Age of Heroes (2011)

Age of Heroes is directed by Adrian Vitoria and Vitoria also co- writes the screenplay with Ed Scates. It stars Sean Bean, Danny Dyer, Aksel Hennie, Izabella Miko, James D'Arcy, William Houston, John Dagleish and Stephen Walters. Music is by Michael Richard Plowman and cinematography by Mark Hamilton.Pic is based on the real life exploits of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. This telling sees a unit of Commandos sent on a mission to the mountains of Norway to knock out an important German communication tower whilst purloining information to aid the war effort. In truth it doesn't add a great deal to an already over stocked "men on a mission" sub-genre of war films, but there's enough excitement, explosions, potent character dynamics and military shenanigans, to keep things at the better end of a viewing experience. Cast are fine, all portraying familiar types seen in countless films of this ilk, the snowy Norwegian locations are a sight for sore eyes, and Vitoria does a nice job of giving his film an old fashioned feel - complete with the obligatory Nazi atrocity to add some venomous oomph to the plotting.The inclusion of Izabella Miko on the mission sadly comes off as a token female shoehorn job, and I agree with what other reviewers have said as regards the finale, it does feel a bit rushed as this pic definitely could have done with another 15 minutes or so. Yet being an old fashioned guy myself, I liked it well enough and was glad to have viewed it. 7/10

Has all the ingredients to be a good movie. Cast look a bit bored sometimes and seem to ad lib unless that is just the acting? It was kind of watchable with plenty of things to make you hate the Nazis, but lacked any sort of cohesion in the fight scenes. The initial training was pretty ordinary and all seen before, but didn't seem to have any real credibility. To be honest the opening scenes were the best in the movie. It started with good promise but just declined into a very unrealistic tale. In the closing scenes the mountains were spectacular and the views breathtaking, but for me that was what really killed the movie.. In a few of those closing scenes, modern day ski lifts were clearly visible in the background, and I'm pretty sure they weren't around in the 1940's.

I am always up for a good World War II "men on a mission" movie. Emphasis on "good". This British production is quite lacking in a number of areas that at the end make the movie overall unsatisfying. The first flaw is the budget. I realize that this didn't have a Hollywood budget, and I did see that the production squeezed every last penny they had, but much of the movie looks kind of skimpy. But the movie could still have worked had it not been for the next problem - much of the movie is not exciting. After the opening action sequence, it takes forever for the next true action scene to come along. And the footage between is not very interesting - it's lacking a sense of humor, colorful characters, and original situations. Things do pick up a little in the second half of the movie due to some nice scenery and some okay action, but this material is too little and too late. While the movie isn't actively bad, it's more often than not bland, and even Brits in the audience with an interest in World War II will likely grow weary with the movie some time before the end credits start rolling.

In the fall of 2010, I spent a short time on the set of an independent film called "The Boarder," which was being shot in rural Nebraska. And one thing that I did learn while mingling amongst the technicians and actors was that even in something as aesthetically-driven as a motion picture, and with something passionate as a subject matter, it is still entirely possible for things to sour up and become impersonal. Movie-making is not easy, and the stress, I'm afraid, can wear out the artistic drive in some of us, especially if it's an early endeavor. That very well may have been the case, I'm afraid to say, with Adrian Vitoria's "Age of Heroes."Again, it's hard to imagine a film based on a true story to be passionless and impersonal, but that is the case here. "Age of Heroes" is loosely based on a World War II British commando unit's mission to garner Germany intelligence. The particular mission was drawn up by Ian Fleming, who would later go on to write the James Bond novel series. So a story about men who risked and gave their lives, even in a shoestring budget film like this, is hard to imagine as soulless. But it is.The way this movie is filmed, acted, scored, and executed, it's as if the filmmakers simply pulled the story out of a box full of potential stories and decided to roll along with it. Because it was their job, not because they particularly wanted to. Filming the battle scenes in this movie must have been very difficult, and unfortunately, the stress the directors and technicians had on them is apparent. It can be felt, and as a result, the scenes, meant to be white-hot, have a sort of staged, phony feeling to them.There are worthy actors in the movie, headed by Sean Bean, but not one of them as a real part to act. What little personality they have is drawn straight out of previous war pictures. The key example is a tough commando sergeant, played with zest by William Houston; really just a pale imitation of the much-more-impressive gunnery sergeant from Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" back in 1987.If the film can be redeemed, it is in that it does not appear to aim particularly high. It doesn't have a big goal, so it doesn't accomplish much, and the failure isn't quite as compounding as it otherwise might have been. And a brisk 94 minutes, "Age of Heroes" was already over by the time I was really starting to grow bored.