Overlord

Back again, girls and boys! It has come to my attention from some of the fans that older films aren't completely grabbing enthusiasm. That's fine. I can manage a few modern films for reviewing pleasure. I would point out of course, I am the one watching these flicks. The decree has been heard nonetheless and today I thought we would take a look at a Bad Robot Production. With JJ Abrams' production company footing the bill, what say we watch some Nazis getting their just due? This is Overlord.

No jagoffs, I'm not Kurt. That's my dad.

Directed by Julius Avery (Little Man, Solvent, The Tank, Son of a Gun and Overlord) We open with the sounds of news reels depicting the events to happen, footage of the fleets at the ready and the mission ready to go. At the cusp of D-Day, an American paratrooper squad is sent to destroy a German radio outpost when their plane is shot down before reaching their objective. With enough AA fire through the cab, the plane is roached and the men gotta hit the silk or be just as dead.

With five survivors of the crash, Sergeant Rensin (Bokeem Woodbine of The Rock, The Big Hit, The Breed, Sniper 2, Saving Grace, Southland, Riddick and Spider-Man: Homecoming) in command alongside his men; Pvt.Boyce (Jovan Adepo of Blood Relatives, NCIS: Los Angeles, The Leftovers, Fences, and Mother!), Demolitions expert,Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell of Escape from L.A., Soldier, Cowboys & Aliens, This is 40, Love and Honor, 22 Jump Street and Everybody Wants Some!!), sniper Pvt.Tibbet (John Magaro of Crisis in Six Scenes, War Machine, Orange Is the New Black, Marshall, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Overlord and The Umbrella Academy), plucky war photographer Pvt.Chase (Iain De Caestecker of 16 Yars of Alcohol, River City, Taggart, Lip Service, Ultimate Spider-Man, Not Another Happy Ending and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Pvt.Dawson (Jacob Anderson of Injustice, Demons Never Die, Skins, Episodes, Comedown, Broadchurch and Game of Thrones).

How about a little fire, Scarecrow?!

Aside from being a little banged up, the team gear up and move out. Dawson finds a landmine, the hard way and well that's all she wrote. The rest of the team beat feet into a village and they encounter a young French woman name of Chloe (Mathilde Ollivier of Walking Home, The Misfortunes of Francois Jane and Overlord) who attends her little brother and aunt; the latter disfigured from some top secret experimentation via the SS.

Making the rounds on a routine check point, SS Haupsturmfuhrer Wafner (Pilou Asbaek of Lucy, Silent Heart, 1864, A War, Ben-Hur, The Great Wall,bGhost in the Shell and Game of Thrones) stops by to sexually harass Chloe with a fashion of practice. Boyce and Ford jack him up and hold him hostage for interrogation and boy is he a sour Kraut. Yup, the Ratzis are back into the supernatural and occult. Cue Wolfenstein music! With B.J. Blazkowicz and Dr. Jones unavailable for Nazi ass kicking, our team must venture this dangerous mission on their own.

Ze Master Race needs a makeover ASAP!

Making their way into the church itself and the smell of cooked bodies wafts the countryside. They say tower and it is a heavy portcullis (heavy grated gate), barbed wire, truck and foot traffic to the likes that would have sent Force 10 from Navarone fleeing into the night.

Deep in the catacombs, Boyce is witnessing first hand how the experiments are going on these poor Frenchmen and brother bring a bucket for yuck. Further exploration and he finds Rosenfeld (Dominic Applewhite of The King's Speech, The Inbetweeners, Watson & Oliver, Sightseers, Les Miserables, Disobedience and The Crown), fellow paratrooper and Boyce's buddy.

With only five men, a handful of explosives and a Frenchwoman, our troops got their work cut out for them.

A creepy serum (No Vita Rays for your Captain America fans) seems to have resurrection capabilities, enhancing strength and creating a denser skin properties. Yeah not gonna go wrong there.

Let me root for Jovan Adepo's Boyce. This kid's got chops. Plunging into a lake, doesn't panic, saws through the chute and gets air in no time. Hits dry land, immediately checks his .45 and starts looking for survivors. Grabs a rifle no longer having an owner, clears it and heads into the woods. I'm damn impressed for a kid barely out of boot camp.  Let's not forget that is paratrooper Airborne training though. Yeah for us civvies, he is Special Forces.  He has a true arc of being scared out of his mind but being there for his squad.

Ewww...juicy.

Wyatt Russell's Ford cares about the mission and his men. His own life doesn't even enter the equation. He can't help but give a damn about the villagers as well. If he was always a hard ass, he couldn't have ever lived with himself .

Now the big argument for the war buffs will be African Americans weren't integrated into making mixed paratroopers. The 555 (African American Paratroopers) never went over seas in spite of being combat ready. Blah blah blah.

The radio tower didn't have one piece of German electronics in it. I saw a Navy unit (USA) and I believe a British receiver. Okay it's a nitpick but dammit howzabout the prop guys hammer together a decent prop and light board. Just give the illusion. I'm not saying hit every TV and radio show up and down the coast but give the pretense is all.

I swear, somebody fart on this plane again, they going without a chute.

With this seemingly WWII flick gets violent, has a solid past, great cast and crew and is a definite popcorn movie. With a hybrid of horror/sci-fi and war time action, this gives a creepy and clever storyline. Yes we have seen the Nazis muck about with supernatural, science based zombies, werewolves and Cro-magnon sex camps. This is trying for something different and combining it with the impeding D-Day event just gives it more.

At the end of the day, this 109 minute flick has more ups than downs. You want to dissect it and play Devil's Advocate over every factual facet, that's for you.   Me?   I had fun but I really wished I hadn't eaten dinner during it.

Edward Mannix Week: The Inglorious Bastards

And we are back. Sorry about the no-show yesterday. Household chores had to come first. Delving back into some more Edward Mannix I noticed his name attached to an Enzo G. Castellari flick. Who you ask? Well you know of his work in explotiation as well as Italian Post-Apocalyptic films such as: (High Crime, Street Law, The Heorin Busters, The Shark Hunter, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, Escape from the Bronx,Warriors of the Wasteland and Hammerhead) and any cat that has cast Django Franco Nero himself that many times deserves a look over. Deep in the mountains of France, deserter American soldiers are being transported for a military prison during World War II in 1944. This is The Inglorious Bastards.

No I am not Chuck Connors!!

No not the Tarantino remake of the same name, I am talking about what "inspired" him for his homage. No, I speak of the film with the tagline "Whatever the Dirty Dozen did- They do DIRTIER!" A gathering of men after off to face the tribunal/imprisonment which amazingly enough during one of the heaviest wars they didn't just out and execute them under articles of being a traitor but hell wouldn't be much of a movie if they did that.

Man, don't be bothering Tommy Gibbs right now.

Our company consists of officer/fighter pilot Lt. Robert Yeager (Bo Svenson of Breaking Point, Snowbeast, Gold of the Amazon Women, Day of Resurrection, Walking Tall TV series, The Manhunt and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom), Bigot murderer Tony (Peter Hooten of Prisoners, Orca, Dr. Strange TV Movie, Fantasies, 2020 Texas Gladiators), big bad Pvt Fred Canfield (former Oakland Raiders/Kansas City Chiefs and blaxploitation legend Fred Willamson of M*A*S*H, Black Caesar, Hell Up in Harlem, Three the Hard Way, Bucktown, No Way Back, Warriors of the Wasteland, From Dusk 'Till Dawn and Revamped), the thief/scrounger Nick (Michael Pergolani of The Inglorious Bastards, Lost and Found and Il pap'occhio) and yellow bellied coward Berle (Jackie Basehart of Stream Line, The Black Corsair, the Iron Hand of the Mafia, Ciao nemico, Festival and Tea with Mussolini)

During the ride out, their convoy is stopped by German air raid, an assault happens ripping up the convoy. Our boys hustle out of gun range and into the foothills of France in their new APC. With the idea of heading to Switzerland because of its neutral border plus it being about 160 miles (257 km for everyone else)from their location, it seems like a smart move versus escaped convicts getting shot.

The Hammer gonna burn you down.

Down the road, German mortars threaten to obliterate our freshly sprung jailbirds but they hightail into the woods with Nick stopping by a previous convoy to (Get this) loot the bodies. Yup our thief managed some treasure perception rolls and made off with a few more handy items.

Making their way through yet another fire fight and bombardment, the boys find themselves "volunteered" for a suicide mission to steal rocket engines, blow a bridge and suppress as many of the Nazis as possible.

Will they go along with this? Can their chances of survival be higher than 30%?

It is wild this flick. Saw Donald O'Brien from Zombie Holocaust as a German soldier and even the director himself Enzo as a German officer. But worry not fans of Edward Mannix, he has be tasked with voice work for quote "Redneck Bastard"end quote. Yup, not even a titled character this time around in spite of Donald O' Brien being there so no Doctor Butcher vibes this time. I won't lie, Wooten's racist character started to grate on my nerves but I guess they felt it necessary for the plot.

The writing surprised me. The dialogue doesn't feel like the ramblings of Platoon, Casualties of War or the like. It is solid. Only used when needed, the actors portray a lot of their character through intimidation, humorous behavior or just right now eerie ass stares worthy of John Carradine's creeper eyes. These men are not heroes. They are human, flawed and even scared at times. They haven't been soldiers in a long damn time and even if they were, they don't give a damn about the chain of command. Yet they seem to have bonded with Yeager. One of us and that sort.  

Orgy river party!!!

 I cannot decide definitively who my favorite is cause I am a huge Fred Willamson and Bo Svenson fan but the thief/scrounger hippie was warming to me. The cinematography is astounding, the action scenes are hard hitting but the dark comedy will raise more than a chuckle. And yes fellas, this being a seventies made war flick there is boobage. I know you would have been adrift without it.

900th Blog! Attack Force Z

Well it starts again...the week that is. Taking some obscure films to view this week because some have been impressive while others have been fairly crappy. Whether it is a toss of a coin or a role of the die it makes for an interesting experience. Initially I was looking to a character actor of the name of John Phillip Law (Smog, Death Rides a Horse, Danger: Diabolik, Barbarella, Skidoo, The Last Movie, Doctor Justice, Tarzan, The Ape Man and Space Mutiny) when I find he, like many of his peers was engaged to a war picture, this time it is a WWII movie but not in the typical sense of against the Germans. In fact commandos are making a search and rescue attempt for survivors of a downed plane courtesy of the Imperial Japanese Army. This is Attack Force Z.

That's right.  Still mad about the Goose.

A five man squad of the elite Z Special Unit or Z Force is a joint Australian, British and New Zealand commando unit that fought primarily against the Imperial Japanese Army, mostly doin recon and sabotage missions. Our team is led by the rookie officer Captain Paul Kelly (Mel Gibson of Mad Max, The Bounty, The River, Lethal Weapon, Braveheart, Signs and The Expendables 3) who is dispatched from a sub via kayaks. Yeah, these cats paddle almost five miles to the island, hit land and conceal their rides without even looking winded.

No sooner are the men on land that Kingo (John Waters of Rush, Breaker Morant, All Saints, Stealth, Underbelly and Offspring)takes a bullet right in the knee (insert Skyrim joke) thus shattering it. Not being able to carry on as well as he cannot be discovered by the Japanese, his mate Costello (Sam Neill of Amerika, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Until the End of the World, Jurassic Park, In the Mouth of Madness, Event Horizon and And Then There Were None) light and shares a smoke with Kingo, they chat a bit and then Costello offs him. Above all else the mission must remain secret. The remaining four five find a rice farmer to point them in the right direction and for his trouble he is also silenced.

I SAID, RADIO SILENCE!!!!

Our team have to navigate around the jungles of the island (Taiwan), evade the Japanese squads and find out if in fact there are any survivors of the plane crash. With time, lack of man and firepower, our boys are in a bit of a pickle. Can the fellas get in, get the survivors and be on their way?

A few bits of trivia about our movie now. The script was based on an actual commando raid called Project Opossum where a team of commandos snuck out a sultan from the Imperial Japanese Army held control over Ternate next to Borneo. The entire movie was constantly under the cruelty of Mother Nature as it rained almost the whole six weeks of production. This is the only war movie ever directed by Tim Burstall (Stork, Libido, Three Old Friends, End Play, The Last of the Knucklemen, Duet for Four, The Naked Country and Kangaroo).

Despite its dark tone, casual thought to the loss of human life and that these men had to just say the hell with feelings and compassion and be professional, this was an exciting movie, filled with action, tough calls and some decent delving into the human psyche. I am still snickering because Gibson and Neill look so damn baby faced in this 1982 creation.

Whadda mean wax on, wax off??!!  Just ain't funny, pal.