I found this movie well worth a watch. There are some faults but I think they aren't that major.
The good points: Good on location feel. The battles and atrocities are quite well filmed. It's exciting and you feel part of the action. Shows the hard job faced by war correspondents. This is a war many don't know about or vaguely remember. So it's interesting to see a movie about a conflict that took place so recently in 2008.
Interesting casting with most cast members playing nationalities they are not. Two Americans as Georgians: Andy Garcia as the Georgian President and Jonathan Schaech as a soldier. Rupert Friend, a British actor as an American journalist. Val Kilmer as a Dutch journalist. Emanuelle Chriqrui, a Canadian Morrocan as a Georgian lady the reporters befriend and who is trying to rescue her family. At least she looks her part.
The faults: Some criticise that it was one sided showing the Russians as the sole perpetrators of atrocities. I guess it's up to the viewer to look more into what happened themselves. But don't most WWII movies focus on one side's point of view as well? So I think that criticism is a bit unfair.
Another fault is there are some parts of the story that have a Rambo like action quality and unbelievability. It was a bit ridiculous at times during the rescue and scenes with the villains. This hurts the film but they had to make a story to entertain so I don't think it's that bad a fault.
The movie wasn't successful financially and had bad reviews. Despite that I think it was entertaining and still worth a watch. It highlights a conflict not many people know about. For those who want action in a film might as well learn something about a little known war at the same time instead of just mindless action.
The good points: Good on location feel. The battles and atrocities are quite well filmed. It's exciting and you feel part of the action. Shows the hard job faced by war correspondents. This is a war many don't know about or vaguely remember. So it's interesting to see a movie about a conflict that took place so recently in 2008.
Interesting casting with most cast members playing nationalities they are not. Two Americans as Georgians: Andy Garcia as the Georgian President and Jonathan Schaech as a soldier. Rupert Friend, a British actor as an American journalist. Val Kilmer as a Dutch journalist. Emanuelle Chriqrui, a Canadian Morrocan as a Georgian lady the reporters befriend and who is trying to rescue her family. At least she looks her part.
The faults: Some criticise that it was one sided showing the Russians as the sole perpetrators of atrocities. I guess it's up to the viewer to look more into what happened themselves. But don't most WWII movies focus on one side's point of view as well? So I think that criticism is a bit unfair.
Another fault is there are some parts of the story that have a Rambo like action quality and unbelievability. It was a bit ridiculous at times during the rescue and scenes with the villains. This hurts the film but they had to make a story to entertain so I don't think it's that bad a fault.
The movie wasn't successful financially and had bad reviews. Despite that I think it was entertaining and still worth a watch. It highlights a conflict not many people know about. For those who want action in a film might as well learn something about a little known war at the same time instead of just mindless action.