A good rainy day flick worth checking out

Rating: 8/10 (15 March 2011)

This movie actually sailed underneath the radar for me when it was released, as I had never heard of it until I seen it on Netflix, but long story short I'm glad I came across this. The opening scenes start out at the Malmedy massacre in WW II, where a small group of US soldiers manage to escape the slaughter. But, the hiccup in that fact is that they also happen to be behind enemy lines so they were essentially out of the frying pan and into the fire so to speak. While trying to navigate back they stumble across a downed Royal Air Force Pilot who is carrying vital intel that they must get back to the Allied Forces.
The characters, while predictable and cheesy at times, were likable in my opinion. I liked their interactions even though at some points it seemed too contrived or forced to be really believable. But while the cast are not a well known group, I liked the work they did. To get a good mind set of this type of movie, think of it as a movie more about characters that happen to be in WW2 rather than a straight up WW2 movie. This movie is more character driven and the hook is that you wait to see if they make it or not. There are even some moral interactions between them and a few Nazis. While its been done before it was still and interesting aspect. Don't expect them to storm the enemy lines yelling "git some" while carrying 60lb machine guns while Nazi body parts and dirt coat the camera lenses. They are outnumbered and out gunned and rely on stealth through 95% of the movie. They do manage to kick some ass at points when the action picks up, but this is not an action driven movie.
As far as action goes, this movie isn't for everyone. If you're expecting typical Hollywood guts, butts, and elbows flying across the screen this is not your flick. It is PG-13, which to be honest, is a welcome relief considering a lot of war movies rely too much on the gore. We don't need to know what happens to the human body when hit with a grenade in close up detail. We know what happens. We've seen it countless times in past movies. While some people do get shot and blown up in this movie you never actually see those things depicted in a gory mist, just explosions and squibs.
If your looking for history buff accuracies you will also be disappointed as this story is more fiction based with fictional characters and moments simply inspired by some real stuff thrown into it. It has factual "inspirations" but don't expect details fine tuned down to microscopic levels.
This movie was limited budget and on that note they did an admirable job. This is not Band of Brothers, or Saving Private Ryan that tell the story in hours and hours...Saints and Soldiers had little time and money to tell a story in an hour or so and did so respectably. To me this movie skims the boundaries between B Movie and A Movie. You can tell if they had more resources and time, certain aspects could have pushed this movie to be a bit better. I was still impressed and enjoyed it however, and I have high respect for what they managed to accomplish. If you want a good short story about some soldiers just trying to survive and finish a mission that type of mind set will make it more enjoyable.