Warsaw 1944

The Poles have taken up a really rough topic, which I think is for them similarly important as Lidice for the Czechs. And the first half an hour looked really amazing. The characters were believable, the atmosphere was completely war-like and the action had class. This film did not lack almost anything. But then there was a romantic kiss in a slow-motion bullet-time scene, which looked as if it was cut out of a Max Payne game, which invented this slow-motion effect. Add the music, which does not belong to a story like this at all and the whole promising atmosphere was immediately lost in the void. Then the classic approach continued, and it again seemed pretty decent, but another slow-motion appeared just at the right time and now it was, for a change, accompanied by dubstep music. That was too much for me and I had troubles watching it till the end. The Second World War is not an action movie. The Second World War was a time where many people died and that is why movies from that era should be shot with respect to the people who have fallen in the war. But someone here did not understand that. And I have to say I feel really sorry for that. Under different circumstances, City 44 would aspire to become an important movie from the Second World War that would deserve far more than just two hours on the screen. (19/04/2016)

For all the crap we give the Poles, they have nothing to be ashamed of in this film. City 44 is one of the most realistic war films in a long time, truly authentic footage, often quite gritty (the scene where human entrails fall from the nuns from the sky after the explosion in the church is epic). The action is good, nicely shot, atmospheric at times (the scene in the sewer is hypnotically horrific), so the Poles obviously wanted to make the most of this one, there are a few Hollywood influenced scenes (various slow motion scenes, or a romantic scene with flexible bullets). Very effective. (19/04/2015)