Fury

So I saw Fury, and man for a bunch of stone-cold killers, these dudes sure do cry a lot! Seriously though I enjoyed a lot of this movie. The battle scenes are really spectacular, with bodies and tracer bullets flying everywhere. The final battle, where the tank is damaged and the crew fights off a Nazi company in increasingly desperate terms was thrilling, especially as it becomes clear that not everyone is going to make it out.

I enjoyed the acting as well. The writer/director David Ayer is really good at telling stories featuring guys you normally wouldn't like much but are extremely charismatic (as exemplified in both End of Watch and Training Day, the two big movies he's known for). Brad Pitt's character in this movie is not a good guy, he bullies both his tank crew and the civilians in a town they liberate, but you can also see why his men follow him, in an excellent kind of balancing act. Shia LaBeouf was really good in this movie as well, which isn't something I expect to say ordinarily (BURN).

What keeps this movie from being great is a long section in the middle, where instead of fighting or tank driving the movie turns into an unexpected passive-aggressive dinner party. Like when a couple is about to break up and they're sitting at the table with everyone else and they just start suddenly making random comments designed to hurt the other person and they get angrier and angrier and everyone else gets increasingly uncomfortable. It's a very weird turn that doesn't seem to accomplish much in the overall movie. Besides that though, generally this movie has good action, good acting, and at one point the main gun of a Sherman tank hits a Nazi trench and a dude is blasted like 30 feet in the air and it's pretty sweet. Worth a look, go to the bathroom when Gordo and Coon-ass show up at the apartment.