Rented and watched this DVD with my wife last night. She thought it was okay as a WW2-lite movie. I thought it wound up sucking raw sewage.
Rotten Tomatoes describes this as "a handsome empty shell of a movie" and I must agree. I found this WW2 thriller disappointing on so many levels and recommend that FGM viewers skip it for better WW2 films instead.
My issues include (without major spoilers, I hope):
1) Opening scene daylight desert parachute drop. Desert night drops are the safest in the world; no trees and no rocks in this spot. Hardly the way to begin a covert drop.
2) The 21st Century recreational cocaine use as a 1940's anachronism.
3) The open presentation of a lesbian relationship in a post-Victorian era and conservative military circles.
4) Costuming is well done but London street fashions seemed more colorful than the actual drabness of the times.
5) The "Pied Piper" evacuation of children from London is critically ignored.
6) The British "Special Operations Executive" orders to terminate a suspected enemy agent after confirming instead of apprehending, interrogating, and turning.
7) A British Lieutenant Colonel's cavalier ordering a uniformed security detail not under his direct control to submit false reports.
8) A ludicrous French jail event.
Regardless of one's personal sentiments regarding #2 & #3, the film positions 21st Century contrarian sensibilities as common and acceptable in wartime London. #5, #6, #7, and #8 are unsustainable plot devices. It seems Brad Pitt has positioned himself as the new leading man for well produced but extraordinarily dreadful War War Two movies; from campy "Inglorious Basterds", to mediocre "Fury" to disappointing "Allied". "Allied"'s only saving grace is high production values and accurate costuming.
Move along and wait for something better.
Rotten Tomatoes describes this as "a handsome empty shell of a movie" and I must agree. I found this WW2 thriller disappointing on so many levels and recommend that FGM viewers skip it for better WW2 films instead.
My issues include (without major spoilers, I hope):
1) Opening scene daylight desert parachute drop. Desert night drops are the safest in the world; no trees and no rocks in this spot. Hardly the way to begin a covert drop.
2) The 21st Century recreational cocaine use as a 1940's anachronism.
3) The open presentation of a lesbian relationship in a post-Victorian era and conservative military circles.
4) Costuming is well done but London street fashions seemed more colorful than the actual drabness of the times.
5) The "Pied Piper" evacuation of children from London is critically ignored.
6) The British "Special Operations Executive" orders to terminate a suspected enemy agent after confirming instead of apprehending, interrogating, and turning.
7) A British Lieutenant Colonel's cavalier ordering a uniformed security detail not under his direct control to submit false reports.
8) A ludicrous French jail event.
Regardless of one's personal sentiments regarding #2 & #3, the film positions 21st Century contrarian sensibilities as common and acceptable in wartime London. #5, #6, #7, and #8 are unsustainable plot devices. It seems Brad Pitt has positioned himself as the new leading man for well produced but extraordinarily dreadful War War Two movies; from campy "Inglorious Basterds", to mediocre "Fury" to disappointing "Allied". "Allied"'s only saving grace is high production values and accurate costuming.
Move along and wait for something better.
