Truly Dreadful Film

So much average

Excellent but underrated film

Blistering performances.

While I can see that the movie had in general some good actors and the dialogue was also all decent, the movie had really bad casting for the German soldiers, which actually would have made everything more believable. When telling a true story you need to have everything in it as real as possible. The English actors as German soldiers spoke such broken German, the first thing I thought was, WHY, why save money on that. Would you believe a story when the GI's were Asian looking? Would you believe if they had a Russian accent? No, you would not believe that they were really American soldiers. For that alone, I subtracted 5 stars, simply because it made the movie cheap looking. You can't tell a true story with fake facts.

The film starts out just beautiful. I love films which uses simple effects in close ups combined with beautiful overview of the landscape. Directed by first time director Samuel Fisher, a man with a long career behind the camera, it sure us a fine debut. That's surely also the reason for this film being beautifully photographed.It's a story about family bonding and history telling, as well as giving away what is most important, the stories which makes history and traditions within a family. There's quite some symbolic things put into if as well.The film starts exciting. I'm drawn in right away, and if you are like me, you're in for a compelling story. After a few minutes I understand that this Is a film which balances beautiful between present war in Iraq and foregone days, as well as between war and peace time.It's not a big budget film, but it's very realistically told. The war scenes are shown just like they are, with no glossy Hollywood nonsense. Real snow, real people, just like it would have been. The injuries are so real, I really can't understand how they made it. Just amazing!As mentioned, the story is beautifully photographed where the lighting also is simply great. This is very qualified film making in all aspects, and add to this a charmingly told story in all ways, you have a good film. Add great acting by all, but the best us James Cromwell (as the old grandpa) and his son John Cromwell (playing the younger Bud Vogel). Young Jackson Bond is great as the younger Kyle Vogel. Mary Kay Fortier- Spalding is a fabulous grandma.After a start which promises there's more coming, We meet a young wounded soldier retelling his grandfathers stories about the Second World War. Then we go back to the storytelling, and then further back to the ending days in the war in Europe.There's so much talent and love for giving a message which drives this story, and I appreciate that this story came my way. It's one of those stories which makes you want to watch another, just as good movie, right away. This film deserves many viewers.

I was not going to watch this film. But I am ashamed to say I watched it because nothing else interested me. I was hooked within 15 minutes. My Grandfather was a WWII vet who served with Patton and fought at Normandy. I was so proud of my Grandfather he was a great man. I named my son his first great grandson after him. When they got older he told his war stories to my son's and myself. When he passed away in 2008 my son's inherited his Foot Locker plus a lot more from his time as a soldier. My son's and I treasure what he has left to them. My father on the other hand fought in Vietnam and refused to speak about his time there during his two tours of duty. He passed away in 2007 and we never will have the chance to learn about his time in the service. I honor both these men in my heart for the service that they gave this Country.

"Promise me no matter what I tell you I'll always be your Opa." While Kyle Vogel (Bennett) is at a hospital recovering from a wound he got in war his nurse begins to ask him about his life. He decides to tell her about a talk he had with his grandfather (Cromwell) when he was 13. This is another movie that I thought could have been either really good or really boring. I wasn't sure how a movie about a grandfather telling his grandson about war artifacts could be any good. After twenty minutes I was absolutely hooked. I really connected with this movie on a personal level as my grandpa was also a vet and always wanted to ask him about what he went through. I only heard one story and after hearing it I never asked again. That aside, this is one great movie that deserves to be watched. The acting buy Cromwell is Oscar caliber and he deserves to be nominated for this, but like most low budget movies it gets glossed over because of the budget. Which isn't fair at all. I highly recommend this movie and is in my top 10 of movies released this year. Overall, a must see movie that will leave you choked up at the end. I give it an A.