SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Paul Kydd Available on Blu-ray Disc (Region B)UK 2011 English/Norwegian/German (Colour); War/Action/Drama/Thriller (Panaramic/Atlantic Swiss/Magna/Prime Focus/Moskus/Matador/Cinema Five/Regent Capital/ContentFilm/Metrodome/Neon Park/Giant); 94 minutes (15 certificate)Crew includes: Adrian Vitoria (Director); Ed Scates, Adrian Vitoria (Screenwriters); Lex Lutzus, Nick O'Hagan, James Youngs, James Brown (Producers); Nigel Thomas, Charlotte Walls, Peter Urie, Christopher Figg, Robert Whitehouse, Jamie Carmichael, Shail Shah, Simon Goldberg, James Greenslade (Executive Producers); Mark Hamilton (Cinematographer); Richard Campling (Production Designer); Chris Gill (Editor); Michael Richard Plowman (Composer)Cast includes: Sean Bean (Maj. Jack Jones), Danny Dyer (Cpl. Bob Rains), Aksel Hennie (Lt. Steinar Mortensen, Izabella Miko (Jensen), James D'Arcy (Lt. Comd. Ian Fleming), William Houston (Sgt. "Mac" MacKenzie), John Dalgleish (Flt. Sgt. Roger Rollright), Stephen Walters (Cpl. Syd Brightling)"They were Britain's Commando elite."In 1940, a tough-as-nails major (Bean) is ordered to assemble a team of soldiers to infiltrate enemy lines and steal new technology that could help win the war.Not the adventures of a fictitious secret agent, but the (true) wartime exploits of James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, and how he established an elite commando unit in the British Army, set in a bleak Scotland (training) and the snowy wastes of Norway (action).The low budget may be all-too-apparent (small cast, relatively unspectacular battle scenes), but that doesn't detract much from the story's dramatics, including combative leads Bean and Dyer (good for once) initially butting heads, although the denouement feels rushed.Blu-ray Extras: Featurette. **½ (5/10)

johnbodycombe Has all the ingredients to be a good movie. Cast look a bit bored sometimes and seem to ad lib unless that is just the acting? It was kind of watchable with plenty of things to make you hate the Nazis, but lacked any sort of cohesion in the fight scenes. The initial training was pretty ordinary and all seen before, but didn't seem to have any real credibility. To be honest the opening scenes were the best in the movie. It started with good promise but just declined into a very unrealistic tale. In the closing scenes the mountains were spectacular and the views breathtaking, but for me that was what really killed the movie.. In a few of those closing scenes, modern day ski lifts were clearly visible in the background, and I'm pretty sure they weren't around in the 1940's.

Ornlu Wolfjarl Before I saw the movie, I read a few reviews in IMDb and was quite disappointed because I had just rented the DVD. This is one of the first real films the director/writer has attempted and I must say it's quite good for a first attempt. A lot of people judge the film by its historical inaccuracies and the plot. I'll say that actually the plot was quite good. It was obvious that it copied the Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare, but it was not in a way that would make me feel annoyed. The event is based on the recollections of Ian Fleming (James Bond creator) while he was serving in one of the first British commando units. I guess they changed the event though, for copyright purposes perhaps. We follow through the training of the commando squad and then see them in action, as they land in Norway to sabotage a Nazi radar facility with newly-developed radar technology.A lot of people complain about the plot being inconsistent. I'll agree that the ending seemed kind of chopped-off, but it wasn't in a way that we wouldn't understand (for those of you who don't, check the Spoiler section). The acting was quite good and frankly the effects, battle scenes etc were also well done. Someone complained that the tactics used by the commandos were poor. Maybe they were, but let's not forget that we are talking about a unit that was completely newly-formed and was about to use tactics and strategies never employed before by the British Army. In fact the British Army up to 1930s-1940s was retaining the "code of honour in the battlefield" attitude and considered sabotage, ambushing and other covert operation actions to be "unethical". So they were venturing into new ground in warfare and that was shown very good (whether intended by the writer or not) by making these tactical mistakes.***SPOILER START***Well, now to resolve some questions people had in the reviews to the best of my abilities. Let's begin with the punishment of Rains (Dyer). Having been in the army for 2 years myself, I can assure that punishments during training can be handed out for little or no reason at all. It's part of forming discipline and also ensuring unit cohesion (if one does something wrong, everyone is punished). The trainers are just looking for excuses to punish people so that the trainees will be more careful and focused. It's basic psychological warfare. Rains is being punished because he talked back to his shooting instructor, and having been insubordinate before he was on a short lease. Secondly and most crucial, the ending. At the end scene people complain they don't know what happens to Sean Bean and the rest of the squad. We only see the Norwegian partisan and the radio expert walk into Sweden. In my understanding, Sean Bean was captured by the Germans (reflects on the first real commander of an SAS detachment, captain Stirling being captured in 1943 by the Nazis), and the rest probably were executed. In context, one does not need to know what happened to the squad and is better left at the imagination of the viewer. The important part of the film was to show us that they carried out their mission and completed it successfully by protecting the intel they secured and the guy carrying it, up until they faced execution/capture. That's a point to be reflected on soldiering. Soldiers serve, but usually people don't really care to know what happened to them (and I don't mean the officers getting famous, but I mean the common face-in-the-mud soldier). That's why we have memorials to the Unknown Soldiers. Again, this point was reflected perfectly (for me at least) at the end of the movie, whether it was intended or not.***END SPOILER***Most people focus on how badly the technical aspects of the film were executed to rate it, but they never contemplate much on points the film is trying to make or how it makes you think. When I watched this film it actually achieved what a good war film should achieve: It made me appreciate the sacrifices done by soldiers, made me understand how war is horrible and unnecessary, and it also gave plenty of good action. The film was directed and produced quite well considering it's low budget and was done by a very young director/writer. Personally, it entertained me, and that was its purpose. The 9/10 is to counter some really bad reviews. I'd give it 8/10 normally.Watch this film if you are in the mood for some world war 2 action and are tired of the old stuff you've rewatched a hundred times. It's guaranteed good entertainment if you don't come in expecting to see Saving Private Ryan.

leithp The only reason I'm giving it two stars is because the photography is not as bad as most modern mash-ups of the WWII genre. I get so tired of cheesy CGI, deliberately jerky camera scenes to highlight "action" and grainy post processing.That said, this is really cruddy. Clichés cobbled from countless war classics are littered throughout this sorry mess.The ignorance of wartime vernacular is abysmal. Special ops indeed! The plot holes beggar belief. Other reviews suggest the makers simply ran out of money and had to wrap it up somehow. I think the editor closed his or her eyes and chopped at random so they could all go down the pub and forget about this waste of everyone's time.Sean, get a real job.