Extras: Commentary featuring Bruce Willis with writer
and director, Commentary with the producer, deleted
scenes with director commentary, photo gallery, and
the theatrical trailer.
Director:
Gregory Hoblit
Screenplay:
Billy Ray and Terry George
Cast:
Col. William A. McNamara: Bruce Willis
Lt. Thomas W. Hart: Collin Farrel
Lt. Lincoln A. Scott: Terrence Dashon Howard
Col. Werner Visser: Marcel Lures
Times are troubling for MGM.
Their last hit was last year's Legally Blonde and that was last July.
They're trying to sell the studio and the stocks are
falling Let's run down the list of box office duds:
Bandits,
Rollerball (2002),
Original Sin, Hart's War and the recent Windtalkers.
Now Rollerball, Hart's War and Windtalkers cost close to or over $100 million
dollars and neither failed to achieve box office
success. Rollerball was doomed by bad reviews, Hart
just didn't generate much buzz, and Windtalkers was
put out after the surge of war movies. Neither were
really bad or anything (except Bandits and I haven't
seen Orignal Sin). One thing MGM is making a lot of
bank on is their VERY large DVD library. Most are
classic and priced at under ten dollars. To top that
off you can count on a lot of extras on some if not
all. They're also saving money by not putting
Macrovision on them. They clearly understand the DVD
market and are banking off of it. Anyway, I'm done
reviewing MGM itself and now onto the real object of
the review: Hart's War.
Hart's War has got to be one of the most deceiving
films as of late. I only knew it was a courtroom drama
from reviews but the film is marketed like it's an
action film (take a look at how bad 3,000 Miles to
Graceland did like this). The front cover shows Bruce
Willis with Colin Farrell standing in front of a
storm of flames, bomber planes below them, and
soldiers running. Then the back does not even mention
the trial that takes most of the movie. Who can blame
them really? Would you go see a WWII courtroom drama?
Hart's War tells the story of Lt. Thomas Hart's time
in a German POW camp. Hart is captured and brought to
the camp where he meets Bruce Willis' character Col.
McNamara. Halfway through a bigot white prisoner is
killed and a fellow black prisoner, Lt. Lincoln Scott,
is wrongly accused. Hart is appointed to defend him in
a trial that only has one outcome.
This film tries to come off as gripping and I will
give it that. It does have a few plot twists that I
didn't see coming but that doesn't make up for it's
overall blandness. It's sometimes boring as well.
Another thing that bothered me kind of was how the
Nazis were portrayed. I can't imagine them letting the
prisoners gamble and drink freely. The lead general
seemed too friendly to the prisoners at times and that
felt awkward.
Into the disc. The video is a little disappointing
for MGM especially since not many extras are included.
Compression artifacts are seen throughout except for
the outdoor day scenes and there was just a softness
to the picture. Not terrible or anything but it could
have been alot better.
The sound is okay though. Thundering during the few
action scenes and audible throughout.
The extras are pithy really. Deleted scenes and a
trailer are really all. But if you're looking for
commentary you won't be dissapointed. Two commentray
tracks are on the movie and one with the deleted
scenes.
Overall, Hart's War is just okay. It is somewhat
interesting and at least worth a weekend rental just
don't believe the box.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
