"The Slow and the Furious"

Rating: 5/10 (20 October 2014)

I went to see "Fury" a few days ago and am just now realizing how much I really remembered. Especially since I tried to forget it.
*Minor SPOILERS ahead* If you're looking for a reminder that war is hell and tough guys are tough because they are desensitized so much that they have become awful human beings, look no further than "Fury."
For me, the defining scene, the longest one, felt even longer given the director used it almost as the centerpiece to the film. This was where Brad Pitt and the "good" kid played house with a couple of German cousins. We trust them at this point in the film. Then, heavily suggesting consensual rape, the women had to then cook for the soldiers, and for no reason a great sense of dread came when the others joined in. They proved to be bullies and horribly juvenile, so much so that I expected Brad Pitt to put a bullet through their heads (he didn't, because he's one of them). Instead, he just spit at his fellow American soldier, which, I felt, was an insult to all American soldiers because of the way they are portrayed in this movie.
What I was expecting was a film about camaraderie and survival when it was almost anything but. The film turned into the feel-bad movie of the season seemingly trying to be a "day-ruiner," if you asked me, not because of the depressing colors or downer ending (okay, there's actually a somewhat hopeful ending), but because we're supposed to care about these characters.
To this movie's credit, the pacing was well done, only slowed down by one aforementioned scene. The music, by Stephen Price, was really good and moody and any intensity in the flick owes itself to his score. This is the man who made "Gravity" such a memorable experience. The action, random as it was, had graphic images spliced in that did add a great level of realism, as did the dialogue which felt authentic. The scenes built towards a climax that I would have preferred been the focus of the movie, if only because I didn't understand Brad Pitt (once again, acting with his haircut) and his motivations of staying with his dead tiger tank and awaiting to ambush a massive German army to march over them. The action itself, however, had me completely distracted by the green-laser-beam effect from the bullets flying by. I thought the special effects guys on the new Star Wars movie were experimenting or something. There was also a great deal of computer-generated explosions that took away from the "old fashioned film-making."
Plus, I must say, in the post-"Saving Private Ryan" world of cinema, making a world war II movie any less unique is a near waste of time for filmmakers and audiences alike.