Filmmaker Davy Ayer's foray into male bonding via WWII warfare hits all the right marks for a steadily paced but somewhat rote period piece

Rating: 7/10 (17 October 2014)

FURY (2014) **1/2 Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal, Jim Parrack, Brad William Henke, Kevin Vance, Jason Isaacs. Filmmaker Davy Ayer's foray into male bonding via WWII warfare hits all the right marks for a steadily paced but somewhat rote period piece about a tank squadron in 1945's battle-weary European front attempting to remain alive in spite of impossible odds to the no-end-in-sight battles yet to be fought. The characters are somewhat cardboard thin, cookie-cutter (i.e. noble ethnic, muscle-head jerk, religious peacenik and green around the gills rookie) yet the ensemble of talent - particularly a world-weary Pitt (starting to show some character in his handsome face) as the sergeant in command who can feel the unbearable gravity of their plight weighing them down in to only a matter of time. The ugly muck and mire, grime soaked bruised palette by Roman Vasyanov's cinematography and Andrew Menzies production design allows for the gritty verisimilitude amidst sprinkling of graphic red bloodshed and unspeakable violence.