Let's be realistic.

Fantastic!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Okey, i feel i have to write a review about this film, so anyone else wont use 90 minutes of they're lives on it. This is actually the first review I've ever written. I just feel i have to do it.. I have seen a lots of films, and I've got a decent collection of DVD's. Anyways, this film is now in my top 3 worst films I've ever seen. I don't even know where to start? The acting is so bad it actually made me and my mate laugh a couple of times. The story is just boring. The only thing that made me see the whole movie, was the hopes of seeing a girl take off a face mask. Now, this might be a movie you have to see several times to get it. But trust me, I'm not going to do that. Id rather sit and watch paint dry. By the way, did i mention that this film is horrible?Conclusion: PLEASE, don't see this movie!

Don't waste your time on this one. It starts off well and ends up in a mess. One of the most irritating features is that it is riddled with what may be flashbacks (or flash forwards)for the main character.But you never have enough context to put them all together or make sense of them. They appear like mosquitoes and are just as useful. It picked WWII as the backdrop to show the misery and futility of war.Perhaps it never occurred to the creative minds behind it that we might be speaking German today if the allies had decided not to fight. A poor choice of wars. One of the two soldiers undergoes a sudden transformation that is neither believable nor understandable. The ending appears to have been cut off before it led to anything satisfactory. I wanted a refund of my time after I realized it was over.

STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS (2006) *** Ryan Francis, Scott MacDonald, David Warner, Linda Thorson, Daniel Roebuck, James Le Gros, Nelu dinu, Liliana Perepelicinic. (Dir: Jeff Burr) The WWII melodrama has been done to death ever since V-E day and of late it appears a newfound appreciation for the subgenre has been unleashed ever since Steven Spielberg's groundbreaking SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. I must admit when I was given the task to view yet another struggle-against-all-odds military pic I wasn't crazy about the idea, let alone by an indie director who I never even heard of. However I was pleasantly surprised that my expectations would be overlooked for this well-executed and smartly produced low-budget pic is better than anticipated. Namely filmmaker Jeff Burr (who wrote & directed) and his by-the-seat-of-his-pants smarts manages to make the familiar fresh and the limited funds not necessarily a risk but an obstacle overcome. The story begins when two grunts Losey (Ryan Francis, who resembles a cross- pollination of Ben Affleck, Ed Burns and Paul Rudd) and Deming (Scott MacDonald, a low-rent Tom Sizemore) who desert their platoon (including James LeGros and Daniel Roebuck in cameos) after being shelled in a snowy minefield. Losey is plagued by nightmarish flashbacks to the horrors he's inflicted via his Army-issued flamethrower and the thoughts of his gal back home Donna, (Brittny Lane Stewart). Deming is half-crazed and has violent tendencies as the two trek across the frost-bitten no-man's land of the unnamed European terrain (shot in Romania with affective eeriness) and come across a lunatic priest (Gabriel Spahiu), a forest full of a wedding party dangling from nooses and a horse with no name until the tired duo come across an abandoned mill where they discover they are not alone.Here they find two school instructors (veteran character actor David Warner and Linda Thorson, best known from TV's "AVENGERS" as Diana Riggs' replacement) holed up with their orphan charges, a brigade of unwanted, developmentally challenged children who have been taught basic training in military weaponry in defense against the Nazi horde that have been through their wooded terrain and unbeknownst to the new strangers making tracks to overtake the edifice for a hidden secret that is housed there.Overall the production values are very good indeed, particularly the ethereal blue/black color schemes of cinematographer Viorel Sergovici; the kinetic editing of Lawrence A. Maddox and the elegiac musical score by Michael Convenrtino underscoring the dream-like quality Burr maintains in his sparse combination of Sam Pekinpah/Don Siegel/Robert Aldrich/Sam Fuller composition with different film stocks (Super 8 & 16mm for the flashbacks); various speeds of action (slo-mo and jarring sped-up nightmarish imagery to full tilt); skewed camera angles and quick scatter-shots interlaced make for a nerve wracking and compelling viewer ship. What Burr lacks in narrative dialogue (co-written by co-exec.prod. Mark Hannah) he makes up for in his visuals (and audio) skills in competent display.The acting is solid for the most part although it would've been nice if he allowed LeGros & Roebuck to be in a few more scenes (even if they were flashbacks) and one major hole in the plot (what the hell happened to the lunatic priest?) but the children do a fine job too, particularly the leg-less Nelu Dinu and the haunting Liliana Perepelicinic whose Anna wears an unnerving yet beautiful mask echoing "Eyes Without A Face". The film has an unspoken supernatural air about it too also recalling "The Beguiled", the Clint Eastwood Civil War Gothic thriller when an AWOL soldier finds himself at the mercy of a young girls' homestead. Burr could've used a bit more of that if that was his intention in the long run.

Thoughtfully composed and disarming cinematography. I liked the minimalist approach to dialogue while letting the images speak for themselves. The use of real people, fantastic people, especially the child actors, was critical to the message and I was reminded greatly of Brecht's poem "Children's Crusade". The pace of the film slowly but steadily reaching a crescendo towards the end, with it's final flourish and eloquent testimony to the futility of war. I would recommend this film to any Humanities teacher wanting to broaden their students experience and understanding of the real world by looking through a different telescope.This is a film that lingers on in your memory for days and weeks afterwards. Jeff Burr deserves a bigger audience.