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.

The Company You Keep

This movie is kind of like The Expendables, but instead of washed up action heroes of the 80s, all the actors are classic 70s stars, some of whom you'll recognise and some of whom you won't, and instead of brutal action, it is a complex thriller storyline.

The story focuses on young hotshot reporter for the Albany Sun-Times Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), who after seeing the capture and arrest of a fugitive wanted for a bank robbery in the 70s, Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon), follows the story of trying to find the others involved. One of these suspects is James Grant (Robert Redford). Grant, after seeing the capture of Solarz, decides to track down the other person involved in the robbery, so that he can clear his own name.

This leads Grant on a journey through a web of people from his past, all involved in anti-war and anti-government groups in the 70s. Shepard is figuring out some of these connections himself, but hot on Grant's tail is the FBI, led by Agent Cornelius (Terrence Howard). These three people all have their own motivation for finding the third person involved.

I personally have never been a huge fan of Robert Redford. I've seen a few of his films from the 1970s and his last film that he directed as well (2007s Lions For Lambs) and none of his work has ever resonated for me. I found that this film was just motivation for a lot of actors of his generation to come out and play.

There are some good performances in the cameos. Susan Sarandon is haunted by her past actions and needs closure. Julie Christie plays a still psychotic terrorist. The performances from Chris Cooper (American Beauty) and Richard Jenkins (Cabin In The Woods, still one of my favourites that I will get around to reviewing) are stunning. However brief these performances are, there is a resonance that comes through.

The younger generation get a good representation in this film. LaBeouf has come very far from his Transformers days (until another one comes out). His Shepard is a driven reporter who just wants to know the truth, rather than anything else. Brit Marling, who is a relative newcomer, portrays the daughter of one of the officers who initially investigated the robbery. She is only in a few scenes, but she plays them with conviction.

Verdict: Robert Redford has weaved a complex thriller about the past that is decent enough, but could do better.