War Pigs, 2015.
Directed by Ryan Little.
Starring Luke Goss, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Chuck Liddell, Ryan Kelley, Noah Segan and Steven Luke.
SYNOPSIS:
A misfit army unit go behind enemy lines to confirm the existence of a Nazi super weapon during WWII.
Remember when the first trailers for Inglourious Basterds came out and it made the film out to be a Nazi-hunting bloodbath with little substance other than violence? Wasn’t quite what we got, was it? Ryan Little’s War Pigs (unfortunately 300: Rise of an Empire beat this film to the Black Sabbath song of the same name) comes along with a similar promise and, to an extent, delivers in as much as we get to see an army unit going behind enemy lines during WWII to do a bit of recon and getting spotted by the Nazi troopers in the area. However, War Pigs suffers incredibly by not having the budget to fully realise this premise to maximum effect.
Which is a shame because despite it feeling a little undercooked there are the nuggets of a solid action film trying to fight their way out. Luke Goss (Blade II) plays Jack Wosick, an army Captain demoted to Lieutenant after a mission went wrong despite Wosick following orders. Wosick is approached by Colonel Reading (Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler) to head up a team of soldiers to go on top-secret missions in exchange for clearing his name. Wosick agrees and is partnered with French legionnaire Captain Picault (Dolph Lundgren – Rocky IV) to train up the ragtag unit into a sleek fighting machine before heading off behind enemy lines to establish the existence of the German V3 super weapon. But before they can fight the Nazis, Wosick and Picault need to win over the confidence of their new team, including the antagonistic Sergeant Chambers (Noah Segan – Deadgirl).
For the first half of the film, War Pigs plays out like a testosterone-fuelled take on An Officer and a Gentleman, with Chambers deliberately winding up his superiors as they try and shape the group into working as a team, eventually causing the whole group to suffer as punishments are dished out to everyone for his big mouth. By the time Chambers reaches his eureka moment we’re two thirds of the way through the film and we haven’t seen a Nazi yet, which makes the final act of the film seem rather rushed as the team manage to infiltrate a German base and rescue two captured soldiers rather quickly and without breaking too much of a sweat.
And that sort of sums up the film as a whole because a lot of character moments are too easily swept to one side to try and wrap things up quickly. Although it is an obvious attempt to recreate the whole Dirty Dozen-type buddy war movie – as does The Expendables, which is probably the nearest modern equivalent – it doesn’t quite reach that level of fist-pumping bonhomie, and that isn’t down to the cast as the performances here aren’t that bad and the main actors gel together quite well. Dolph Lundgren plays the wise captain role well, despite his French accent slipping every now and then, and he does have a certain gravitas that such a role needs, unlike Mickey Rourke, whose presence here is a little baffling as he doesn’t quite seem to fit the WWII setting, perhaps being better suited to a Vietnam movie. Luke Goss has come a long way since his days drumming for Bros and plays the weary soldier well, bouncing off of Lundgren and Noah Segan with the right amount of broodiness and humility. Segan also does well with what he’s given to do, although that isn’t that much other than throw wisecracks at Lundgren and Goss, but his presence is felt throughout.
A WWII movie featuring Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke and Luke Goss sounds like a tempting deal on paper and although War Pigs tries very hard with its simple plot, decent characters and some nice camera work that adds a bit of momentum to the action, overall it just doesn’t feel like enough. The action scenes are well staged but, again, feel a little underwhelming when it comes to being graphic, with only small pockets of soldiers being shot at any one time like something from The A-Team (TV series, not the movie) rather than a full-scale war movie. The sound cues and overall look of the film do give it the feel of those old WWII movies, and if you’re a fan of those or any of the leading action stars then it is worth a look, but considering what it could have been with a little more investment War Pigs will come as something of a disappointment and will probably not encourage any more than one viewing, even for hardcore fans.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★/ Movie: ★ ★
Chris Ward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
Originally published September 14, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
