Doesn't Wear Well

Rating: 5/10 (24 November 2007)

"The Dirty Dozen" won a lot of plaudits when originally released. It was over-rated then, and it hasn't held up at all well.
It brings together a number of actors who were well-known then or who became well-known subsequently. That was (and remains) one of its great strengths. It also has action aplenty and enough blood and gore to satisfy the most avid devotees of action movies.
If that's your thing, the predictability of the script and the ultimate triumph of the good (i.e., bad) guys may not bother you. But this is a movie that's been done dozens of times in the last 40 years: the ensemble cast, the impossible mission, the ultimate triumph (sometimes bloodless).
It is the essential premise of the various Ratpack movies. It is likewise the premise of Ocean's 11, Ocean's 12 and Ocean's 13. It can be bloody. It can be a con. It can be phony- tragic. It can be suave and funny. But it's pretty much the same film in every case. "The Dirty Dozen" is not one of the better examples.