Hollywood hokum

Rating: 4/10 (11 January 2009)

With so many Hollywood movies, it is the overpowering production values that give them a sense of phony artificiality - a kind of connecting the dots for the popcorn munchers.
So it is with DEFIANCE. Excellent locations, solid cinema-photography, convincing costuming and makeup, etc. Many Hollywood movies are ruined by the perceived need to include box office stars rather than genuine actors. To its credit, DEFIANCE rose above this.
BUT!! Hollywood just cannot escape the strictures of covering all bases in plot evolution. Hence the clichÃ©s that abound, and the boring predictability, that separate the viewer from any emotional involvement. In DEFIANCE, we even had the cavalry arriving in the nick of time.
For gritty realism of Nazis in Bylorussia, watch COME AND SEE: a real movie, by a real director, from a country that makes real movies.