War Pigs

When Captain Jack Wosick (Luke Goss) is given a court martial and dimissed in disgrace for leading a group of soliders to thier deaths, his army life is over. That is until he is picked by Colonel and crazed sunglasses wearing A J Redding (Rourke) to lead a near fatal mission into Nazi occupied Europe. The mission is simple, blow up a new Nazi super weapon and use a bunch of layabouts called the 'War Pigs' to do this. With the help of French/ German Captain Hans Picault (Lundgren), he must whip these 'War Pigs' into shape.

I have to lead with a confession. I have a soft spot for Dolph Lundgren. Yes me the art house loving, Multiplex cinema shunning, self obssessed nobody. Why you might ask? Well I watched a film with him in, with my dad in a cinema in Catford (South East London). That was the film that made me love cinema and also love the magic of the white screen. It was called 'The Masters Of The Universe' and it was awful but brilliant. Many years later it would lead me to explore Cannon films and Golan/Globus partnership but I digress. This soft spot has slighty softened me to the flaws in this film and as such please understand. Thank you! Ryan Little has crafted a functioning film that could be a sequal to his Saints and Soliders series of films. He has the bangs, the blasts and the bullets cued up and let rip. He also has the odd historical pieces in place and the vague accuracy of events that happened and how this could have been that. Where the problems come about are in the casting and the construction of the piece. I understand he has cast Mickey Rourke for the financers. They would have loved the fact an Oscar nominee was up for such a film but this is the problem.

Rourke is to big for the film and as such does a Brando. He literally doesnt care about the film or its content. Nor should he really. Then you have Luke Goss. Luke was in Bros and I remember them when they were famous. I also remember Goss in other films and always felt he was given a hard time because he is a good looking guy who can act. To a certain extent at least. Here he goes to method and this creates a disconnect. It is the smoking that is that problem. He just does a lot of it. It is annoying and feels like he is worried that without the fag hanging out of his mouth, we will not take him seriously. I can say that Little has the non famous actor scenes down, as he did in Saints and Sinners. I reviewed them and felt he had the conversation and interaction spot on. Here he does also but it is the big actors that he cant control. Now Lundgren is in another league. He is a massive presence in this piece and he might be doing it by the numbers but it is so much fun to watch him do that.

My tag line for this would have been....'Not as good as Saints and Soldiers because it stars Mickey Rourke playing Marlon Brando from Apocalypse Now....'