You won't be getting any negative waves from me!

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2006)

During WW2, the USA army are battling the Germans in France and former Lieutenant now Pvt. Kelly abducts a German official to get some information out of him, but instead he accidentally learns that there is a fortune of gold bars in a bank behind enemy lines. So, Kelly comes up with a mad scheme, which his misfit platoon get involve and those you can help out in the plan of sneaking in to knock off the million dollars in gold. While this is happening, Major General Colt who's tracking them on the radio believes that these passionately brave soldiers are leading the way in, trying to win the war single handedly, but we know otherwise.
Whoa! There's nothing but all guns blazing in this big production well, also throw in zillions of flourishing explosions causing a lot of loud bangs which amount to pure destruction and during the night sequences a spectacular light show every now again. This continuously runs for over two hours! That may seem overlong, but it doesn't feel it. That's because in never takes a break, well not a long one at least and because of that there's a brisk pace about it. So, you surely can't ask more. But this hybrid, comic book war flick doesn't just only go gung-ho, but it also mixes in a real jokey script that never disrupts the balance between the bouncy humour and dead serious moments. Very much, it successfully gels the two together. Actually if you've seen "Three Kings (1999)", you'll know what to expect, as it's very similar to that film. The humour and central idea are actually very close. Other then an economically clever script, an excellent ensemble cast help keep this from turning into an outrageous spoof. You could say it's a vehicle for the stars, even though too many stars can spoil the brew, but here it comes through with flying colours. Clint Eastwood might get top billing here, but it's his co-stars that mostly chew up the screen time. These are very much larger than life characters in this platoon full of wise guys. Eastwood gives a steely performance as Pvt. Kelly. You got Telly Savalas as MSgt. Big Joe the demanding father figure of the platoon. Don Rickles as Crapgame, who always like to speak his mind. Carroll O'Connor plays the hilarious Major General Colt and finally the most memorable of all would be Donald Sutherland's sweet talking hippie tank-man Oddball. He makes a great opening entrance and his dialog has a lasting impression! "Have a little faith." Also you got the likes of Harry Dead Stanton, Gavin MacLeod and Hal Buckley. The superb chemistry between all was that of first class. What made it great was that when there was no action occurring, you got humorously great exchanges between the believable characters.
Director Brian G. Hutton who also directed Eastwood in the solid "Where Eagles Dare (1968)" comes up with a grand scale war/heist flick that builds up some tension in certain scenarios. These can be found in the opening sequence, and especially in the minefield scene and of course the final battle for the gold in a sleepy town. Also he provides some enterprising periods like that towards the end of the flick with the final showdown in the town square that reminisce something out of a spaghetti western. Well, it did have a western theme song playing through it. That was a nice added touch. The camera work is pretty standard, but does break the ice at times with some flair. The pounding and sometimes rattling score pretty much stuck with the standard themes like that of the drum based to trumpet playing that you hear in most war films, but it did cater for all moods. Plus the theme song may seem dated, but the buoyant tune "Burning bridges" by The Mike Curb Congregation does have an everlasting charm about it. Under all that haywire and spicy banter script is an anti-war slogan, but that never gets in the way of the entertainment valve. So does it hit any hurdles? Well if it did, it went unnoticed by me.
Being an Eastwood fan I've made it an aim to see every flick of his, so far I haven't come across many I don't like. There's something about his subtle presence in films that I find it simply irresistible that it's hard to take my eyes of off. But here, he had a lot of other great performances to work off. This is purely a boy's own adventure here to entertain with its rising excitement levels and chirpy humour that's never far away. Highly entertaining war caper with plenty of ka-boom!