Michael Radny It's always fun to watch the Nazi's get a headache over their plans being sabotaged, so watching Max Manus: Man Of War should be great; and it is. It's storyline is excellent, easy to watch and a good film to sit back and watch Nazi Germany get their butts kicked. Though parts of the film feel forced with emotion, everything else works out fantastically.Max Manus: Man Of War takes a slightly alternative approach to the World War Two genre, adding Norway into the picture, rebels and the best saboteur in the world. Though you may feel that certain characters are just put in for that sake of it, this film is with out a doubt the best World War Two film of the decade.

WakenPayne Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I walked into this movie knowing almost nothing about Max Manus and only knew somewhat about what he did. I think that might be the key into whether you're going to really enjoy this movie or not. I did like it but it does have problems.In case you don't know Max Manus was one of the best Norwegian Resistance fighters in the second World War. This movie seems to be Chronicling all of that while he must confront his alcoholism and nerve damage. Would this make way for a good movie? In my opinion Hell yes. It would probably make way for one of the best of it's kind but this does have problems.The biggest gripe for me is that the people who made this movie are shoe-horning in a lot of things for a near 2 hour movie. It kind of skips quite a bit. An example is when Max's best friend Gregers dies. That could show some great drama for what he would be going through... In the next scene it's a few months later. Sometimes when this happens it even skips almost a year. I know almost nothing about this guy is there really nothing they could have shown that would have been just as interesting as what we've already seen. I mean they cut from Max escaping Nazi control by crossing to the Swedish border to him getting trained in Scotland almost a year later. You know what I wouldn't have minded it if the time length was extended to three hours or so.I did like how some of the drama was handled though. While this movie does skip over some things I did like how the post-war scene was handled when Tikken and Max are talking when Max says he has no education, no job and no money and therefore has nothing to live for. There are some scenes like that when I did like the way it was handled.I also liked the acting and the cinematography of this movie. All of the cast do a pretty good job at acting the parts and some of the shots are actually quite impressive to look at. In terms of cinematography I guess I enjoyed the flashbacks to Max fighting on the Front Line in Finland the most.So I guess if you want to watch this movie - I think you should do a little homework on this guy before you watch it, he does actually sound like an interesting guy to look up. Some of the scenes are handled pretty well and others aren't. This is a decent movie to watch but I don't think it's as good as people are saying it is.EDIT: Now that I have done some research on the real guy... Why didn't they include some of these events in this film?

Leofwine_draca MAX MANUS is one of those compelling true stories about resistance fighters battling Nazis during the Second World War. This one's Norwegian, and while it doesn't reach the heights of Paul Verhoeven's genre-defining BLACK BOOK, it has all the hallmarks of quality film-making: a decent script, a great cast, and forthright direction. Aksel Hennie, who later wowed with his performance in Headhunters, is equally impressive here in the titular role, playing a man who must sacrifice everything to free his country from the Nazi menace.The thing I like about the movie is that it's realistic without ever resorting to melodrama. That might make it slow and underwhelming for some viewers, but I found the effect to be otherwise: this is gutsy and mature, a film that seeks to present reality without sensationalising the material. Saying that, there are still plenty of highly suspenseful set-pieces, mostly those charting Manus and his group's close encounters with their German oppressors. Altogether this is a fine little film and a worthwhile watch for fans of wartime thrillers.

random_avenger Thus speaks Wikipedia: "Max Manus (1914–1996) was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II. He was a pioneer of the Norwegian resistance movement and was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941. He escaped to the United Kingdom for training and went back as a saboteur for the Norwegian Independent Company 1, better known as Lingekompaniet. He became a specialist in ship sabotage, was famous for being one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II, and after the war he wrote several books about his adventures." Hmm, sounds like it was only a question of time before this guy's life story would be made into a movie!In its native Norway the film has been highly popular among the public which is not hard to understand considering it is a very traditional and technically well-made war film. The basis of the plot was already summarized in the first paragraph: a volunteered veteran of the Finnish Winter War, Max Manus (Aksel Hennie) is enraged to see his beloved Norway being taken over by the Nazis in the early 1940s and quickly organizes an underground resistance movement with his friends Kolbein, Tallak and Gram (Christian Rubeck, Mats Eldøen and Nicolai Cleve Broch). Ships are sunk and bullets fly but Manus never loses his hope in the face of the enemy, personified in the Gestapo officer Siegfried Fehmer (Ken Duken).The filmmakers are clearly well aware of the conventions of heroic war movies and utilize them unrestrainedly in the story. The cinematography is pleasantly brownish-yellowish in the interior scenes and creates an atmosphere of old photographs that always suits well movies set in recent history. The exteriors are also filmed beautifully, particularly the short training scenes in Scotland, and the night scenes bask in pretty twilight blue. Unfortunately the professionalism of the production also leads to overt Hollywood-style conventionality of the plot: of course there is a romance (with a woman named Tikken, played by Agnes Kittelsen), of course friends get killed, of course the good are good and the bad are bad. I understand that many of these things actually did happen in real life but since this is not a documentary, they could have been changed a little in order to spice up the tale with something more unexpected than the obvious hero plot.OK, some of the mine-setting scenes are fairly suspenseful and the story occasionally catches a beautiful sense of melancholy, most notably at the end. In general, the plot is at its most interesting when examining Manus' traumatic Winter War memories and feelings of guilt when his friends and innocent people are punished for his rebellious actions; I wish such inner demons would have been paid more attention at the expense of the Nazis, the obvious enemy. There are also some flat-out clichés in the movie, such as the bad guys being lousy marksmen, and the overly shaky camera during several emotionally charged moments annoyed the heck out of me.Be that as it may, I am sure there is an audience for Max Manus outside Norway as well. Personally the thin drama plot did not get me hooked very much but friends of traditionally heroic resistance tales should find everything they are looking for in the film. Furthermore, Aksel Hennie in the titular role bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Steve Buscemi – never a bad thing! So, go ahead and give it a look if it sounds like your kind of movie; you might end up enjoying it a lot more than I did.