Ardennes Fury

Ardennes Fury_360P

source: Ardennes Fury

World War II movies are reappearing and I am all for that. It is important that we not forget the sacrifices made by our brave men and woman during this horrible war. We are loosing them all to time and it is fitting that we honor them before they all leave us. However, there is a point where a tribute becomes a farce and this film demonstrated how to cross that line. The acting reminded me of a thrown-together High School play. The plot was ridiculous. The dialogue poorly written (and I am being kind saying that). There was nothing that spoke to me. I was hoping for an action filled war story and instead I got a disappointing waste of time that was full of itself. Also having the Germans speaking accent-less American only further detracted from any realism that costumes may have tried to create. I further resent the attempt to capitalize on the Brad Pitt film (FURY), by putting this word in the title as an attempt to trick people into viewing this film, but after 5 minutes even an neophyte would realize this was not made by professionals. The film school student that did this as a project should find another profession.

It is a war movie made by the guys who makes films for scify and it shows, really poor cgi work and some pretty bad acting. However there are some good points one of the best is the bad guy played by Tino Struckmann he is a great actor in a little film, his performance is by far the best part of this film. Some tanks and guns but the bad cgi pulls me out of the scenes. I only hope Struckmann will be really appreciated for his performance and get a chance for bigger movies worthy of his talent. I get the idea they wanted to jump on the wagon of Fury but even on a low budget they could have done a bit better, most of the actors really were bad, and the effects should have been left out, if you cant afford to do cgi well don't do it at all.

If I could rate this film with a -negative, it would do it more justice. This is an Asylum Films "Mockbuster" Asylum Films, known for their CGI, ridiculous plot lines, huge stable of "B" actors, is best watched if you have a knowledge of what to expect from Asylum, if you don't... You will feel riped off. The problem with this film is Asylum, is out of their element. Asylum should not attempt to do a "so called serious" film. Asylum, please stick to your successful formula. Si-Fi, Monsters, Giant killer Animals, Aliens, SHARKS, and; Major production "B" movies. Unknowing film watchers will not feel riped off, and might enjoy a great!.... terrible movie, if they know it's coming. Long live Asylum. Kings of toung-in-cheek You got a love-um

Everyone has pretty much nailed this idiocy of this movie that just happens to come along at the same time Fury is released, which was at least a plausible story that remained as true as possible to tank warfare in WWII Europe. But the only thing I will say about Ardennes Fury that I'm not sure has been said, is, they did not measure distance in klics during WWII. That didn't come until Vietnam. Nor did they say good to go. That came last week. And finally, I don't think tankers would be sitting on top of their tanks behind enemy lines in broad daylight playing cards, while they wait for their comrads to return from a deadly mission. Other than that it was a great movie. Oh, one more thing . . . I don't think a Catholic nun and that th ditsey mother would have been wearing scultured finger nails. The story could have been something seen in an episode of Combat with Claudine Longet playing the babe, as that week's gust star.

The film opens with some actual WWII footage and then we go right into a CG tank battle with no character introduction. We get to know them on the fly. A tank caught behind enemy lines opt to rescue an orphanage before meeting up with their unit because "it is the right thing to do." We discover "Germans execute" and we "take them out." Also German tanks can't shoot straight. Do WWII planes normally have double smoke trails behind them? The film creates internal faux drama and faux tension. This must have been the only white group that had an African-American sergeant as part of the group over some whites. It also uses cliche lines. The acting and dialogue was well below par. Very difficult to sit through. Another Asylum flop. No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

Let's face it, Asylum movies suck. Usually, these so-called mockbusters aren't even amusing enough to mock the movies they bust. Incredibly, I cannot lump director Joseph L. Lawson's World War II actioneer "Ardennes Fury" in the same category with the bulk of Asylum's half-baked releases. For the record, this contrived 88-minute blood, sweat, and tears combat mission outing is a straight-to-video, knock-off of director David Ayer's memorable, baptism-by-fire army tank tale "Fury." No, "Ardennes Fury" cannot begin to compare with the gory, war-is-Hell, Brad Pitt movie. Nevertheless, this Asylum release ranks far above the standard-issue studio offal. First, "Ardennes Fury" takes itself seriously and treats World War II with respect. This is a life and death narrative with an American Army Sergeant (Tom Stedman) struggles to get the men under his command back to their lines before they are annihilated by either the enemy or their own USAAF bombers. Unfortunately, the acting at worst is tolerable, and the special effects are hopelessly ersatz, but "Ardennes Fury" at least tries to be more than a bad 'shark' joke. Second, this is a bloody, grimy saga with a genuine villain with a murderous streak running down his Nazi spine. "Red Rose of Normandy" actor Tino Struckman succeeds in making himself into a vile enemy officer. All the German soldiers here are treated like Hollywood movies depicted them in the 1940s when the Allies were at war with the Axis. Third, civilians die! Okay, I'm giving away details, but real life tragedy in an Asylum movie!? The last thing that most Asylum movies share in common is a shred of reality. Here we have children getting kill! Struckman's officer guns them down, while in an unrelated incident an apparently dead German soldier playing possum shoots a little boy in the back! Typically, acts of terror like this are reserved only for the Gestapo. If a German soldier isn't pulling the trigger, then it is a piece of enemy ordinance. A helpless nun steps on a land mine, and she gets blown up. Not even a brave African-American G.I. can save her life. Although we don't see them get blasted to smithereens, they die that way! All of this adds up to an Asylum movie like none other! The American sergeant and the German officer square off near the end before a massive Allied aerial raid, and it is a down and dirty fight to the death. Predictably, the sergeant triumphs, but it is a close-call. When the sergeant shoves a knife into Tino Struckman's nefarious German officer's neck, I cheered him with gusto. Now, I haven't exposed myself to every Asylum release, so there may be some good examples of other Asylum epics out there. "Ardennes Fury" is the first good movie that I have seen and would want to own on Blu-ray. I am overlooking many obvious technical errors. Sherman tanks were hardly a match for Tiger tanks, and Tigers were only vulnerable to Shermans from the rear. Here we are asked to believe that a Sherman could knock out several Tigers. Things would have been more credible how the American tanker crew survived the fray, found a crippled Tiger, killed the crew and used it against the other Tigers. Despite the numerous historical mistakes, I still think that director Joseph J. Lawson and scenarist Stephen Llorens deserve a salute for a job as well done as their minimal budget allowed them. Clearly, if these guys had a couple of million, they could have blown the bottom out of their subject matter.

The Asylum attempts to give us a mockbuster for the movie Fury, but it's bad, real bad, and not the so bad it's good bad, just bad. Actually, to be more actuate, it's bland. It's so generically outline, and it has no spirit to it. Forget the fact that the accents where badly done by the actors who needed to do them, and they had a series of actors who really did not look like soldiers at all. Forget that you can tell that the stunts and special effects were done for 100 bucks. forget about the fact that I'm sure they circled the same three trees 15 times as they traveled through "Nazi Germany". It's a mockbuster, so all of this can be forgiven. Doesn't help either that the tank in Fury was bas ass, but they most likely could not put that in the budget. The bigger problem here is like Fury, despite it not being about the most current war, attempts to tug on everyone's feeling about the troops who went to war. Unlike Fury, they did a really half ass job at it. They just assumed we would all be on board because we all love our troops, and the idea of them risking their lives to save an orphanage (An Orphanage! Really? Maybe if one of the orphans had a puppy?). I know this movie is not met to be taken seriously but come on? Bad attempt at stringing are hearts. Waste of time.

I don't really see a point in making a full review of this movie as others have beaten me to it. The fact that it has a rating of 2 would imply that some children have watched it and that they also had access to the internet to click the IMDb scoring system. I gave it a "1" because I cannot choose zero!! I managed to last five minutes before I turned it off. Since watching this movie I have applied for the Medal of Honour because I feel I deserve it for actually lasting 5 minutes!! The worst part is that somehow I have to come up with at least 10 lines to write about this movie regardless of the fact that the title summary says it all!! Yes, it is that bad!