Writer: Casey Chong

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Watch this if you liked: “Sahara (1943)”, “Patton”, “The Beast Of War” and “Inglourious Basterds”

The Good, the Bad and the Furious:

After spending a decade involved in screenwriting and/or directing a number of gritty cop dramas such as "Training Day", "Harsh Times", "End Of Watch" and this year's "Sabotage", David Ayer returns to the WWII genre for the first time ever since "U-571" back in 2000. While Ayer is only involved as one of the screenwriters for "U-571", he takes charge for both writing and directing for his new WWII movie "Fury". Just like his past movies, Ayer doesn't shy away when comes to the uncompromising depiction of grittiness and violence. The action scenes, particularly the one involved the tank battles, are downright brutal and shockingly graphic. Not only that, "Fury" is also a technical triumph - Andrew Menzies' production which recreated the down-and-dirty look of a WWII setting filled with grime, mud, dirt and smoke is top notch; Roman Vasyanov's cinematography is appropriately bleak and sometimes beautiful (such as the wonderful scene where the soldiers looks up the clear blue sky and witnesses contrails of American and German planes are about to engage in a dogfight); and Steven Price's score is both poignant and thrilling. Acting-wise, Brad Pitt delivers a typically charismatic and engaging performance as the no-nonsense Sgt. Don Collier. The supporting cast, including Shia LaBeouf, Jon Bernthal and Michael Pena, are equally fine, if nothing particularly spectacular. Logan Lerman, in the meantime, almost steals the limelight with his impressive performance as a young and inexperienced soldier forced to cope with his job under great deal of pressure in a life-threatening scenario. However, for all the intensity displayed in the movie, Ayer's overall script feels cliched and offers nothing new within the "war is hell" context that we have seen many times before. The pacing is also an issue, especially during the sluggish midsection involved the two beautiful German women (Anamaria Marinca, Alicia von Rittberg) inside the building at a war-torn town, which is unnecessarily long. "Fury" is hardly a great or particularly memorable WWII movie by any means, but it remains good enough as a worthwhile entertainment.

Look Out For:
The gripping standoff between Sgt. Don's tank and a German Tiger tank in the open field.

Trivia:
An actual Tiger I tank - a German heavy tank - is used for the first time ever in the production of a WWII movie.

Best Watched With:
Viewers who loves to watch war movie that takes place in a WWII setting.

Cinema Online, 23 October 2014