Into the White Movie Review

Into the White

                                              

Into the White is a World War 2 based drama movie released in 2012. This movie was also titled as ‘Comrade’ and ‘Cross of Honour’. This film is written by Ole Meldgaard, Dave Mango and Petter Næss and directed by Petter Næss. Into the White has a very limited set of characters for almost the full movie, which are played by David Kross, Stig Henrik Hoff, Florian Lukas, Rupert Grint and Lachlan Nieboer. This movie is based on true events.

Into the White tells us about a true event when some British and German soldiers had to share a cabin in a rough weather during World War 2 and after staying there for sometime, how their humanity, friendship and brotherhood grows more than the differences between the two teams.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

Plot:

In an aircraft battle at the sky of Norway, a German and a British plane get shot by each other. Both of them have to crash land in a snowy mountain area.  The German plane had four soldiers in it, where one of them dies at the time of crash landing and another of them gets badly hurt in one hand. A heavy storm is approaching, so they search nearby and find an empty wooden cabin. They take shelter in that cottage just before the storm hits.

Soon after that, two surviving British soldiers of the British plane also come to the cottage. The British soldiers have no firearms with them. Considering their situation and the weather outside, the Germans let them come inside the cabin and takes them as prisoners. The German leader gives two beds to two of British soldiers and also marks their place to stay inside. According to the Geneva Convention, the British soldiers demand food and the Germans provide them that. The British soldiers also demand for respect and the German leader finally agrees to that.

From the beginning, none of them behaves in any violent or attacking manner to their opposition soldiers. Both of the teams know that, in such a situation, they need each other’s cooperation to stay alive. Both of the teams have to put the rules of warfare aside and cannot pick an enemy inside the cabin. The British feel sympathy for the wounded German soldier and give tips to the German leader to ease his pain. And also the German soldiers, in spite of holding the British at gunpoint, give them respect. The British soldiers’ target is to make the Germans angry, so that, being furious, they attack the British and make a mistake. But the cool headed German leader never falls on that trap even though the others are provoked.

The storm is running continuously and the soldiers inside the cabin are running out of foods to eat and woods to burn. They start to break the woods inside the cabin to burn. Meanwhile, the condition of the wounded German soldier is getting worse. He is also paranoid by the British. But with time, both of the teams get trust on each other, start to get friendly and the distance between the captors and the prisoners keeps on getting smaller. But at one time, when they take woods from one of the columns of the cabin and the cabin starts to fall, the German leader was trying to hold the cabin and the British leader uses this opportunity to take the gun from him. From that moment, the Germans become the prisoners of the British. He starts to treat the Germans with respect equally of what he has received. But the Germans manage to retrieve their gun and again, make the British prisoners.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

But the weather (the snow storm) was not getting any better and finally both of the teams lose any interest over the guns. They start to live there in a friendly manner. Suddenly they discover a small stock of food and drinks under the cabin’s floor and start enjoying them. They get to know each other better over the drinks. But the wounded German soldier gets gangrene on his wounds. The only way to save him is to cut off his hand. Putting the guns aside, they do it together, but finally, fail to save his life. They bury him outside the cabin.

At last, in one fine day, the storm stops and the sun comes out. They all get ready to go outside and find the nearest way. Meanwhile, in a nearby Norwegian army camp, they send out scout teams to look for the wreckage of the crashed planes. One German and one British soldier goes out together to find ways down from this mountain and meets the Norwegian scout teams. Then the unexpected happens.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

My review about Into the White:

First of all, I liked Into the White very much. And according to my guess, everyone else will.

Although the plot of Into the White is set in World War 2 and is about two groups of conflicting soldiers, but Into the White is not, at all, a typical war movie with the fighting, the shootings and the killings, like the movie The Flowers of War. It tells the story of survival, cooperation, brotherhood and humanity.

The plot of Into the White is very good and innovative, although it will not seem that innovative when you know it is based on true events. But in a beautiful movie like this, I was expecting a happy ending, which didn’t happen. At the very end, Into the White gives you more facts from the real events after the end of this particular plot, which feels very interesting and will leave you wanting for more.

The director and the screenwriter have done a beautiful job here in Into the White. The location, the screenplay and the dialogues match perfectly with the plot. The psychology of the soldiers inside the cabin seemed very realistic. Another important point about Into the White is, even though it is a Hollywood movie, it does not portraits the Germans as ‘evils’, which I’ve found as a rare case. The effects of the storm and the set inside the cabin was very good.

The acting of all the characters felt natural and flawless. Although, I think, the best acting in Into the White was performed by the German leader, but the character of Rupert Grint was the most amusing of all. Even in a serious movie like this, the dialogues of his character will make you laugh. This famous kid actor has also done an awesome job of acting here as a soldier. But as I’ve said, the acting of all others in Into the White were also impressive. The dialogues are very well chosen and the makeups were good  too.

Into the White is completely safe to watch with kids.

After you’ve finished watching Into the White  you should look for the facts about it in wiki (the link is given below) which is obviously worthy a look.

We can also see some stunning scenic views in Into the White near the end of the movie.

So, overall, Into the White was a beautiful movie and I really enjoyed my time watching this one. I’ll definitely recommend Into the White to all movie lovers as a must see.

How did you like Into the White? Feel free to comment.

If you are looking for more info:

IMDB link: Into the White IMDB

Wikipedia Link: Into the White Wiki

To buy or rent this beautiful movie from Amazon, you can find the best deal on it here:  Into the White Movie

A Beginner’s Guide to Endings Movie Review

A Beginner’s Guide to Endings

                                                                           

A Beginner’s Guide to Endings is comedy drama movie released in 2010. This movie is written and directed by Jonathan Sobol and produced by Nicolas Tabarrok and John Kozma. The major roles of A Beginner’s Guide to Endings are played by Scott Caan, J.K. Simmons, Harvey Keitel, Paulo Costanzo, Jason Jones and Tricia Helfer.

A Beginner’s Guide to Endings tells the story of five brothers, who, after their father's death, find out that three of them are going to die very soon. Then they try to make the last few days of their life meaningful.

A scene from the movie The Beginners Guide to Ending

Plot:

A Beginner’s Guide to Endings starts with a man telling us about his life and then he tries to commit suicide but fails. He takes another attempt and meanwhile, introduces us with his children, five boys. The eldest one is a boxer, who couldn’t manage a successful career for himself. The second one is a playboy. The third son is so far the most successful one, smart and organized. We don’t get to know much about the forth one, but he is trying to be a boxer like his eldest brother. The last one is an Asian and still a kid. The old man says that 5 of his sons are from 3 of his wives. He regrets for the life he lived and says he has failed as a father. Because of being frustrated for this, he seeks to end his life.

Then we see his sons have gathered for his funeral. But as he has jumped off the Niagara Falls and his body has not been found, so the funeral is going on without his dead body. At the funeral, his sons start fighting with each other for silly reasons.

After the funeral, his sons and the priest visit a local club. The priest was a very good friend of the old man and also of his sons. The priest reads his will. The man has left some small things for each of his sons and has also left his house to them. Then there is another letter which states, when his first 3 sons were little, in exchange for a huge amount of money, he has used them in a drug experiment. As a result, soon the 3 of them will die.

The 3 brothers become frustrated. The third son sees a doctor, who also says that he is going to die soon. When they get sure about it, they start to correct the mistakes they have done all their life.

The eldest one, the boxer, goes to the nearby gym, where he has set a fight for the fourth brother. Seeing the opponent in practice, he realizes that his brother is no fit for his opponent. Feeling the danger for his brother of getting killed, he tries to avoid the fight but the fixer demands $20,000 for cancelling the game. He then starts to seek the money.

The second brother, the playboy, feels that he needs to settle down with someone. Opposing everyone else’s opinion, he heads for his high school crush, who seems as a pretty dangerous lady to marry. He spends some times with that lady and at one point, she puts him face to face with her boyfriend, who had cases against him for assaulting people. The outlaw boyfriend tries to kill him, but also says, he will get the girl if the brother can defeat him.

The third brother, the smart one, living a controlled life till now, starts to seek for adventure. Putting on a costume of Elvis Presley, he quits his job, talks with the girl which he always has hesitated and slaps his manager. He maintains a list of things to do before he dies. The last thing of his list is to get inside a barrel and then jump off the Niagara Falls, which he attempts.

Meanwhile, the eldest brother, failing to get the $20000, decides to fight the boxing match himself instead to his young brother, to save his brother’s life. But from the priest, he learns why he can’t fight and why the same fate has happened to him in every match he has fought. He also learns that, even after living a reckless life, how much their father loved them.

The last part of the movie is about the three brothers’ dangerous attempts and about the last days of their life, or is it?

My review about A Beginner’s Guide to Endings:

First of all, I didn’t like A Beginner’s Guide to Endings much.

The plot of A Beginner’s Guide to Endings is not bad, but its predictable. If you have watched enough movies, you will know what will happen at the end, in one way or another. The ending felt too dramatic for me. And also, A Beginner’s Guide to Endings had the probation to include much more comedy and suspense elements in this movie, but the director didn’t do it. It could make this movie much better.

The acting and the dialogues are goods. The casting also felt good. But, the character development of A Beginner’s Guide to Endings is very bad. Usually I don’t write much about character developments, but in  A Beginner’s Guide to Endings, I specially felt it being very poor.

Although this is a comedy movie, but the comedy elements were also very poor, and I didn’t find any scene at all which could make us laugh. But still, the whole A Beginner’s Guide to Endings doesn’t go maintaining a pure serious tone. To me, this movie is oddly stuck somewhere between being funny and being serious.

There is no nude scene in A Beginner’s Guide to Endings but it has some regular ‘bad words’. I feel its safe to watch it with kids.

So, finally, I didn’t enjoy A Beginner’s Guide to Endings. Although its not that kind of movie that will make you feel your time got wasted, but to me, its not something to love. I won’t recommend watching A Beginner’s Guide to Endings to other movie lovers.

Do you share the same views with me about A Beginner’s Guide to Endings or the opposite? Let me know your comments.

For those who are interested:

Wikipedia link: A Beginner’s Guide to Endings wiki 

IMDB link: A Beginner’s Guide to Endings IMDB

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, you can find the best deal on it here:  A Beginner’s Guide to Endings Movie

The Descent : Part 2 Movie Review

The Descent : Part 2

                                                     

The Descent : Part 2 is a British horror thriller movie released in 2009. As the name suggests, this movie is the sequel of the British horror film ‘The Descent’ which was released in 2005. This movie was produced by Christian Colson and co-produced by Paul Ritchie and Neil Marshall. It was directed by Jon Harris. The major roles of The Descent : Part 2 were played by Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Krysten Cummings, Gavan O'Herlihy, Joshua Dallas, Douglas Hodge and Anna Skellern.

In The Descent : Part 2, one of the survivors of its prequels comes back from the cave and then lead a team of police and scientist to that cave again, who now face those awful underground creatures.

A scene from the movie The Descent: Part 2

Plot:

The Descent : Part 2 starts form where its prequel ended. At the beginning, we see police and other people are searching for the missing girls (from part 1) where one of them, Sarah, comes out alive. She is admitted in a hospital. The doctors there find the proofs of her  heavy fighting and also find bloods of other people on her clothes, which they suspect, are the bloods of the other missing girls. But the police can’t get any information about the other girls from her, because she has lost her memory of the previous 2 days.

With the help of a dog, the police find the way from where Sarah has escaped. The police sheriff, along with his deputy and an expert with his 2 trainees take Sarah there. That place was the entry of an abandoned mine, which had a cave system. They find some information from the mine’s caretaker and decide to enter there. Taking proper preparations, they enter the mine by an old lift. But when the lift starts to descend, the caretaker winks at one of the members of the group.

They find the mine and then the entry of the cave system. An old sign was there at the entry of the cave to warn people to not to enter. But soon after their entry, Sarah starts to remember little bit of her memory in the cave and tells everyone to not to go there, but the others ignore her, thinking her mind is playing tricks with her. They also find the body of one missing girl, who were murdered. The sheriff suspects Sarah for the incident. While passing a narrow tunnel, Sarah remembers more from her earlier experience here and suddenly attacks others and tries to run away at the deeper parts of the cave.

The sheriff follows her and thus two of them get detached from the group. Then the sheriff sees a strange creature and in panic, shoot from his gun which causes the cave to collapse. One of the trainees of the expert gets trapped in rocks. The other 3 (the expert, his other trainee and the deputy of the sheriff) starts again to find an escape route. They reach to a room full of bones and find the camera of the missing girls. From the camera, the see the human-like creatures and then those creatures attack them. The team gets split and the expert gets killed by the creature where the deputy was saved by Sarah. Sarah tells the deputy that the creatures are blind and they hunt via sound.

When another creature is trying to attack the trapped trainee, she escapes and kills that creature. She then finds the other trainee and together, tries to survive and find their way out of there. But after several of their attempts to stay alive, they find the body of another lady from the previous group and then, get killed by the creatures.

Sarah and the deputy keep on hiding from the creatures on their way to escape. Meanwhile, the sheriff who was alone, falls in front of another creature and when the creature was about to kill him, Juno (a lady from the previous group, who has also survived but couldn’t get out of the cave like Sarah) saves him. After all these days of living inside the cave and fighting those creatures, Juno seemed mentally unbalanced.

Finally the four of them gets together and Juno and Sarah start to fight with each other. At one point, they understand that this fighting will not help any of them and they need to be united to get out of the cave alive.

To stay alive, their only options are to stay away from those creatures as much as possible and to find a way out of the cave system as soon as possible. Can all of them succeed?

My Review about the movie The Descent : Part 2:

First of all, I liked this movie.

The plot of The Descent : Part 2 is good, although its predictable. The fate of the group is what we regularly see in all horror movies, nothing new. At the very ending, there is a little surprise, but not what we cannot predict at all.

The goal of a horror movie is to make you scared, and here the director has successfully achieved that goal. Here in The Descent : Part 2, the tension grows up very slowly from the beginning and the movie seemed pretty balanced. The good jobs of sound and lighting effects have helped to create a frightening environment. The cave looked beautiful when the group enters there, but later on looked equally scary. But I think, the set could be better on the scary part. The sudden appearances of the creatures in The Descent : Part 2 with loud sound effects are good enough to make you startle.

The acting is good, so are the dialogues. The makeups are good for most of the parts, only at some small cases, it felt like overdo. The creatures also looked good (read: scary). The only negative side of The Descent : Part 2 is the effects of the blood. Here, the human blood looked pink, which has given a very cheap feeling for some parts. I don’t understand why they couldn’t do any better with those effects.

I also felt like The Descent : Part 2 had some overuse of violence. Those violences, bloods and some scenes with the corpses felt unnecessary.  This movie could do better without them.

Although there are no nude scenes in The Descent : Part 2, but for the violence, you cannot watch it with kids.

I haven’t watched The Descent (part 1) yet, but still enjoyed this movie. Although it’s the continuation of its prequel, but you don’t need to watch that one earlier to understand its plot or to enjoy this movie. Trust me, not watching The Descent (part 1) will not ruin your experience of The Descent: Part 2. But yes, after watching this one, I feel I should watch The Descent.

So overall, I liked watching The Descent : Part 2  I’m not sure how much the fans of other genre of movies will enjoy it, but as a horror, its better than average and I’ll recommend The Descent : Part 2  to all horror movie lovers.

How much did you like this movie? Write in comments.

For those who are interested:

IMDB Link: The Descent : Part 2 IMDB

Wikipedia Link: The Descent : Part 2 wiki

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, you can find the best deal here: The Descent : Part 2 Movie