Been there, done that

Rating: 6/10 (20 October 2014)

The visuals and effects are outstanding. The acting is great and they really do a great job setting the mood. I loved the scenery and detail especially the tanks. The death was graphic and a few caught me off guard like the tanks rolling over dead bodies in the road. I also loved the tiger tank scene. I was really impressed that it is not only a real tiger tank but is actually the only surviving functional tiger tank in the world. Now the bad. The story of the fng being thrown into a group of hardened veterans has been done to death. The fact the new guy was never trained to drive a tank and had never seen the inside of one and was a typist before seemed alittle dumb. Why wouldn't the military retrain a seasoned soldier to do it. I had a hard time sitting through the whole meal eating and the new guy and his German girlfriend. They drag it on way too long and I was falling asleep. I hated what low life's most of war daddies crew were. It made it hard to feel anything for them. Then I felt there were a lot of misplaced ideals like the end when the German soldier discovers the new guy hiding under the destroyed tank and doesn't say anything and let's him live even though he had wasted tons of that Germans platoon. Does that mean the Germans had more morals than Americans? they show scenes of not only abuse but executions of German POWs by Americans. It sounds like I'm being harsh, all in all not a bad movie but certainly not "All Quiet on the Western Front". I will probably still pick it up on DVD because I can always fast forward through the boring parts.