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ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Alex Heaton (azanti0029) I picked this movie up on a whim, one of many recent low budget WW2 movies that seem to have been hitting the shelves of the straight to DVD market. I have no problem with low budget films of this type and recently there have been some good ones and this one starts out with noble intentions as the opening titles would suggest, that the film is about the story of a real unit, made up of Americans and Canadians (The Film the Devils Brigade covers the actual unit) but here unfortunately is where the factual content of the film ends.Set just before the invasion of Scily an American recon unit (Apparently the 101st Airborne who never actually were there) are captured and another team is sent to rescue them. That's the plot in a nutshell. The DOP has gone to some considerable effort to give the film a warm feel to represent the right part of Europe, but this can't let the film escape the fact that it was obviously all shot in California. I would have thought someone could have least grabbed a camera and taken some shots of the actual island which could have been nicely edited in to compensate for this. The acting wasn't all bad, and there were some funny lines,(plenty are just awful) but that's the problem with this film, it gives the impression its going to be about a factual battle, then half way through tries to become Kelly's Heroes and does neither successfully. The unit don't act like a military unit, moving with caution in one shot and then sauntering along the same path with not a care in the world in the next moment. The Nazi officer is just comical and stands in the middle of the road firing his gun while gunfire rages all around him. The fight scenes are actually quite boring and full of continuity issues and often make little sense to the plot or serve to enhance the story. (Such as it is) This project obviously started out with good intentions and its not as bad as 'Rhineland' (That's way worse) but somewhere it got lost and couldn't decide what it wanted to be. If your going to make films set in Europe, then you need to look at A Midnight Clear for an example of how to do it properly (Shot entirely on location in the USA)I wanted to like this film and for a brief moment I thought I might, but in the end there was just too much that was wrong with it, which was a shame, because there could have been a good little film here. Alas sadly not.

bgm2005 To be fair, I watched only the first 20 minutes of this movie, so my comments are only based on that. I might have hung around if WWII Sicily's "landscape" wasn't so easily recognizable as that of Southern California. I gave up hope when several shots showed the film's characters walking along railroad tracks on top of modern concrete ties with modern signals in the background.I get the feeling this movie was a film school project. And if it was, then I guess it's OK for that purpose. If not, at least it was a good opportunity for inexperienced actors to put something in their blank resumes.The combat special effects were OK... enough has been said by others regarding the realism of the combat itself, but I thought the special effects used for weapons discharge and bullet flight was OK... more realistic than those we used to see 15-20 years ago. That earned this movie its 3rd star.

Boba_Fett1138 Well, surprisingly enough I did mostly liked this movie. Of course I recognize it as a cheap and original one but it still does plenty of things well and does offer some decent entertainment.Perhaps I just liked this movie because this is the sort of movie I would had loved to have made with some of my friends. It's a low budget WW II production, that still has a good look to it and has some pretty neat little details in it as well.Thing that definitely is still holding this movie down is its story. It's a very simple one, that besides it's being far from an original one. Another thing about the movie and its story is that about halfway trough the movie feels wrapped up already. There was no need for the movie to go on for as long as it did and some of its moments definitely feel stretched out.You also never really get into any of the movies its characters, so it's definitely not being the most involving movie to watch. I honestly don't remember any of the character's names and really don't know who dies and who survives, at the end of the movie. Seems like they had some pretty good character ideas but none of it gets developed well or properly enough in the actual movie.The action is all filmed well enough, though it certainly is nothing too exciting. Just some firefights, with always the predictable outcome. It still entertains good enough all and makes sure that the movie never becomes a too slow or boring one, though the movie still most definitely has its slower and boring spots.Really, this movie is not half as bad as some people try make you believe it is. Or perhaps it just happens to be so that I have seen far worse genre movie already and therefore am being quite mild toward this one. But just judge and see for yourself. Changes are you might end up liking it good enough and are able to enjoy it for what it is.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

mike-ryan455 I love World War II movies. I have enjoyed ones made during World War II through the present. I have enjoyed all countries of origin from the Nazi propaganda turkey "Stuka" on. I enjoy movies about all sides and all theatres of the war, if it's a well done movie. Alas, Battle Recon definitely is not.It's normally a very bad sign when the director, the writer and the top billed star are all the same person. It was. With ludicrous acting and an utterly cliché script there was little to save the movie. The even had utterly cliché characters like the classic black on black trench coat evil SS officer.The script wasn't just cliché, it was 21st century politically correct cliché. The day had to be saved by two Italian partisan women.It's not difficult to get historical continuity in World War II movies. There are so many armchair experts to assist you. Obviously they didn't bother to go to gunboards.com and ask for a decent one. The German uniforms were clearly East German uniforms with Nazi insignias sewn on. They were almost all SS insignias, like they had hired cheaply a bunch of re-enactors.They couldn't even get basic continuity items right. The Italian partisan's gun kept switching between a Mauser and a M1 Garand. It was as if they put down their guns between shots and couldn't even tell everyone to pick up the right one between shots.Don't bother with this one, not with thousands of better World War II movies out there.