Reviews

A campy, highly entertaining film that mixes sci-fi and horror with tongue firmly implanted in cheek. Also highly recommended for fans of "Firefly", Nathan Fillion had much of what made his character on Firefly so great.

Though 'swarming' with characters, only a few are developed to any point, but that's okay, it helps the film keep moving along. However, one of my favorite characters is 'the Mayor', he's highly entertaining, in particular a scene almost halfway into the movie when he has a hysterical fit opening with, "Where's the Mr. Pipp?"

The film frequently references Night of the Living Dead with several shots, including wide field shots. Also there are scenes that will eave the viewer thinking of "A Street Car Named Desire".

A fun, and gory film that kept me quite enthused.

I was more curious then truly excited when I heard about this film, though featuring a decent budget and filmed on location in the Czech Republic, most notably the old city section of Prague, I was not expecting a masterpiece. After 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy came out, this film would look even worse.

One of the signs of doom was Shawn Wayans, 'Why Dear God Why' was he in this film, was it a vain attempt to diversify the cast a little, they could have done better, they could have also done worse, if Chris Tucker was in this film my rating would have gone down to a one.

I also think Lee Arenburg to be entertaining, but him as a dwarf with no camera angles to make him look shorter, I can't buy a 5'6 dwarf, even if John Rys-Davies played him.

(warning spoiler!!!)

The plot while featuring elements of a typical D&D setting seemed to lack any of the more subtle conventions which could have added immensely to the film, like random monsters attacking the party or a real dungeon crawl, only one scene came close, the labyrinth under the thieves guild. If just for comic relief they had one 10'x10' room with some orcs and a chest I would have at least had a good laugh. The sequel was much better in that respect.

Thora Birch's delivery is absolutely awful, she must have just phoned this one in, because she is otherwise a fine actress if she has a good director. The only pleasure brought to the screen by the cast was Jeremy Irons, who hammed it up to 'Vincent Price levels', and no hack director was going to question him either, hence me giving this film a 2, if they had some other hack in his part it would be lower.

I recommend this film if you want to shock your friends on movie night, or just get them back for something, or for giving it an MS3K treatment.

I consider myself something of a WWII buff, and was excited that a major film would be released about 'Stalingrad'. In the opening scenes after Vasili's initial flashbacks they really build sympathy for the plight of the Russian soldier. With the NKVD with orders to shoot anyone retreating, the common soldier's issued only one rifle for every two troops, while the NKVD has the SMG's and MG's with orders to shoot Russian troops caught running back, you wonder how we backed a regime that would do this to their own men. The film made me feel there was potential for CGI in these films, it was not perfect, but it must have been easier then trying to get the real things when it came to planes and tanks. someone commented on the use of T-34/85's which were not available till around, or just after Kursk in '43, well maybe those were the only T-34's they could get, granted there are companies that specialize in making mock-ups of all sorts of vehicles as well.

With the Germans, I thought they could have varied the tanks and armored vehicles a little more, it seemed all the Germans had were Panzer III's and Sdkfz 251 series half tracks. Enough technical crap, I thought the acting was decent, the story alright save for the love triangle. One thing they tried to convey with Koenig was that, despite his aristocratic baring, and almost callous nature to the plight of the common soldier, a common trait of the German Officer Corp, especially the Wehrmacht, I got the notion he did feel he had a score to settle, having lost his son during the first week of the battle, and how he looked out for the kid, giving him warnings and what not. (Warning Spoiler) Having Ed Harris kill the kid was a ploy I think to kill what residual amount of sympathy you might have had for Ed Harris's character. It seems as always Hollywood likes to have situations broken down to purely black and white morality. The film had its problems but was still entertianing, a 6, possibly 7 out of 10. The friendship bewteen Danilov and Vasili was interesting, but relying on a love triangle to build conflict between them was a little cliche.