Boiled down review

Rating: 8/10 (22 October 2014)

Let me just skip the "the director that brought us this and that" or "Pitt delivers a such and such performance". Everyone already wrote those lines, so I'll just get down to saying what you really want to know.
Is this a good war movie? Yes. It's not a masterpiece, but it's definitively a very good film. Experiencing it on a big screen is something I recommend.
There's a LOT of very realistic gore. Heads exploding like pinatas, body parts being taken, rotting bodies everywhere etc. If you're sensitive to this sort of stuff, this is not a movie for you. It's also not a date-movie. With that said, I brought my fiancée along and she liked the movie.
The action is gripping, it really draws you in and the battle scenes are spectacular. I will not say more, but they're definitively some of the best tank battle scenes I've ever seen. Also, the chaotic dynamics of war are pretty realistically displayed. To me it also seemed pretty detailed in historic realism, although I'm sure that trained eyes will probably note that some weapon has a wooden oak handle instead of pine or stuff like that.
Now onto the negatives. There are a couple of "Murica f*** yeah" moments, which didn't bother me, but a lot of people burst into sarcastic laughter in my theater. Some of the constant and loooong Bible quotations almost made me expect Samuel L Jackson himself will pop up to deliver the famous Pulp Fiction speech. One or two would be OK. This was over the top. Germans seem to be VERY bad at aiming, refilling their weapons and generally surviving.