ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

stecrowd-64865 This is not a great movie. To me, a great movie is one that has an emotional catch of some sort. This one is lacking.

gary-444 A film that over reaches itself in ambition despite having a good Director, John "Hamburger Hill" Irven at the helm, and a good story to work with, the battle of Hurtgen Forest which preceded the Battle of the Bulge. However two obstacles become insurmountable, a puny budget, and a terrible script.Made in 1998, it attempts to be gritty and realistic, but the dialogue does not feel contemporary, and the action sequences are unconvincing with close up gore shots used to try to compensate. The battle scenes cannot match Saving Private Ryan, nor the epic sweep of The Thin Red Line. Irven is simply not good enough to reprise Kubrick's success with similar limitations in Full Metal Jacket.Ultimately the film does not go anywhere. The frailties of men in battle, once shown, dull after a while. The failings in US Command strategy are only hinted at. Combine a fuzzy story and bad dialogue and you have a formula for creating characters which are half formed and unlikeable, which is what we have here.When you make a film fifty years after the event it really needs to say something, to shed some light on a hitherto unilluminated corner – this does neither.

phatrick88 After reading all the positive reviews on IMDb about this movie, I couldn't wait to see it. Well, it was a nice effort but alas a bit overrated. It's hard to forget you're watching a made for television movie while sitting through this one, unfortunately the film can't shake that air of low budget. The fighting scenes, what little there were, had a certain cheese factor to them. Some of the explosions looked like they came from cheap fireworks, the gunfire was dubbed in later and is totally incorrect for the weapons being used, we didn't get to see enough of the Germans, just American G.I.'s charging into endless explosions. Wish there had been more character development, because there was really none. The movie tries hard to be dramatic, but it's hard to feel emotional or sympathetic about someone you know nothing about. Attention to detail was really pretty good, everything looked pretty much correct(weapons/uniforms/gear) except for the German Tanks.With that being said, the movie did keep my attention for the 90 minute running time. When it comes to war movies, i've seen much worse, and I don't mind the $5 I paid for this one and am glad to have it in my collection. It's not a terrible movie at all, just simply middle of the road; nothing more, nothing less. Certainly no Saving Private Ryan, but worth a look if you're a fan of World War II or War films.

ethan-hinch-1 This movie portrays the common soldier in a very different light than many other war movies. In so called "War Epics", the soldiers are all courageous and heroic, willing to do anything to fight the enemy and save Europe. Their is perhaps one soldier in the squad who is a coward, the one who stands out compared to his allies bravery. But in this movie, the main character is a coward, or at least he thinks he is. He doesn't want to fight, and does whatever he can to save his skin. But when the Commander reads the Captain's report about Manning, he is right when he describes his innate ability to lead and his battlefield six sense. He shoots one of his own soldiers in the back, but by doing so he stops his squad from retreating and they successfully destroy their objective, an artillery gun, and save the lives of many other soldiers. This is a new, refreshing spin on the common soldier, and is perhaps more realistic than other views that are presented. The only detractor from the film is the weak music, which is thin and distracts one from enjoying the otherwise superb war movie.