Tank 432 (2015)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Load of rubbish!!

Excellent but underrated film

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

With so little money and resources it is an insult to Britain's hard-pressed, underpaid workers in Britain's film industry that this pretentious garbage should be funded and produced. If there was a film that showed why Britain's film industry is always on its knees while Hollywood booms, it is this piece of pretentious garbage. Maybe as a short story, it had originally worked, but having all the plot of a bacon sandwich and the dialogue of laundry list, it is hard to see how any of the audience will be still in their seats after 5 minutes of this bunk. Who wants to see endless hypodermics in use, maggots crawling across a dummy of a man who has had his head shot off or a solider excreting the contents of his bowels in graphic detail on the big screen? With its flashes of nature and stop motion photography of plants flowering and dying in one day, total chaos is added to the confusion of this plotless dirge. Tasteless, incomprehesible, artsy bunkum.

Beginning in bleak surrounds, and caught in a situation that only gets bleaker, this has similarities with the excellent 'A Field in England (2013)', except roundheads are substituted for soldiers. Whereas that film featured the talents of Julian Barrett, this features Tom Meeten (as Evans), both having starred in the mighty 'The Mighty Boosh (TV Series, 2005-2007)'.Whilst the lads are either losing their temper, their sanity or the contents of their stomach, Karlsson (Deidre Mullins) remains calm and collected. As events escalate, the squad, and Annabella (April Pearson) take refuge in an abandoned tank.This is written and directed by Nick Gillespie (who appears briefly towards the end) and executively produced by Ben Wheatley. Wheatley in particular is a name I look out for, having proved to be a very interesting name in cinema.Horror takes many forms – gore, 'torture porn', exploitation, spectacular, intimate, comedy. I really like this kind of claustrophobic, slow-burning, atmospheric horror. This kind of style, when done this well, is a favourite way of telling a story. It's a delicate balance; too slow in its telling and the interest wanders (which almost happens a couple of times). Luckily here, we have a small cast who are uniformly excellent. And the addition of an unspecific, ghost-faced, shrieking figure plaguing them adds just the right hint of creepy intrigue.The ending is as strange as the story itself, leaving itself open for interpretation.

First off, its not a tank it's an armoured personnel carrier...bit of a faux pas given the non-USA title 'Tank 432'. The film itself is a cheap, confused and poor quality affair; something I would expect from college students at film school who are still anal retentive about their art form. The plot makes little sense and is exploited, badly, for effect rather than story. It has a similar quality to 'The Day' which is essentially another college film, only one done somewhat better

It could be a headline from The Sun newspaper, or role play in a fetish club. Unfortunately, it is this movie, and not much else.I gave it three stars for the acting - which is quite good - and the tech aspects, which are OK. You may think this film is around 88 minutes long but by the time you finish watching it will seem like several very, very long tedious hours, where your time could be better spent poking your eyes with a sharp stick to see (get it?) what happens.Nope - not one on my memorable films list and and it would be more entertaining videoing your toilet flushing with your camera phone.