Tag Archives: Bombs

Operation Crossbow

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It’s time for a film that takes place during World War II. I wasn’t exactly sure if I should put the review tag on this one or not since it’s based around real events but it sounds like a lot of the details don’t exactly match. Still, just about all of the big characters are using the actual names of the real people and everything so in the end I suppose it’s close enough.

The film mainly revolves around the Nazi’s attempting to build a super rocket. It would be able to deliver a bomb without even needing a pilot and would be virtually unstoppable. Right now there is one issue which is that the ship always tilts to one direction so it doesn’t reach the target. If they solve this issue then it could be all over for the allied forces. Britain sends their top agent Duncan to look into this. Duncan’s group is super skeptical and thinks that the intel is probably bogus since such a rocket is unheard of. Still, Duncan remains on the case.

It’s definitely good that Duncan stayed on this because the scientist’s argument was pretty faulty right out of the gate. The idea that the rocket couldn’t exist because he didn’t know how to build one was pretty crazy. They quickly bomb the original base the Nazi’s were using but this only buys some time. Duncan sends in John and Jacob to Germany to find out where the bombs are being stored now to take them out.

Both the heroes and villains have double agents working on each side which does make things complicated as well. On one hand the heroes get a lot of good intel but on the other hand they never know when they are walking right into a trap. This happens to one agent which results in him being badly beaten before being executed. It’s why you always see countries being real harsh with traitors because their betrayals really have a massive effect.

The film is generally light in tone but the betrayal scene is definitely intense and probably the darkest scene in the film. A close second would probably be when Nora is bumped off though. It was pretty tragic because she ultimately didn’t get to last very long and there was no reason for her to be destroyed. John even vouched for her but the army took her out anyway. Was definitely one of those moments where they were showing how extreme the good guys could be as well. They really didn’t want to take a chance on any other traitors but it doesn’t really excuse doing such a thing. She was an innocent civilian.

The movie definitely goes into a lot of detail on the investigation parts as well. This may not be as interesting at times like listening to the villains monologue while the heroes figure out what is important but it is always fairly tense. If the spies are caught then of course they will die. Meanwhile the villains will stop at nothing to perfect the bomb and even sacrifice 4 of their top pilots for this mission. Definitely a real high price they are paying right there for innovation.

The climax throws us into more of a classic gun fight. This is where the film is most like a James Bond type film. Before this most of the espionage was as low key and realistic as possible. It’s how you imagine spies would try to blend in as they just won’t stick out and only people who are close to the situation would even suspect anything. Using the alias of a dead person is super risky but it’s probably more ethical than kidnapping someone and using their identity. I imagine that would have a lot of extra risks and complications as well though since you’re already in enemy territory by that point.

The writing is really solid as you would expect and so the pacing is good as a result. While I didn’t like some of the methods the heroes chose, they were fairly heroic the whole time aside from that one moment. Everyone was out there doing their best and we got to see a lot of teamwork from the highest levels of government. It was nice to see them all pulling together and doing their best to put a stop to the enemies as opposed to just arguing in a room the whole time. It really helped that they could move quickly like bombing the first base before the villains could make any more headway.

I actually thought Duncan was going to be the main character of the film so I was surprised when he got sidelined early on. It was a pretty good misdirect though so I’ll definitely give the movie credit there. Not sure if that was the intent but it was also pretty realistic since often times the bosses wouldn’t be allowed to go on these missions anyway. That’s the whole point of having field agents to go in your place right?

Overall, Operation Crossbow is pretty solid. It’s definitely an interesting movie that will hold your attention the whole time. The writing is solid and there is always a whole lot going on. There are a lot of sacrifices on the heroes so this definitely wasn’t easy but at the end of the day they prevented a big invention that could have really turned the tides of the war. So it was a high cost victory, but a victory nonetheless. If you enjoy war tensions and a bit of James Bond type investigating then you should definitely enjoy this movie.

Dr. Strangelove Review

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It’s time to look at a critically acclaimed political film. This one takes a pretty interesting look at the good ole Cold War days and our tensions with Russia. Back then it was all about getting the bigger weapons, but we all know that such a build up can only have negative results. This film points that out with America’s half thought out attack protocols and it leads to a very tense atmosphere where all of the characters are wondering what to do about this. It is definitely a well made film.

So, the long and short of it is that one of America’s generals is fed up with the whole thing. He wants to wipe Russia off the map and nobody’s going to stop him. He orders his men to execute the order where they are to fire a nuke at Russia. The command was given as if it was a critical red scenario meaning that the homeland was taken over so this was a last act of retaliation to ensure that Russia died alongside the U.S. Naturally, this was not the case at all, but the pilots had no way of knowing that since they were already in the air and set about to complete their mission. This was a suicide mission so they would not be able to return to see its effects anyway. The President finds out about this and gathers all of the top ranking officials to decide what to do about it.

The problem? There is nothing they can do about it. The order cannot be taken back due to radio silence and there is no way to override it. The President can tell Russia about it, but that will demand retaliation so the U.S. would also blow up. That means there are two ways this can go down. 1. The U.S. alerts Russia to their impending demise so they fire their own nuke and we both die. 2. U.S. keeps silent and Russia dies before they can retaliate, but then we will be known as villains around the world. It’s a tough call.

The cast of characters is of a reasonable size. We’ve got the President as a main character which is always cool. The flaw with this guy is that he’s very timid and I can’t imagine someone like that winning the oval office. He has a hard time talking with Russia since they end up being more aggressive and his whiny disposition makes it hard to sympathize with him. I’m sure this president did a pretty good job during the term, but he wasn’t cutting it. He’s a decently humorous character if you keep in mind that this is a parody though. Turgidson is a pretty charismatic character and one of those guys who gets a lot of witty lines, but is actually a bad character if you think about it enough. He is a little too enthusiastic about implementing a terribly selfish plan at the end of the film to save himself and he doesn’t mind shirking his duty for no real reason. What helps to combat these negative traits is how devoted he is to stopping the Russians. He is willing to lie or do just about anything else to convince people that they are behind all of this. Naturally, he opts to just stay silent and let Russia grow up. While the rest of the council made sure to ignore him during the decision making, you couldn’t ignore him because of how loud the guy was.

Ripper was really the main antagonist of the film and the guy who got the ball rolling. He’s definitely pretty crazy so there is no reasoning with him. It was surreal to see him start firing on his own soldiers just so he could stay alive and once he had stalled enough, he just shot himself. Shooting himself definitely hurt his credibility since he took the cop-out way in the end. The crazyness may have added to the film’s overall atmosphere, but I wouldn’t have minded if this character was cut out. Poor Mandrake was caught in the middle of this breakdown and he did a good job of trying to make the best of the situation. He did come close to stopping the catastrophe, but it was too little too late. Guano is a random general who showed up to take command of the situation over there and I’ll give him a little shout out for being fairly tough. Considering everything that had just happened, he took the situation in stride.

Finally, we have Dr. Strangelove. He is certainly quite the character and that’s to be expected since the film is named after him. The concept of an ex Nazi working for the U.S. and getting a seat on the council is pretty ludicrous but we’ll let it slide for now. His main gimmick was that he kept trying to salute by mistake and telling treasonous things like “My Fuhrer” and hoping that nobody noticed. He is pretty well educated about weapons of mass destruction and nuclear deterrents so he is consulted quite a lot in this film. It’s always interesting to have a traitor in your midst as well and he added some tension to the film. He was without a doubt, one of the best characters in the film.

There is really only one scene here that holds the film back a little and that is Turgidson’s debut. It’s just a really drawn out scene of his secretary answering a call for him while not fully dressed and the scene just stays here for a while. It felt like obvious fanservice and while it wasn’t anything drastic, it is enough to make you shake your head at the whole thing. The deluded general Ripper’s fixation on bodily fluids was also mildly alarming and the final desperate plan that the U.S. considers was also rather twisted. You’re liable to have some iffy plots in a black comedy since it’s part of the humor, but at least it was kept to a minimum. If you consider that this was really the only negative in the film, then that’s actually a pretty good sign. The film may not be amazing or as good as it could have been, but I’d call it a solid film in the end. It’s a movie that I could actually re-watch right now since it’s been a while and it does have a good amount of replay value.

I have to give a brief shout-out to the ending. It was handled beautifully and I was not expecting it in the slightest. It’s an ending that I can’t imagine a modern film getting away with. Not because of content as there is nothing violent about it at all, but just because it’s not a mainstream ending that people would probably approve of. That’s why it was so shocking when the film just suddenly ended with a quick song and a slow montage. I can’t say what the montage was about since that would definitely be a spoiler, but it was classic nonetheless.

Overall, Dr. Strangelove is a very clever film and most of the humor is actually rock solid. It’s a film that will breeze by in no time at all. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and just has a lot of fun along the way. The characters are all very crazy and charismatic. While some of them may not be all that likable on their own, they do make the film more enjoyable. It’s a very crazy film and while that can sometimes work against it, the uniqueness helps the film more than it hurts. If like me, you enjoy watching films that deal with politics and even poke fun at it in the process, then this is a film that you can definitely get behind. The film has a much larger title which will make a lot of sense once you watch the movie. I’d love to see a remake of this film someday as the concept is something that could easily be used again.

Overall 6/10