When it comes to truly epic war movies a few come to mind. Lawrence of Arabia, The Longest Day, maybe even Patton or Band of Brothers.... But this is almost the very definition of epic. Weighing in at nearly *five* hours long, Red Cliff does not fail to deliver. Based on a battle from... »
Well, I think I'll let my original review of We Were Soldiers stand. Except for the following... Yeah, I guess that is what that part of Vietnam looks like. Sort of. I stand corrected. And every time I see this movie (a few times since that initial review was posted) I like it less... »
Saving Private Ryan (1998, Blu Ray) Well, its finally happened!! Saving Private Ryan is available on Blu Ray! Awesome! I'm going to leave the gist of things to my other review of Saving Private Ryan, based on the DVD, and stick to the Blu here. In short. Wow. I can honestly say that this... »
Tomorrow brings the release of the Reader's Digest WWII in the Pacific 6-DVD box set from Questar. I was fortunate enough to have an early glimpse at this, and I'm glad I did... but.... The set comes in a fairly attractive package, the black/white with gold accents is a nice addition to the shelf. ... »
The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009) The Men Who Stare At Goats is, for the most part, a pretty damn funny movie. For the most part. Mediocre newspaper reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) stumbles across a "loser" who claims to have been a part of an drug-fest army "psych" experiment. Later, while trying... »
I'm going to write up a review of the first episode of HBO's new miniseries, The Pacific, just because I don't want everyone to think I'm asleep at the wheel here! Without a doubt, The Pacific is a companion piece to 2001's Band of Brothers, from the long somber intro, to the black, red,... »
Hart’s War (2002) Hart's War is a courtroom mystery twist drama movie wrapped up in a war movie. There, I said it. While it turns out to be a fair contender in the first categories, as a war movie it just isn't all that. Lt. Thomas Hart (Colin Farrell) gets sent to Augsburg prison... »
Tears of the Sun (2003) Well, if there's one thing Bruce Willis does well, its play hard-nosed military types, such as Lt. A.K. Waters in Tears of the Sun. Part of a Navy Special Ops team, he's dropped into Nigeria to rescue one Dr. Kendricks (Monica Bellucci) and a few other do-gooders at a... »
Awesome news! Except that there are no concrete details as of yet, including extras or a firm release date... but its still totally excellent news!!! I'm hoping that Spielberg takes full advantage of the format. Lots of extras, maybe some new stuff. Dreaming of a 7.1 Master Audio soundtrack but its pretty unlikely. Link:... »
Well, I finally got around to watching 1968's The Green Berets again. It's been a long, long time, and parts of it were just as I remembered, I found myself thinking much differently about it. Age and experience, plus a few years of writing this site I suppose, but here's the skinny. To my... »
Thank God for small miracles. Personally I think Rambo should be left alone. I mean, I thought Rambo 4 was a fitting piece of closure for the character. To resurrect him now that he's gone home for good would seem to defeat the purpose. Am I wrong? But this, this would have been completely... »
CNN has a brief interview with the author of a new book (give your agent a bonus!), historian Antony Beevor, who seems to have a beef with "Saving Private Ryan." First off let me say I agree with some of what he's got to say in the article. I especially think he's right about... »
The Springfield News-Sun posits the question, "What is the best film ever made about the U.S. military?" and gets some interesting results. Personally I find it telling that most of the answers are more-or-less recent films.... So what's your answer? Here's a few of theirs.... STEVE BILLINGSLEY, Fairborn: “It would be ‘Saving Private Ryan’... »
