Reviews

After enjoying again seeing Pelham 123, I tried Blow out, which has 7.4 on imdb but deserves 2 at most. I gave him another change with this movie.

Like Bruce Willis (for health/wealth reasons I think), Travolta movies are a mix of the very good and the very bad. This was good

His acting was excellent (don't know if the sweat only on his brow not others and paunch were part of the character, or his state at the time), it has good support from other top actors. The plot was fast moving. Whats not to like? Well the dummy corpse (in end titles) was a bit too overexposed for me, and I was grateful when the white sheet was added. The end titles about what happened made me think is this factual, but surely the US military would not permit such a cover up? Hmm. Well as the gladiator said "Were you not entertained?

On the face of it a very simple story, but its script is excellent. all the way through Kirk Douglas,Walther Matthau and others move the film along in a way that is almost poetic. Black and white enhances it. The pre-Rambo plot is not too violent, and the horse is perhaps the main character. The bar fight with a one armed man is great. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie

The first thing I noticed was the sharp high quality filming and good subtitles. Then, drawn into the story, the shock of seeing the Americans/Koreans seining foreword a suicide unit of 773 x 17 year olds into certain death against the North Korean 5th army regulars. The biggest shock apart form the waste was seeing the American govt try to cover up the story as secret intelligence, and the totally evil General officers of South Korea put the blame on the heroic colonel leading the attack, sentencing him to death for losing so many men. With publicity by US female war reporters this was rescinded and after many years he got recognition for his troops. As with the Siege of Jadotville, the men fight and the political seniors blame them. Very good film.

We can really appreciate Great War films when we compare them with dross like this. Fury is an excellent film about a team of menon a mission.. There are dozens of other good examples, not all high budget. This is wooden actors reading wooden lines. It is simply impossible to car about any of the characters. The little girl is about the best. The marine is dreadful.

The sniper is about 10 feet away and he still wounds his target, so that the wife can then be taken out. A real sniper would have removed the SS guys head.

The characters are cardboard cutouts, interspersed with Token ethics (as usual since the 1960s). The MI5 woman had possibilities, but her acting was awful. The main rubbish character was the Butcher Blair like Tory Prime Minister who had a choice of two or three expressions and a totally depressed look throughout (he had read the script). The set piece action parts had better characters, with the bearded wonder explain everything as it progressed. The idea that folks would not riot completely was laughable. A few bits of rioting then everyone did as they were told. The leader of the revolution;utionaries form Sunderland was hardly Che Guevara. They threw all but the kitchen sink at this - Dyke MI5,Black Wonder Woman,That other woman who I kept seeingass the Queen Mother as the Liithuanian Hit man drug dealer tupped her. Throw in some cuckolding in th middle of the power cuts, a man messing up the petrol refill of a generator and setting fire to the hotel. Interesting that th ePM asnd his Cobra had to chose a part of the country to sacrifice, and picked the North East !!! Overall this was truly awful