Slip Into A Sherman Tank In WWII And Hold On!! Awesome, but...

Rating: 8/10 (30 October 2014)

I love war movies, and having served in the Armed Forces I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of everything that is WWII, but I know enough to support my opinion. From the first 30seconds of the movie I felt like I was the fly on the wall within a Sherman tank. For me, that's all that mattered, it made the movie, it was original, and it felt authentic. Loved it! I will warn you, the movie was pretty light on story and goals, and surprisingly stronger on character. I liked it, and the lack of story didn't matter as I was happy to be along for the ride. The acting was top notch as expected.
For the few people that posted that the movie was a disgrace to the American serviceman?? I presume you are referring to the 'guy talk' about female refugees, what nearly happened in the 'home', and the treatment of German prisones of war? You weren't there, and I wasn't there... but if you think this kind of thing didn't happen, you're a little delusional. Soldiers who lived this life and death volatility day after day? Suffering from inhumane conditions, sights, and sounds? They're going to be a little messed up. No disrespect to any US service people as we totally appreciate what you're doing (or the service personal from any nation out there)... but Iraq, Afghanistan... the situation was nowhere near the WWI or WWII environment. Just sayin. Look at the body count.
So, the movie was awesome until the end. The final battle scene? Wow. Who wrote this? You did such a wonderful job up until now, but then... wtf? What a disaster. SPOILER alerts! Here are the numerous ways you demolished a perfectly good war movie, that had my eyes rolling and the audience whispering about how ridiculous things got. 1. War Daddy's tank disabled via a landmine. Send the young guy to the top of the hill as a lookout. Young guy spots 200-300 infantry (every 4th SS soldier is carrying panzerfaust/bazooka), a few mounted officers, and a few armored vehicles. Young Sherman crewman runs down the road, discusses the oncoming force with the Sherman crew, the crew debates staying with War Daddy, they prep the Sherman tank disguise, they sit in the tank and discuss life for nearly 4mins... hmm, this is a lot of time, and I'm surprised the young crewman outran the Germans in the first place. 2. 200-300 SS Infantry descend upon the tank, and surprise... the Sherman is manned and able to mow down a large number of SS. Beautiful! OK, but we already saw that every 4th or 5th soldier had Panzerfaust/bazooka, so why is it when you showed us a single German soldier with panzerfaust blowing to smithereens a tank with a single shot in the first battle scene... that now 200 infantry can't do the same thing to War Daddy's tank? 3. The Sherman is about to be swarmed with SS Infantry, let's toss out fragmentation grenades. OK. But since when do fragmentation grenades explode in a fiery explosion? I know, it's Hollywood... but, you lose points in a war movie in my opinion. 4. War Daddy's crew runs out of ammo, so they jump on the external guns. Four exposed soldiers versus 150+ SS Infantry. Wow, these Germans have TERRIBLE aim. Hey, let's get all suspenseful and show a German sniper crawling along the grass. Will he shoot War Daddy? Come on, there's no reason 150+ SS can't take out a stationary War Daddy on the .50cal. The sniper crawls to within 100ft of War Daddy. He aims through his scope, slows his breath. Bang! Hits War Daddy, but he's injured. Shoots War Daddy again, and he's injured... more? Hits War Daddy a third time and he finally slumps into the Sherman. Obviously 150+ infantry have such lousy aim, I'd expect the sniper would be just as bad? RIDICULOUS!
Everything leading up to this final battle was awesome! But then they had the audience groaning at the final disaster. All in all, still loved the movie and will buy it when it's out. Just goes to show, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers" are still the best WWII movies out there.