BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Peter Pluymers "So, anytime I want to say I love you, what am I going to say to you? Man down.""Man down" is a terribly underrated film in my opinion. No, it's not a post-apocalyptic SF movie like there have been so many in recent years (both excellent and bad). And no, the main theme is not how a marine survives a tour in Afghanistan and returns as an outright war hero (as in "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk"). The entire film is a mixture of three different time-lines. Timelines that swing around a specific incident. An incident that had such an impact on Gabriel Drummer (Shia LaBeouf) that his vision about reality changed completely. The whole intent only becomes clear after the revelation in the end. And to be honest, I was a bit out of my depth. Even without the terrible statistics that were shown during the credits. To be honest, this was the only thing that bothered me. For me this is just used to strengthen the dramatic aspect.To be honest, as prevention I've hesitated a long time to watch this film because of the rather serious criticism that circulated about it. When reading the quotes of digital articles, you'll lose the will to watch this seemingly horrible film : "Man down is a Cliché-Ridden Mess", "A meandering mystery", "A disappointing hodgepodge of ideas and styles" and also "A convoluted tangle of idiotic time-lines". And the fact that only one entry ticket was sold at the premiere in the U.K. (I've read it here), wasn't a good sign either. On the other hand, maybe this shows how impressionable the English are. Or does this say something about the taste of these always counter-acting islanders?"Man down" is an atypical war movie. The main topic is about the psychological damage caused to a soldier due to a traumatic experience. Many viewers will probably get crazy from the back and forth jumping between the different time-lines. The first story-line deals with the family life of Gabriel and the start of his training as a marine which was recommended by his best friend Devin (Jai Courtney). Then there's the Afghan story-line where there's also a bit of switching from the battle and "the incident", to the therapeutic sessions with Captain Peyton (Gary Oldman). Finally, there's also a futuristic part. A future where the U.S. suffered from a devastating war and where Gabriel, along with Devin, traverses the ruined city in search of his son Jonathan (Charlie Shotwell). Sometimes it was difficult to follow. In hindsight, I have to admit that it's brilliantly put together. The three stories are ingeniously interwoven and grow together towards the redeeming denouement.Most likely this film will be an abomination for the impatient moviegoer. It seems as if nothing special happens for a long time. But it's worth it to be patient for a little while longer. Even though I had a little hunch about the final outcome, it was still a surprise. And not only the underlying story appealed to me. I also appreciated the decent acting performances of Shia LaBeouf, Jai Courtney, Charlie Shotwell and Kate Mara. Of course, "The Deer Hunter", "Coming Home" and "Jacob's Ladder" are superior when it comes to films that handle the topic about PTSD. Maybe the story confuses. Perhaps it was an attempt to represent the psyche of such a person. The call to provide such help to those who suffer from PTSD is well-founded. But lets not forget about all those other individuals who go through a similar thing due to a different kind of traumatic experience.More reviews here : http://movie-freak.be

Eric_Cubed Man Down is the worst movie I've ever seen, however upon viewing The Mummy last evening, I can now say that Man Down is the 2nd worst movie I've ever seen. The abject offensiveness of this stinking beast is enough to make any plumber wretch with interminable abandon. The premise, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is unforgivably bleached and appropriated in order to advertise a post apocalyptic theme in hopes of juxtaposing the former in favor of the latter. Elevating vagueness and confusion to previously unknown definitive heights, we feel as though parallel scenes of trauma and reality were poured into a lottery like device and then poured and pasted together without any semblance of coherence or continuity. Unbearably, we feel as though we are aging when we watch this film, as Kate and Shia and Gary insanely perform with near perfection within a structure possessed by incompetence and grounded down by ineptitude. Perhaps this is my basic gripe, that so much talent was so detestably wasted by the stupidity of the producers, writers and directors. Or perhaps I am insulted by the opportunity the film had to creatively symbolize the actual and real devastation of PTSD. Most pathetic of all, the manifold and multiform editing of Man Down, trying far too hard to encapsulate and replicate the phenomenology of the trauma of PTSD, feels completely cheap and derivative, trying to illuminate a condition the creators of the film clearly know absolutely nothing about, inauthentically trying to make us believe what is real and what is not is a clever plot device rather an an absolute failure in all things imaginable. This film made me feel actual guilt in spending money to view this piece of trash.

jimbo-53-186511 Man Down is very much a mixed bag of a film where the filmmakers seem to throw pretty much everything into the mix apart from the kitchen sink. It's almost as if they use the old adage of 'throw enough mud at the wall and eventually some of it will stick.' In fairness, some of it did stick, but sadly there's also an awful lot that didn't...The narrative is clearly a big problem with this film; it darts about all over the place, but never in a way that makes much logical sense. Another issue is that I found that it flitted from one scene to another without offering me much to reflect upon; it breezes through the story so quickly that it's barely possible to care about anyone or anything that happens. The choppy storyline also makes it hard to follow and whilst it does come together and sort of makes sense at the end that doesn't make for a particularly good viewing experience overall. Another issue I had with this film is that it seemed to spend too much time focusing on what I'd call less interesting areas; Drummer's de-brief seemed to take up about a third of the film's running time - wouldn't 5-10 minutes at the end have been sufficient? The earlier scenes involving Drummer's home life were also uninteresting (although part of the problem I had is that LaBeouf and Mara had literally zero chemistry).Where the film starts to improve is once we get into the final third of the film where we start to witness Drummer's PTSD and the effect that it has on him and everyone around him. Whilst the film does little new in this area, it was still good to watch and this is all helped by a wonderful performance by LaBeouf - he hasn't always been brilliant in the past, but here he does excel and is very believable (both before his PTSD and during his PTSD). In retrospect, it seems clear that some of Drummer's scenes are pre-war scenes (before his PTSD) and some scenes are during his PTSD - I got the impression that the scenes where Drummer finds a survivor whilst looking for his son and wife weren't real and this was a fictitious scenario that was played out in his head as a result of his PTSD - at least that's how I saw things!!.I've given this film half marks and to be fair most of those marks arrived in the second half of the film (mainly for the PTSD aspects and for LaBoeuf's performance). Unfortunately, I found that the film didn't focus enough of its energy in the right areas a lot of the time resulting in a messy film that never really held my interest until the last half an hour. If you can cope with the choppy narrative, slow-pace and are interested in the subject matter then this may work for you, but I've got a feeling that a lot of folks (like me) are ultimately going to find Man Down a rather disappointing waste of potential.

harper131 Whilst I can see what was being attempted, it was just too predictable and almost trite. Sad really as it should have been more worthy. The individual performances were excellent, but the script let the actors down and the plot was transparent. I am no genius but from the first scene I knew where we were going. I appreciate, though cannot truly imagine, readjustment is extremely difficult for veterans. Just once it would be nice to see their difficult journey bring them back to a good place.