CHINESE WAR PIC: Air Strike (2018)

                I saw a trailer (see below) for this movie a while back and have to admit, as much as I look forward to any war movie, I was very skeptical about this one.  When a trailer makes the movie bad…  (Speaking of trailers, the DVD begins with trailers for FOUR Bruce Willis straight to DVD movies.)  Here are the Rotten Tomato ratings on them – 0/6/13/0)  Let’s find out if my skepticism was justified.

                “Air Strike” (the Chinese title actually translates as “Big Bombing”) is also known as “The Bombing” or “Unbreakable Spirit”.  It was directed by Ziao Feng, but more importantly, art directed by Mel Gibson.  It was filmed in Shanghai for $65 million dollars, most of which must have gone to Bruce Willis’ salary.  A little coinage was thrown Adrien Brody’s way. I’m guessing he was paid a handsome hourly rate for his one minute of air time.

       The movie begins in 1937 with China getting its ass kicked by Japanese invaders.  The Chinese retreated to the provisional capital of Chongqing which the Japanese were determined to bomb the hell out of.  We know this because one minute into the movie, there is a CGI-enhanced bombing of the city.  This will not be the last time bombs fall in this movie.  Col. Jack Johnson (Willis) plays a military adviser training a Chinese fighter squadron.  He must be extremely good because his charges, flying Soviet Polikarpov I-15s (think Brewster Buffaloes), are able to duel with Japanese Zeros.  One of the pilots loses his brother, so we have the requisite vengeance-fueled character.  The Japanese know he is the one who dropped leaflets over Nagasaki and they are out to get him.  For this purpose, an evil Japanese ace is thrown in to hiss at.  Stay with me here.  Another subplot has another pilot, turned secret agent, trying to get a truck carrying a secret decoder to headquarters.  The Japanese air force is also out to get him.  You can expect some strafing to go along with all the bombing.  The truck agent picks up a woman and four kids and a shady Chinaman.  Another female character is a feisty female photojournalist who hooks up with the avenging aviator.  The cursory exposition takes place between bombings, dogfights, and truck-trek obstacles.

       At this point, you are probably wondering if my review is going to praise the gonzo nature of the film and recommend it as a guilty pleasure or condemn it as a piece of crap.  If you predicted choice B, you would be correct.  The plot, such as it is, is merely an excuse to chronicle a series of terror bombings.  The subplots are silly and include a mahjong tournament!  Realism does not apply.  Unintentional laughs abound.  When the truck’s road is blocked by an unexploded bomb, they get past it by driving on two wheels.  At one point, Jackson plots strategy in front of a table-top map with model airplanes on it.  This crapfest builds to a crescendo of nonsense with the crash-landing of a P-40 using a truck for landing gear, with Jackson cheering them on.  Spoiler alert: there is also a cliff involved.  To top that, the movie concludes with a slapstick routine involving another UXB.  You’ll finish the movie shaking your head about what you watched and about Bruce Willis’ career.

                The discouraging thing about the movie is the Chinese are capable of better (see “Operation Red Sea”), but this movie is made by slackers.  The CGI is bad.  If you take a drink every time a plane loses a wing, you will be drunk before Bruce Willis takes off with a cigar in his mouth.  Which reminds me to mention that Jackson is a besmirching of Claire Chennault.  Willis gives a half-ass rendering of whoever he is channeling.  He obviously was in it for the pay check.  The rest of the cast is mediocre.  They are basically there to be bombed, strafed, or shot down.

                In its defense, it does not claim to be based on a true story, but it is still sloppy history.  The biggest boner is having the Chinese fighters competing with Zeros (which were not in service at the time of the film, by the way) and having any chance whatsoever.  The CGI has fighters doing acrobatics that even the Zero could not pull off.  Surprisingly, the numerous bombings are fairly accurate because Chongqing was continually bombed from February, 1938 to August, 1943.  Most of the bombs were incendiaries, whereas the movie features high explosives, of course.  In the first two days of the terror bombing campaign, five thousand civilians were killed.  There were a total of 268 raids and it seems like the movie shows all of them.

                In conclusion, I mentioned drinking during the movie and that is the only way I can recommend it.  Watch “Operation Red Sea” instead.  Or any South Korean war movie.

GRADE  =  D

CRACKER? Tears of the Sun (2003)

                “Tears of the Sun” is a Bruce Willis action war film.  It was directed by Antoine Fuqua (“King Arthur”).  It was made by Willis’ production company for an astounding $100 million.  It did not cover its cost and got mixed reviews.  Willis and Fuqua did not get along during the filming and have vowed to never work together again.  The movie got substantial support from the Pentagon which allowed the first use of a nuclear aircraft carrier (the U.S.S. Harry S Truman) for a movie filming.  The cast included actual African refugees living in the U.S. 

                The movie is set in civil war torn Nigeria.  A recent coup has resulted in ethnic cleansing.  “Somewhere off the coast of Africa” lurks the USS Harry S Truman.  The U.S. government actually takes notice of the chaos and orders a Navy SEAL team to extract a doctor, some nurses, and a priest.  The eight man unit is led by Lt. Waters (Willis) and the over/under for survivors is four.  When they reach the refugee camp, the feisty Dr. Kendricks (Monica Bellucci) refuses to leave the natives.  A grumbling Waters agrees to take them to the egress site.  The priest and nuns insist on staying with the wounded.  When the priest tells Waters to “go with God”, Waters responds with “God already left Africa”.  Waters and Kendricks get off on the wrong foot.  If this was a romantic comedy, they would be married by the end.  Since this is a war movie, they will respect each other by the end (with future marriage a possibility).  When they reach the chopper, Waters throws Kendricks on board and leaves the natives behind – psyche!  If looks could kill.  But mission accomplished.  Man, that was a short movie.  But wait…  On the way back to the carrier, they pass over the refugee camp which has obviously been the scene of a massacre.  This melts Waters' heart and Willis realizes that he does not have a commercially viable movie unless the mission is expanded to include rescuing the abandoned refugees.  “It’s been so long since I’ve done a good thing.”  Apparently Waters does not consider killing bad guys to be a good thing.

                The movie now becomes a “valley of death” film as the group is stalked by the rebels.  The usual tropes are thrown in.  Maverick leader bucking higher authority.  Someone in the group is helping the rebels.  One of the refugees has a secret identity (but this ends up being a nice twist).  Bonding with the natives as hardened warriors are humanized.  Questioning of command decisions.  To keep the action junkies happy, there is a stop-over at a village to kick some rapiner ass.  It’s worth the wait as we get some great SEAL-type bloodletting.  So far betting the under is looking good, but that is about to change.  When Waters gets the obligatory reminder of his original orders, he explains to the denser members of the audience that “I broke my own rule, I started to give a f***.”  The movie is now “Von Ryan’s Express” without the train.  But with a huge explosion courtesy of F-18 Hornet fighter jets.  USA!!  The over/under ends up being a push.  I’ll leave it up to you to guess whether Willis had the balls of Sinatra.  Don’t bother guessing whether the natives reached safety.

                “Tears of the Sun” was better than I expected.  It does not break any new ground and is totally predictable, but it is efficiently entertaining.  There is plenty of action and lots of ammo expenditure enhanced by not having to reload.  The deaths are realistic and sometimes graphic.  The chasing element adds suspense and the catching element adds gratuitous violence.  The score does a good job setting the mood and the cinematography is masterful considering the jungle foliage.  The dialogue is terse and there is no speechifying.  The cast is testosterone-laden, but not Cro-magnon.  The SEALs are “hey, yous” as 90% of the budget probably went to Willis’ salary.  When your second-bill is Cole Hauser, you better have a lot of distractions.  The acting is fine in spite of this.  Willis is Willis and the others are appealing, which is better than appalling.  There is a little dysfunction, but no one turns out to be a jerk.  All the villainy is ladled onto the African rebels.  Kendricks is a strong female character and Bellucci (soon to be the oldest Bond girl ever) holds her own.

                

After seeing the movie, it is a bit surprising that it did not do well at the box office.  You could see where the film was Hollywood’s answer to our government’s lack of intervention in African genocide.  Sadly, the American public was apparently not interested in cinematic intervention either.  It’s not a bad time-killer and is not totally a mindless guy movie.  There have been much worse in this subgenre in this century.

GRADE =  B

  

CRACKER? HART’S WAR (2002)

                “Hart’s War” is a POW / court room hybrid.  It’s like a mash-up of “A Soldier’s Story” and “The Great Escape”.  It is based on a novel by John Katzenbach.  It was directed by George Hoblit.  It was filmed at a studio in Prague.

                Hart (Colin Ferrell) is a green staff officer who has no worries about combat because he is a Senator’s son.  Unfortunately, the Battle of the Bulge sneaks up on him (it is quieter in this movie than others) and he gets taken captive by some of those Germans-disguised-as-Americans.  Within a two minute section, the movie also manages to toss in a reference to the Malmedy Massacre.  I was surprised they didn’t throw in McAuliffe saying “Nuts!”

Instead of the usual play, why don't we stage a
murder trial to break the boredom?

                Hart is interrogated by your typical suave Nazi.  He wants to know where the fuel dumps are.  You know, like the one at the end of  “Battle of the Bulge”.  Does Hart talk?  Unsure.  He is put on a POW train which passes by a train full of Jews.  Check that reference off.  At one point a P-51 strafes the train in a scene reminiscent of the crossing the Volga scene in “Enemy at the Gates”.  There are explosions, quick cuts, and generally frenetic running about.

                When Hart arrives at Stalag VI A, he is greeted by the sight of three Russian prisoners hanging.  The German commandant Col. Visser (Marcel Iures) is evil and the opposite of Col. Klink.  The ranking American officer is Col. MacNamara (Bruce Willis) who suspects Hart ratted out the fuel dumps and it turns out he’s right.  This conveniently results in Hart being relegated to an enlisted man’s barracks so the movie can move in a new direction. The plot is roiled by the arrival of two Tuskegee Airmen.  Would you believe they are not welcomed by the white soldiers?  In particular, a loathsome cracker named Bedford (Cole Hauser) who plants a tent spike in the bunk of one of the blacks which results in his execution.  Guess what racist ends up dead with the other black named Scott (Terrence Howard) standing over him?  In between we get the CGI spectacle of a German fighter getting shot down into the camp.  Cool.  Oh, did I mention the American fighter has its tail painted red?

Hey Southerners, look who came to
our slumber party!

                McNamara insists on a court-martial for Scott because he is accused of killing an American.  This is intended as a distraction to cover an escape attempt.  Visser agrees to this because… I’m not sure.  McNamara appoints Ferrell as defense attorney because…I’m not sure.  Visser helps Hart by giving him an American court-martial manual (which he keeps on his shelf next to his copy of Mein Kampf).  He does this because… I’m not sure.

                In the trial, Scott gets called to the witness stand so he can break the fourth wall and give a speech about mistreatment of blacks which mentions the better treatment of German POWs in the American South.  I would have squirmed if I did not know all this stuff already.  The speech is not maudlin and actually works pretty well.  McNamara is put on the witness stand so Willis can do his Jack Nicholson (“A Few Good Men”) imitation.  While all this is going on McNamara is supervising a tunnel to launch a raid on a nearby munitions camp.  The trial is just a distraction.  By the way, try not to be distracted by the fact that the destruction of the munitions plant would most likely rain executions on the prisoners.  No one argues whether it’s a good idea.  The movie closes strong with intercutting between the summations in the trial and the escape.  I won’t give away any of what happens, but it is pretty powerful if implausible.

a Nazi, a Democrat, and a Republican

                “Hart’s War” is a war movie for people who do not care about war movies.  It is aimed at the generic audience.  The producers appear to have doubted whether a regular prisoner escape movie would be profitable so they added a court room drama and then threw in a Tuskegee Airmen / Red Tails subplot so the film could have some gravitas.  The fact the movie did not do well at the box office tends to show that you shouldn’t structure a war movie based on demographics.  With that said, it is not a bad movie.  It is entertaining, if you can suspend disbelief and just sit back and watch.  The acting is good.  Willis is strong and seems to have bought into the character.  Ferrell is adequate.  Visser is sufficiently malevolent.  Terrence Howard should be able to play a Tuskegee Airmen in his sleep at this point.  The characters are not one-dimensional.  The dialogue is fine. 



                The major flaws in the movie are due to aiming at a mass audience.  The themes are trite.  Redemption of Hart from being a rat.  Sacrifice for your country and men (McNamara).  Honor is more important than life (Scott).  The biggest problem is that in order to develop the themes, the script has to pile on implausibilities and unrealities.  For instance, the whole opening scene where Hart is captured is absolutely ridiculous to anyone familiar with the Battle of the Bulge.  Even small touches can be aggravating.  In the trial, Scott claims to have shot down nine German planes in thirty missions.  No Red Tail came close to that figure.  Some cool twists partly make up for the predictability of the themes.  Another balancing factor is the production values are strong.  The camp is one of the best in the subgenre.  Real effort went into it.  The tunnel is also well done and similar to that of “The Great Escape”.  However, I’m not sure if reminding people of “The Great Escape” is a good idea when your movie is much inferior.

 

                Cracker?  Unlikely.  It is not even in the upper rank of POW movies.

 

GRADE =  B-