Film Review - Fury

War Fair

Film: Fury

Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LeBeouf, Logan Lerman

Directed by: David Ayer

Duration: 2 hrs 17 mins

Rating: * * * 1 /2

There have been many films set during World War II, David Ayer’s Fury tells us about what happened at the fag end of the war. War films rarely go wrong, there can never be enough reminders about the perils of death and destruction and Fury also engages you with the action and heroism of the few. 

Their heroics as we learn, didn’t necessarily come from within, they learnt it the hard way. Kill or be killed was the mantra for all the soldiers no matter where they came from and what they did before. Set after the Normandy landings and when the war was almost over but the dangers continued to hover. The remaining German soldiers and the SS staff put up a fight in vain. 

At the receiving end is a bunch of American soldiers lead by Don (Brad Pitt) the tough guy, Norman (Logan Lerman who played Percy Jackson) the rookie, a bible quoting Boyd (Shia Le Beouf), a Mexican immigrant Gordo (Michael Pena) and a hot headed Grady (Jon Bernthal).

The war is already driving them nuts, they have no choice but to see it through. Don takes the young kid under his wings, from being a typist to using machine guns, the transition is understandably is not easy for him. But life can be a cruel teacher as he soon finds out. The German resistance is fading but the allies can never be sure where the next assault will come from and whether they will survive it.

One of the best scenes has precious little to do with the action of war when Don and Norman enter a house to see two women hiding there. When the other soldiers join in, you don’t know how it will pan out.

The action scenes are also very well orchestrated in fact they are one of the more memorable ones seen on screen. At almost two and half hours the length is a bit daunting but that is usually the case with most war films. But if you leave out some very filmi dramatic moments, there is little room to complain here.

Even though there is very little background that is established about the characters, they all come off well. Don for instance, doesn’t think twice before shooting someone in the back yet there is a human side to as well. 

The acting is top notch, Brad Pitt is more restrained than the character he played in Inglorious Basterds and Logan Lerman is also impressive with the portrayal of young man caught in the wrong place.

For those who like war movies, Fury is eminently watchable and even as a action film, it succeeds. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 2nd Nov 2014

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Film Review - Sabotage

Crime Patrol

Film: Sabotage

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Terence Howard

Directed by: David Ayer

Duration: 1 hr 48 mins

Rating: * * 1 / 2

While both are thrillers, this Schwarzenegger starrer has nothing to do with the Hitchcock film of 1936 which was based on the Joseph Conrad novel. Directed by David Ayer Sabotage turns out to be one of those average action thrillers with a premise that had the potential to become a gripping film. Instead, the pedestrian screenplay and the not-so-inspiring direction makes it a passable flick.

Schwarzenegger plays John ‘Breacher’ the leader of an elite Drug Enforcement Agency task force who is carrying some emotional baggage from the past. He along with his other team members are able and ruthless professionals who are investigated after $10 million dollars go missing after a raid. One of his colleagues gets killed by a ramming train and that starts the chain of deaths among those who were involved in the raid.

Sam Worthington (of Avatar fame) is James ‘Monster’ Murray, a tonsured angry young man who is married to Lizzy (Mireille Enos), both are close friends of the leader of the pack. One by one, they start getting killed in the goriest fashion and when the ‘suspense’ is revealed, it doesn’t come as a big surprise.

The way some of the scenes are shot, especially the handheld ones, there is an attempt in vain to make it look intense when actually it is not. At times, you get the sense the film makers were trying to be too clever, like the shot where the camera is rigged on the gun.

There is plenty of violence to boot and it is not as if the script demands it. Some of the action scenes in the finale are well executed but pray what is our censor board upto? I’ve never seen a film that has an A certificate and yet so many swear words are beeped out. At times, there are long passages of silence in the middle of a sentence.

Schwarzenegger as the cigar chomping boss gives a gutsy performance but otherwise Sabotage has little going for it.