Here I am again, falling behind on reviews, so I’m giving you three at once. Much to my pleasure, I found a way to bundle them all. These period films all take place between the 1926 and 1945. From the Roaring Twenties to World War II.

Hacksaw Ridge
Runtime: 2 hours and 19 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $40 million

Great movie. It was probably the most intense World War II film I had seen since Saving Private Ryan. Battle scenes were very long, but remained engaging and never felt like too much. It was kind of gruesome, but that’s the reality of war. Mel Gibson managed to put together a compelling film after his hiatus.

Some of the romance scenes were a bit awkward and you could almost hear an audible cringe in the theater. However, some might say that’s also realistic.

I will refrain from saying too much more and let you experience it for yourself. The plot is straightfoward, but well told.

CommBro Breaker

Let’s see how Dunkirk stacks up in Summer 2017! Can it unseat Saving Private Ryan—or even surpass Hacksaw Ridge? Christopher Nolan has made quite a few good movies, so hopefully his WWII film can at least compete with these two greats.

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Runtime: 2 hours and 13 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $180 million

I never read the book. I didn’t even know one existed untila homie filled me in after the movie. Because of that, I can only critique it purely as a standalone film and not in relation to the book. Well, I actually wouldn’t have done that regardless. So don’t go telling me his real name was FigNewton McGerrymander in the hallowed novel.

Speaking of gerrymandering, the film contains a lot of slight jabs at the U.S. way of life. Complete with magical bureaucracy. I don’t mind too much, but they got a lot of wrong about 1920s America. That being said, at least they had convincing sets for the period piece. It was designed well and it really felt like they could go anywhere in New York City.

All of the bigger characters make questionable moves at some point. Is logic not a thing for these witches and wizards? Some of them just happen to be rules they can’t break…until they do or just conveniently placed restrictions. Kind of like a magical version of how a protagonist/antagonist never runs out of bullets in his/her gun until it’s required in the story.

Honestly, I found this one to be better than the other eight Harry Potter movies so far. I personally thought those were all mediocre though. That puts Fantastic Beasts at solid.The non-spinoff series featured far too many wand beam battles that end up being really dull. I’d just go watch Dragon Ball Z for that crap (or that crappy X-Men: Apocalypse). We can probably thank the focus on the animals to that horrible trend being reduced.

CommBro Breaker

I stick to my no spoilers policy, so I’ll be vague as possible. People in this movie move on a little too fast. That was probably the worst part of it.

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Allied
Runtime: 2 hours and 4 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $85 million

This had to be the worst of the three. It wasn’t that great of a movie in general. Somehow they maintained it just north of watchable.

The entire movie seemed to be hinged entirely on believing in Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard as a couple. Despite spending so much of the movie trying to set that up, it wasn’t very convincing. It really messed with the impact of the ending.

At least everything weighed out to being okay. They did an admirable job on certain scenes and definitely made some tense interrogations that I would compare to the more serious parts of Inglourious Basterds.

I’d either wait until streams are available or catch it at a dollar theater. Not worth the full theater price.

CommBro Breaker

How many places and sides did Brad Pitt serve in during WWII? He’s flown planes to France, led tank platoons across North Africa and Germany, and negotiated an assassination of Hilter. He’s gone onto the front lines and snooped around as a spy. I wonder if he ran into Captain America at any point during his travels.