Dunkirk could have been alot better, the opening shots were terrible, knowing what a defensive plan, would have been in place, and not showing it.
and then, from night to day and back again in different sequences, did my head in,
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Another for trying to change history, as a lot of people believed films are fact.
U571,
Wrong Navy.
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What!?!?!
Next you’ll try to tell me, The Boys from Brazil isn’t a documentary. It’s obviously a true story. It explains how the world accumulated such a massive concentration of egomaniac political figures.
Likewise, The Eagle has Landed is a true story too right?
(joking)
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You know I loved “Starship Troopers” until I saw the RiffTrax gang take it apart. Now I can’t watch it without laughing.
Was Tank Girl a war movie? What was Ice T thinking?
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1968’s “Anzio” with Robert Mitchum and Peter Falk.
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I liked her (Lori Petty) in Pauly Shore’s “In the Army Now”
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I get it. You guys got short changed, and that sucks. I don’t always rate a movie on accuracy though. Or believability. I find any of the Alien movies more believable than anyhing with Steven Segal in it.
But with U-571 - which I found hugely entertaining at times - there were so many anomolies. In the beginning, the U-Boot engages an enemy ship, and is suddenly “surprised” by a destroyer at 180 degrees. In what world would that happen?
Then after sustaining damage and having to immediately surface, the sea is amazing free of any other ships. The other captain couldn’t hang around for two more minutes?
Lots of little things like that, but t didn’t ruin it for my. And the scene with Matthew McConaughey chasing his pistol’s rounds through the sub - very convincing, at least by today’s training standards. I’d have to go back and watch it again, but now that i think about it I’ll bet they’re using modern pistol marksmanship techniques, which would have simply been unheard of back then.
Edit: I have indeed gone back to the scene in question, and he was using a modern isosceles stance. That would have been unheard of back then.
Guys like me (us, whatever) can pick almost any of these movies apart. Sometimes you just gotta do like Clayton Williams said when he infamously compared rape to bad weather - “Just relax and enjoy it.” The movie I mean. let’s be clear on that.
Yup, the one statement cost him the governorship of Texas.
Tears of the Sun - Bruce Willis’s Aimpoint is mounted backward in trhe poster, possiblrt the movie as well.
The Green Berets - John Wayne gives himself a fatal hook up (who among us hasn’t had one of those?) while rappelling.
Rambo II - Johnny takes on a Hind from the cockpit of a Huey with a LAW - with dudes hehind him no less.
Even SPR had serious weapon flaws, most in regards to the sniper rifle.
Still we watch and enjoy. After all they’re just actors. I really did drive a Russian tank in Afghanistan, Sly
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I definitely like Gunny, but… Ooof.
Some guy named “Wings Hauser” in that. Low rent poor man’s David “I’m big in Germany, really, I am!” Hasselhoff.
“Windtalkers” was a disgrace.
Some Vietnam war movie in which their base is IN the jungle and the VC can sneak right up to barracks, bunkers, etc. because the jungle is right next to them.
Soldiers have some made-up yellow unit patch.
Some Canadian movie about Afghanistan in which some Afghan has something like 1,000 uncles which I guess is supposed to be a semblance of comic relief?
Base commander is some grey-haired guy who at one point promises uh, I don’t know if I can say this here? A perverse act to some overweight enlisted girl in the base, who then looks quite delighted at the prospect . Really? That was necessary???
For me?
Dunkirk
1917
The Captain
There are others, but I’m falling asleep after mentioning the 3 sleepers I’ve already typed. 
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U-571
Movie reviews are ephemeral, the pages disappear from the net like leaves from an autumn tree. But a few survive:
“Mel Brooks does Das Boot”
“As we find out, Harvey Keitel is a “sea dog who wants some salt”, a line that could only be delivered with a straight face by a man who has cleaned a piano in the nude in a previous movie.”
“The only reason for this $90 million mess is to prove that, in the words of Jonathan Mastow, “Das Boot was based on a lie”.” “Mastow is a jerk.”
This movie is best regarded as America’s revenge for Tony Scott’s earlier assault on the USN in “Crimson Turd Tide”. From Wiki:
" Ramsey and Hunter agree to wait until the deadline for a preemptive missile launch to be effective. As they wait, Ramsey asks Hunter, who is African American, if he knows of the Lipizzan stallions, famed for their training and ability, pointing out that they are all white from Portugal. Hunter points out in response that they are born black and are from Spain. Ramsey acknowledges he didn’t know about the birth color, but he was firm in the belief where they were from."
“Outside, Hunter meets with Ramsey to express his gratitude, while Ramsey admits to Hunter he was right about the Lipizzan stallions being from Spain, as the two men part ways amicably.”
The Lipizzaner was first bred at a village called Lipica, now in Slovenia… Obviously neither watched the TV series “The White Horses” as a kid.
Cheers,
M
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OK I’m moved to kick these turkeys onto the rapidly expanding cutting-room floor;
-
The Great Escape – how was it possible that such an inspiring and tragic event could have been mangled into a preposterous sequence of half-truths and pure invention? Positively a joke of an insult to the memories of the real guys involved. It’s probably way too late to make a version that sticks to the facts (which never needed any embellishment) with funding/casting that more accurately reflected the nationalities of the actual participants.
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Enigma – how was it possible that such an inspiring etc etc etc. A bigger load of absolute garbage would be hard to replicate – I believe Mick Jagger was a co-producer and…well “brown sugar” is a fair review.
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All movies regarding the assassination of Reinhardt Heydrich – how was it possible that etc etc etc. Wrong, all wrong and again the reality needed no embellishment.
and they are trained at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.
" The Spanish Riding School was named for the Spanish horses that formed one of the bases of the Lipizzan breed, which is used exclusively at the school. Today the horses delivered to the Spanish Riding School are bred at the Piber Federal Stud located near the village of Piber in western Styria, Austria. One of the original studs used to develop the breed was Lipizza, now called Lipica, near Trieste in modern Slovenia, which gave its name to the breed."
The famous riding school in Spain is this:
Please excuse the excursion into equestrianism (horsing around)
Back on topic:
I haven’t seen the film so I’m still horsing around …
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Yeah, “one of”, only three of the eight stallions regarded as the progenitors of the Lipizzaner were from Spanish stallions, and one from a Spanish dam.
Wiki can be inconsistent:
“It is a common myth that the movements were developed to aid in battle; in fact, they were used to strengthen the war horse’s body and mind and make him a supreme athlete, not to actually attack.”
but earlier:
" The Spanish Riding School has antecedents in military traditions dating as far back as Xenophon in Ancient Greece, and particularly from the military horsemanship of the post-medieval ages when knights attempted to retain their battlefield preeminence by shedding heavy armor and learning to maneuver quickly and with great complexity on a firearms-dominated battlefield."
Note “aid in battle” does not equate to “actually attack”; the Capriole (and the Mezair) or less formal variations thereof would be of use when close-pressed by surrounding infantry, not that they are practised by re-enactors for obvious reasons…
Cheers,
M
I included that to explain why the riding school in Vienna has that name.
The Habsburgs ruled both countries/empires which may have influenced the choice of name.
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Resistance with Jesse Esienberg…ohhh and the sequels to the Dirty Dozen.
Yeah, all true, but the presence of Denise Richards and the shower scene save it for me!
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I think I found the ultimate turkey last night - “Biggles”. The totally spurious time-travelling background makes it an insult to the original “Boys Own Paper” style books of Capt W E Johns, all read avidly in my childhood. A major missed opportunity for a British style Indiana Jones film.
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Completely agree; I mean, The Great Escape was I suppose, if you squint a bit - what with the 60s haircuts and preposterous casting - moderately entertaining; but an account of the real thing would have been enthralling enough I feel, there was no need for any additional Hollywood crap. It was a desperately tragic enterprise, and a decent film would have acknowledged that perhaps.
I must just say that I feel Operation Daybreak was an honest enough attempt; there was some director’s fluff if you like - (Nicola Pagett always worth a look or two though), and I feel the fact that it was made in what was then a country still under the Soviet jackboot should count for something. And of course, the peerless Anton Diffring as Heydrich just doesn’t get any better.