Company of Heroes (2013)

Who payed the critics

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A Major Disappointment

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

General George Patton once wrote, "The M1 Garand Rifle was the greatest battle tool ever devised". Well, don't worry. There are none in this film. Instead of a Springfield M1903A1 which was the standard US sniper rifle in WW2, the sniper runs around using a German Gewehr 43 with a sniper scope. Outside of a few Thompson machine guns (M1928A1 Thompson and M1A1 Thompson) and an M9 "Bazooka", the rest of the US soldiers are using the bolt action Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk 1 which was the standard rifle for the British and Commonwealth troops. Both the M1 Garand and the Browning Automatic rifle, which were standard for US troops fired the .30-06 cartridge, completely different than the .303 cartridge used by British Commwealth troops. I realize that getting accurate weapons for movie use is expensive and difficult, but come on, guys, at least use American weapons for American troops, not something the enemy or another ally would use. Also, every one has a big American flag on their right shoulder. Big-no-no. NOBODY in the US Army at that time would sew one on, it was a damn good target. Brassards were issued during some invasions, but these were easy to dispose of. Enjoyable action, but I mostly rented this on Amazon because Tom Sizemore ('Saving Private Ryan''Blackhawk Down')plays a tough sergeant (former busted officer) and Neil McDonough ('Band of Brothers') appear in the film, The other actors make a good team and generally portrayed US Army soldiers adequately.

It's like a train wreck. You don't want to watch but, you can't take your eyes off of it. Right off the bat a US 2nd Infantry Division soldier is armed with a German G43 rifle with a US M82 scope mounted on it. Gimme' a break. Then, all of the other soldiers that weren't armed with M1 Thompson sub-machine guns were all, yes all, carrying No4 British bolt action rifles. Was there no consulting or, was there just no attempt at authenticity. Heck, even an internet search nowadays could have given them the information without paying a consultant. I believe it was more of a money thing. It was probably cheaper to rent the wrong weapons over the correct ones. At least the Germans were using German "Schmeisser" Machine Pistols and Mauser 98k rifles. Anyway, as a veteran and WWII history buff, I can tell you this movie is "Sad" at best. Cheap and Cheesy. Enjoy.

Okay look if your going to be critical about every little detail than do yourself a favor and write your own movie. If your in the mood to watch a war movie that is 100 percent historically accurate than go write your own movie. Now to the real review I liked this movie because the General theme was of men doing what is right in the face of danger even if it costs them their lives. Their used to be a time when men did that but now a days men wine on comment boards about inaccuracies in war movies lol my father served I served and his father served and I can promise you they would watch this movie in a New York second and have not one bad word to say. Now if your a critical man who hasn't served your country than I don't think this is the movie for you. Either way that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it! Cheers!

The producers of "Company of Heroes" tried to make a World War II film. They get credit for the effort. But the finished product makes one wonder how serious an effort they made. Or maybe, one should question the ability of modern filmmaking to proximate historical things with any semblance of reality.The plot for this movie comes from a video game. That's OK – fiction is fiction. The one thing it has is a big serving of action. I watched the bonus video on making of the movie. Some of the production people and cast described the lengths they went to for authentic props. For instance, they got a Russian tank that closely resembled a German Tiger tank. They duplicated it in several shots to give the impression of a column of tanks. They made one wooden model German anti-aircraft gun and moved it from place to place to represent many such guns. But the anti-aircraft gun looked shiny and freshly painted. It didn't look like a weapon that had been in combat for three or four years. Wherever we saw anti-aircraft guns, it was the same shiny, brand-new looking phony prop. And the tanks all looked the same. They didn't smudge the tank or change its appearance from scene to scene. So, it was obviously the same one. The aircraft used were all computer generated, and aerial CGI never looks real to me – or to other viewers I know. As I said, the film did have lots of action. But that was so unreal from two standpoints. Most of the GIs were using Tommy guns. None appeared to have cylinder magazines, so they would have had 20-round or 30-round box magazines. We see several of the GIs firing the submachine guns repeatedly. They had to be peeling off scores of rounds. But never do we see anyone changing an empty magazine. Indeed, they never seem to run out of bullets. The only time we see men carrying rifles – which most of the enlisted men in an infantry unit would have, is in the early part of the film, with the snipers. The movie had the "feel" of a video game throughout. Not only did the GIs have unlimited bullets in all their Tommy guns, but they mowed down the Germans by the dozens. In scenes with several Germans firing on them, we only occasionally see one of the Americans being hit, while they take out scores of Germans. Finally, even the filming outdoors in Bulgaria with the snow on the ground didn't look real. Maybe because digital video is so sanitized, it doesn't look real. This movie took place around the time of the Battle of the Bulge – in late 1944. When they learn about the Germans working on an atomic bomb, the GIs don't question it at all. They remark as though they knew what an atomic bomb was – even though it hadn't been invented yet. Some scientists and a very few top government officials knew about the efforts to make an atomic bomb, and what it was. But very few people had such knowledge before the U.S. dropped the A-bombs on Japan in August, 1945. There isn't much more than can be said about this film. It left me feeling as though I had just watched someone play a war video game.