Vic Thorn Warming may contain spoilers! It was well known that SOE quite often lifted men that had particular gifts such as safe cracking out of prison and into their organisation. However for a soldier who is in military prison to hold a gun on a commando officer and force him to drive out of the gate is frankly ridiculous. Considering both the stance and weapon handling of Dyer leave a lot to be desired and he would have been very easily disarmed by the officer and sent promptly back to prison. However with lots of shouting and passion Dyer convinces the officer he can be a commando, another flight into fantasy. Dyer is apparently a man who saw combat before, goes through commando training and gets into fire fights. Then when all is lost he freezes, staring into space a complete zombie. I can appreciate that Danny was trying to emulate the thoughts that may enter a soldiers head, but the character development was deeply flawed and erratic. This film is apparently based on a true story, well the training part may be as to the birth of the commandos. However, in 1940 a note had been written by Winston Churchill to the War Office, saying that 5000 Parachute troops were required after Germany's success in using Airborne elements, some of these were drawn from commando units. The raid described in this film is really the raid carried out by C Company the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, led my Major John Frost. Operation Biting was an attack on the radar station in Bruneval Northern France. A commando raid had been considered but found to be unacceptable due to the strong coastal defences, so the company with one RAF flight sergeant were parachuted in. The operation was a complete success. So in essence this film has conjoined the commandos with the Parachute Regiment, which is never a good thing to do. As for the film after the beginning I never fully recovered. Should this director or film company ever make a similar film again, let me just say this, good props but, please get proper technical advice, too many tactical errors, more on par with a cowboys and Indian film. As for the ending, it is a mistake to start with so many threads to a story-line and then not inform the viewer how they end. The film itself ended up somewhat as a mystery. My favourite character> The Scottish senior NCO, an excellent portrayal of a tough SNCO, much like some that I knew during my service with C Company 2 Para.

JaynaB Directed by someone mainly known (but not long) for TV episodes. He also wrote it. A labour of love, I'm sure, and like so many similar projects, it lacked the detached eye any filmmaker needs to see how it will play for the audience.The plot is a collection of stereotyped war-movie scenes loosely tacked together by cartoonish Germans and improbably noble British commandos. The story is more the kind to appeal to American audiences: lone underdog, misunderstood by an uncaring system, is persecuted until he makes his own luck and ends up on the elite squad (not a spoiler; this happens very early). Many Brit war movies emphasize teamwork, not individual heroics, but this one is a hot mess of individual idiocy despite the supposedly rigorous training.Pacing starts off well but drags quickly, with a few too many pans around to see people's facial reactions (which aren't that deep). There is no suspense and very little action after the opening sequence. The characters jump to stereotypical behaviors – suspicion, hostility, and back to being buddies – for no reason that ever made it to the final cut.Most of the soldiers look like they've never held a weapon before, or worn a uniform. My worst sneers are reserved for the commando unit's field-work, though. These are supposed to be a stealth unit, and their field tactics are not worthy of Beetle Bailey. I won't go into detail as that would lead to spoilers, but don't expect realistic commandos-in-occupied-territory behavior. And the extra-operational planning stuff makes a mockery of all Ian Fleming's emphasis on coordination of services. Be prepared to roll your eyes often. You might also need eye drops to moisten after staring wide-eyed in sheer disbelief a few times.Hot tip of the week: suspense and concealment work better when people are moving in the dark or trying to avoid being seen, not walking down roads in broad daylight, improperly dressed for their surroundings.Intellectually I know what the film is trying to achieve; viscerally it's missing the gut pull you need from any character to care whether they all live or die, much less grow or change.

phd_travel This is a rather small scale intimate WWII drama about a Commando unit going to Norway to steal some radar technology from a German base there. There are gunfights but not huge battle scenes. Those expecting some super clever espionage because of Ian Fleming will be disappointed. It is a cover mission but it's not a spy yarn.A little too much time was spent on the commandos training which was tedious. More at the end about how the mission helped the war would have been better.They show Nazi atrocities towards the Norwegians. Not everyone remembers that Norway suffered during WWII.Not too many famous actors here except Sean Bean. Overall while not a must see it's an okay watch far war buffs.

writeus-1 I would liken it to a small but well-formed Heroes of Telemark and if you liked that you should like this.Sean Bean and Danny Dyer are excellent, and I enjoyed the introduction of Isabella Miko. Other casting was adequate (although I would have preferred someone like Susannah York - ex Battle of Britain - for the role of Holbrook) I have a hunch that the negative reviews of this film may be from a non-UK audience; one that is not comfortable with ordinary heroes, realistic language (the F-word), and the audience being left to complete elements of the story. The ending is sufficient, and the suspense well-maintained throughout, with plenty of action - some a little more unpleasant that you might want in a 15 - but that is the nature of war. Nothing gratuitous, but nothing patronisingly anodyne.I have watched a lot of war films over the last 50 years and this is definitely one of the better ones.