Allies (2014)

Absolutely the worst movie.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

While this movie has some notable historical inaccuracies and "dumb enemy syndrome," it is an exciting and action-packed movie that most fans of war films will enjoy.I thought the action sequences and special effects were excellent for a lower budget film, although the music/environmental sounds are often heavy and make the combat dialog hard to hear. The plot is solid enough to be interesting and the film is packed with explosions and gunfire.This film is nowhere near the same tier as Saving Private Ryan or Downfall, but it kept me very entertained and left me surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Allies begins with a good premise, the rivalry between the Yanks and the Brits. On a personal level, having written a book called Zepka's War, parts of which take place in the hedgerows of France, I enjoyed watching the Germans get mowed down in what could have been some of those same hedgerows. But back to the movie. It's understandable that we will likely never see authentic WWII tanks in war movies these days, and that the uniforms will be questionable as to authenticity, but what I will never get used to, and for which there is no excuse, the need for injecting current terms such as "are we good?" are we good to go?" and "Roger that," into WWII films being made today. Are producers and directors really that stupid?

During the heyday of British war films in Fifties, Allies would have fitted in nicely as the B movie to some better fayre. But trying to push it out alone in 2014 was always going to be a disaster. The film received no distribution as it offers nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before. The core audience for films like this is 50+ so there needs to be an angle to even get it noticed. A simple commando raid and journey back through the lines was the staple of so many films (and TV shows), far better done, that it's difficult to maintain any involvement in the shrinking cast of new faces in this.The budget meant that the one German armoured car kept coming up again and again bit like the Daleks going round and round in old Doctor Who. Nobody had a clue how to use their weapons. You do not loose off machine gun rounds from the hip. You'd miss your target and have to reload except you'd be dead by then. You also don't stand up as sitting ducks as the Germans continually do. They gave the Germans the same bullets from When Eagles Dare whilst the Allies bullets were everlasting.Nice but unbelievable.This is a ten year old boy's idea of a war film. Constant gun battles, sacrifices and noise. And the odd tit for Dad. On a streaming service only to fill the shelves.

Enough has been written about how bad the film from so many production aspects. What was bothersome was the story line with the female French teacher. Nice to look at, just did not see the need for it, especially with the hazy focus and the see through curtains. Just Strange scene, interrupted by the bad guys of course. Additionally, they never explained what drove a career officer to become a traitor? The most offensive thing was after watching movie cliché SS acts of violence the producers of the film dedicated the film to the men and women on both sides of the war??? What was that all about? Very offensive to see that at the end. It was almost like they were trying to be politically correct for a German audience.