Fury

David Ayer's follow up to his directorial debut, Fury, is an intense piece. He somehow has a way of getting under your skin and putting you in situations that most of us would hope to never experience. World War II was long over by the time I was born, yet I have felt the fear that tank units would have felt in the European War.

The film focuses on a tank and the men who command it in the final push into Nazi Germany in 1945. Don Collier (Brad Pitt) is loyal to his men and will do anything to get them home. After a mission that leaves one of the crew dead, he is assigned a new soldier in Norman (Logan Lerman), a young clerk with no battle experience.

This movie looks at some of the atrocities of war, although at times they can be a little exaggerated. Collier and his crew are obsessed with killing every single Nazi they find and do this, even when the enemy has surrendered and is unarmed. The violence is not hyper-real as you would expect in a movie like this, but rather it is portrayed realistically (apart from your typical Hollywood showdowns).

The film also looks at certain aspects of total war. Total war is when one of the sides in a war mobilises its entire population for the purposes of winning the conflict. As such, there are sometimes children sent into battle. This film shows the stark reality of the Germans being so desperate that they send in children as young as ten to fight.

The performances in this movie are extremely intense and well done. Pitt has mastered the American soldier by now, but his character is more sorrowful than Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds. His thousand yard stare belies the pain he has witnessed and felt. Logan Lerman's performance is also exceptional. As someone on the opposite end of the spectrum with absolutely no battle experience, he shows all the innocence that comes with fighting and losing people close to you.

Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal all play great supporting roles that display talents far from what they have been known for. Peña had worked with Ayer on his previous feature, End Of Watch, and he couldn't be further from that LA cop in this movie. LaBeouf also has come a long way from the child star that he once was with an incredibly intense performance. Bernthal builds on his amazing rep that came with his performance in The Wolf Of Wall Street.

Verdict: An intense look at the horrors of war and the toll that it takes on the soldiers who fight not for their countries, but one another.

Noah

Epics about biblical characters have been around as long as there has been cinema. And the list of actors who have played them is long, Charlton Heston as Moses, Willem Defoe as Jesus, Graham Chapman as Brian(?) Now to that list we can add Russell Crowe, a man who has long sought to corner the market on historical epics.

I'm going to keep my explanation of the plot to a minimum, partly because the story is so epic and partly because the story of Noah is so well known. After Man has become corrupt and evil from the power it has gained from fallen angels, called Watchers, God (known as the Creator) decides to punish everyone by sending a flood that will destroy all humanity. The Creator picks Noah (Russell Crowe) to build an ark that will carry all the animals of Earth, which the Creator deems to be innocent. Noah travels with his family to his grandfather Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins) who helps him in his task along with the Watchers. King of Men Tubal-cain (Ray Winstone) discover what Noah is doing and rallies Man to stop him.

Surprisingly for a movie based on a religious story, you'll find very little preaching going on. It is an interpretation of what is in the book of Genesis and I can only imagine a fair bit of creative licence. There is a sequence that I thoroughly enjoyed where Crowe narrates the story of Creation and a montage that includes the Big Bang and evolution is played. I thought this was a great merging of religion and science.

One aspect of this film that really appealed to the filmmaker in me was that up until the flood occurs, most of the special effects are done in a practical way and not computer generated images, well I think they were and if they weren't, it certainly fooled me. An example of this are the Watchers. These are huge rock monsters, reminiscent of the Rock Biter in The NeverEnding Story. To me, they looked like they were made with very advanced claymation techniques. Again, I could be wrong.

My feelings toward Russell Crowe have always been a bit tenuous. Everyone loves him for his roles in films like Gladiator and Romper Stomper, but I've never been able to get behind him. However, with this film I think I might have taken a turn. His gruffness turned to softness at parts and he wasn't putting on an affected accent that he does with all his other films.

Emma Watson has really been proving herself the last couple of years outside of the Harry Potter franchise, appearing in films like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Bling Ring. Here she plays Noah's adopted daughter Ila and really showcases her emotional talents in the films more pressing scenes. Ray Winstone always is able to throw himself into his roles. He is a perfect pick for the earthy and somewhat demonic Tubal-cain.

Throw in some good performances from Jennifer Connelly, who must like being in Darren Aronofsky's films, and a berry-obsessed and humourous role from Anthony Hopkins.

Verdict: A good biblical epic that doesn't preach too much about the story's original message.