after Inglorious Basterds Brad Pitt is back for more
re-enlisting with the Allied force! you're watching Beyond The Trailer's review of Fury!
These troops get by you, we're all dead
in the water - all we got is you
I won't ask you to do anything I haven't done myself
- Com-check! - Photo-check! - Bird-check!
Fire!
On what?!
Hit that sonuvabitch!
Hit it!
Do your job! Do what you're here for!
Brad Pitt was used to sell tickets for Inglorious Basterds but when it came
earning the gold he wasn't even a part of the discussion
only when the film's cast was honored as an ensemble did his name even come up
but as we all know, while Pitt just recently won a Best Picture Oscar for
twelve years a slave
he'd like to win one for his primary profession - acting
but unlike fellow pretty boys Matthew McConaughey or Ben Affleck
Pitt has always made interesting films so there's no transformation into artiste
to wow the Academy
instead like another accomplished pretty boy Leonardo DiCaprio
he finds himself endlessly in search of the recognition and prestige that
audiences already give him
but hey can you blame Pitt or DiCaprio for wanting to make it official?
and yes the Academy loves war movies
movies about recent wars not so much with the exception of The Hurt Locker
and
maybe American sniper but Pitt is playing it safe by going old school with another
world war two story
another world war two story?! yes but Pitt has found a little explored corner
of that storied bit of history
the armored tank! today our soldiers are even safer with Predator drones where they're
totally removed from the battlefield
but back during world war two an armored tank was the most protection the army
any army
could afford their soldiers and despite roughly 20,000 being used by the US Army
during World War Two
there've only been a handful of movies to feature them the most notable being
Sahara with humphrey bogart
Battle of the Bulge with henry fonda and Kelly's heroes with Clint Eastwood
donald sutherland, telly savalas
and don rickles. and while Brad Pitt is definitely fury's biggest star
it does feature an impressive ensemble cast as tanks were not a
single man effort. Percy Jacksons Logan Lerman, who's been flirting with the jump
to the big leagues for a while now
The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal, Michael Pena
who co-starred in writer-director David Ayer's biggest hit to date End of Watch
and then
Shia LaBeouf. We'll see how LaBeouf does on screen but so far he's dominated the press
coverage for fury with stories about how he refused to shower
pulled out his own tooth and continuously cut his face for real with a knife
throughout production
all in the name of authenticity! but all of LaBeouf's efforts will be for nothing
if Ayer, directing his
first period piece can't deliver on his end. So will Fury finally do for tanks what
hollywood has already done for submarines? or when it comes to the Oscar
race is this pic
hopelessly outgunned? it's so frustrating to watch a movie with so many great
elements fail so utterly
this is me watching Fury - this movie is off to a really bad start!
oh but wait a minute that is a great action sequence - tanks are awesome!
and hey, the acting is getting pretty good
oh but wait, it just totally went off the rails
goodbye and it's all David Ayer's fault and probably also Brad
Pitts' who clearly has Oscar tunnel
vision because Fury knows where it wants to go
logic and good storytelling be damned! and the real problem with this movie really is
Brad Pitt's character
for two reasons - the first is he makes a big promise to his men that he's going
to keep them alive
and they make a very big point of showing that this promise means so much to
him personally
yet clearly - without having too many spoilers here
killing Germans is more important to him than keeping is
troops alive so I don't understand why the first promise was made
and if they were going to make that first promise about keeping them alive
why not show more of the internal conflict with Brad Pitt between
these two priorities he clearly has which is keeping his troops alive, his team
and killing germans! now as for the killing germans bit
that's never explained even though he's clearly obsessed with killing Germans they make
quite an effort to show that - for instance in the camp
when they're going to question the SS officer and Brad Pitt just
loses his cool over the whole thing - and you know
Logan Lerman's character, they make quite a point in breaking him and showing how he
comes to hate germans, and that's done effectively
although Logan Lerman, at the end of the movie, you discover really hasn't changed
at all
again I don't wanna give a spoiler away but his character ends up
almost in the exact same place in terms of his stance
with war as he did at the beginning of the movie
but with Brad Pitt's character they don't show
why it's so personal with him - so intensely personal to kill germans
I suspect it has something to do with why his character speaks perfect German
or at least
it should have something to do with that - but I suspect the reason David Ayer
doesn't show
why Brad Pitt hates Germans so much is because he couldn't
come up with a cool enough reason and that's why he doesn't include it - it's the only
reason I can think of! because including a sequence
at the beginning of the film or having a flashback would've
exponentially improved this movie but instead
by not showing Brad Pitt, you know what causes him to hate
Germans so much, the Nazis in particular, it robs Brad Pitt's character of his
motivation
it robs him of our sympathies and it most likely will rob Brad Pitt of the Oscar
nomination he clearly wants so badly
and I think someone could argue well isn't it cool
to not know why he dislikes German so much, don't you
appreciate the mystery?
and I would say I if your gonna go the mystery route which i think would be a
mistake
even it's not compellingly edged out nor are the arm
you know the conflicts between what brett is saying and what he's doing
largely says it's just their job to kill germs but again
it's clearly deeply personal for his character
now those are the problems at the movie that I think our you know
fail to the top but there's still a lot of good things as i said they're great
elements here
the just totally wasted I'll it's Brad Pitt and Logan Lerman so many boys do a
very good job
I was impressed at how Michael Kenya shyla bach
and Jon Bernthal were able to stand out with very little screen time actually
I also like the movie has to say about war I think it was a very fresh take on
it
which surprised and I think surprisingly least to my knowledge
I haven't seen any other hollywood movies about war look at it from this
perspective
you know what soldiers in their deal with the mentality is I think it was
done
quite effectively I was really really impressed it was like showing the band
of brothers
come so famous but taking all the romance out a bit
but still leaving the imports that bond and i really appreciate that
I also like what had to say about tech warfare I thought it was
really other action sequences were this really exciting
I love the tracer rounds with that was used and it peaked my interest in tax I
in that regard I wish that the film I'll told more about harte-hanks operate and
he got kinda
you can pick up a little bit Logan Lerman scared to joining the crew was
the perfect opportunity and you never want to take school
it was the perfect opportunity to give us a a quick lesson in tax and also
would like to know a little bit more about tech warfare
which I also thought see pretty interesting and something I'm not
familiar with so
I think the movie succeeded in that regard the movie does succeed in a lot
of various a particular the middle section
so I think you should see fury at some point because in that middle section
I and what he has to say about war and you know some other performances in that
action sequences and you know good good introduction tanks
on only an introduction unfortunately there but because at the beginning of
the movie and the
end of the movie in the beginning by the way just you know place like a bad
bad theater I everyone speaking their emotions
I was just I was really nervous when I was going to have to sit through to the
next two hours or so
but I would say because in all sections worth seeing
but because in the beginning the end it's not worth seeing in theaters
or I can't recommend you see it deters it's your call really are you might
argue it needs the big screen because the kind of film it is then
go for a matinee save as much money as you can this
so that's my review of fury what do you think did
did the wasted good elements make you curious as well
or did you like the way everything came together %uh please share your thoughts
gambler thank you so much
for tuning in to my review and you can check more episodes
right now