens, War of the Worlds, The Phantom Menace, any FPS video game, and Independence Day, and you get this years sci-fi war movie, Battle: Los Angeles. Look, I actually liked this movie.  Yeah, I did.  It has its flaws, but... »

There are some movies which are just plain difficult to watch, but you really need to watch them anyway.  1984's The Killing Fields is one of those pictures. Towards the end of the Vietnam war, the US briefly attempted to expand the war into Cambodia, with disastrous results.  The existing government was overthrown and... »

Wow, just wow.  I'd read a lot about this movie out of Korea, about a band of college students thrust onto the front lines during the start of the Korean War, but I had no idea what I was getting into here.  Take elements from Saving Private Ryan, Letters from Iwo Jima, and some... »

In another browsing-thru-netflix-streaming-WTF-is-this-one? moment, I found this little gem, Northwest Frontier, or Flame Over India. It takes place in British occupied India, more specifically the territory still squabbled over between India and Pakistan, just after the turn of the century when the British foothold in the region was sketchy at best. Capt. Scott (Kenneth... »

I really, really wish I could find more information on this little-known movie, because as cliched and strange as it is, I found it highly interesting.  Not so much for the plot, but for some of the subject matter therein. Quick plot summary:  At a rear-ward fighter base in Japan during the Korean War,... »

If you watch no other documentary about the Vietnam war, you should make it 1974's Hearts and Minds.  It's a chilling look at what (even then) was known about what was going on over there, and how it all never should have happened in the first place. First off, realize that this movie is... »

"Go For Broke!" was the motto of the 442nd Combat team, famous for being comprised of Japanese-Americans, a number of which were from the internment camps (more on this below.)  This film is an early tribute to these men, and in fact, a number of them actually star therein. Lieutenant Grayson (Van Johnson) is... »