Just perfect...

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

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Absolutely loved this film! Was really funny too. There was some serious scenes but also a bit if humour here and there. Great acting from all cast. Must watch.

Writer/director John Boorman set a high standard for his war memoirs with his beautifully scripted and acted HOPE & GLORY in 1987. That original bears little resemblance to this off center amateurish sequel QUEEN & COUNTRY. We wonder where the wonder went.In the hilarious highlight of HOPE AND GLORY 9-year-old Bill Rohan rejoices in the destruction of his school by an errant Luftwaffe bomb. QUEEN & COUNTRY picks up the story nearly a decade later as Bill - Boorman's alter-ego - (Callum Turner) begins basic training in the early Fifties, during the Korean War. Bill is joined by a trouble-making army mate, Percy (Caleb Landry Jones). They never get near Korea, but engage in a constant battle of wits with the Catch-22-worthy, Sgt. Major Bradley (David Thewlis). Richard E. Grant is their superior, the very, very, infinitely put-upon, aptly-named Major Cross. The boys begin noticing girls (Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Vanessa Kirby – Bill's sister - and Tamsin Egerton) but that does little to help this thin plot.Boorman is responsible for it all and though it has a few nice moments, it is a cake that falls.

I am a huge fan of Hope and Glory and had high hopes for Queen and Country. The entire experience of the new film was very flat. It was like taking a cross country trip focused on making exactly the same distance every day and staying in safe hotels. Nothing stood out, except possibly some bad (over?) acting. Most of the cast was adequate, but Caleb Landry Jones and Aimee-Ffion Edwards mostly just over-acted, as did almost everyone playing someone in a position of authority in the military. Of course, dealing with a plot that made little sense probably did not help. The best part of the film takes place on the water where Callum Turner does a nice job of making us believe it was his natural habitat mostly by becoming more confident instead of the fish-out-of-water he usually is (that is about as deep as this moving gets). Unfortunately, there were also some lame scenes of filming on the water that also added nothing. The only good news for my wife and me is that one of our tickets was free, so we only wasted half as much money.

The post-war period often seems like a bit of a black hole for films. Aside from the films made at the time which dealt with the issues the population faced, most notably Italian Neorealism, contemporary films prefer to explore the actual conflict themselves. More drama is to be found there. But while World War II was 'the' war, the conflict never really stopped, and Britain still had mandatory military service at the age of 18, with deployment to Korea for their civil war a real proposition. This is what John Boorman focuses on for what is probably his final film, and a sequel to his most famous work, the 1987 mildly autobiographical piece Hope And Glory.We are told the story of Bill, a young boy in the first film. He has grown up into quite the strapping young fellow, and he received his notice for mandatory army service. There he quickly befriends Percy, and a bond forms. But this bond is hardly the centre of the film. It stretches far beyond that, as Bill deals with the army, love and his family. This is all well paced handled by Boorman, who is probably best known, aside from Hope And Glory, for directing Deliverance. The acting is quite spotty on a case by case basis, Callum Turner does very well as the protagonist Bill Rohan, but you can't help but think he was constantly being overshadowed by a couple of doses of overacting. Being manic or excitable is all well and good, but there occasions where people were channelling their inner Joker or Harley Quinn. On the subject of acting, David Thewlis (of Harry Potter fame) is present and he is phenomenal, one of my favourite acting performances of the year.Furthermore, the script isn't perfect either. There were too many logical inconsistencies, especially early on, where background character information is introduced in very lazy ways, usually dialogue. It's frustrating to see two characters talking to each other about things they clearly already know, and that it's only for the audience's benefit. What is best about the film is that it tells the story of war really well. This was something a film like Fury really fell short at, relying on clichés to tell a heroic story. Even though there are very few scenes of combat, Queen And Country definitely gets right what Fury got wrong, showing the horrors of war, what it does to people and how anyone can be a victim or a casualty. That goes a long way in my book.Read more at rabsi1.weebly.com/film/