Not a classic, but serviceable

Rating: Null/10 (12 June 2015)

In some aspects, "Fury" feels like an old fashioned war movie from several decades ago. The movie does dabble with character clichés that are right out of the golden age of Hollywood (the green recruit, the ethnic soldier, etc.) Though the war films from the golden age usually went into better depth with their characters; the characters here are somewhat thin. In its defense, the movie does make the interesting decision to not make all of its main characters completely likable; they all are shown to have some negative aspects. And while their constant swearing is a little annoying, I think that's how many soldiers in the battlefield talk. The movie is also more explicit than older war movies with its violence. There is some truly graphic violence here, but it's depicted in a way that shows that real warfare is not fun and games - it's serious business. I will admit that some of the tactics used by both sides in warfare in the movie are a little hard to swallow, but the battles are compelling all the same. And while the story suffers from the fact that it's basically a collection of (long) vignettes instead of one solid story, the movie is not boring despite lasting more than two hours. While I wouldn't say the movie is worth paying top dollar to see, it is worth a viewing under less expensive conditions, like when it comes on cable.