This is a film that tries to market itself as Alasitar McLean meets Quintann Tarantino meets BAND OF BROTHERS . One worries though how the much hyped casting of Tom Sizemore may go down since it's sixteen years since he appeared in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and one envisages him being more likely cast as the American equivalent of a character from DADS ARMYrather than a veteran combat soldier still able to kill Nazis . Thankfully the the years have been physically kind to Sizemore and the early scenes of COMPANY OF HEROES are relatively impressive . You do believe the film has transported you to the cold , snow covered Ardennes of December 1944 and any fears that you're going to be watching something on a par to the laughable 1960s big budget version of THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE are unfounded . Don't speak so soon

Despite having some good cinematography and music there's little else to recommend . As soon as the Germans turn up in force you'll be surrounded by so many things wrong about COMPANY OF HEROES . One thing is type of tanks the Germans are using - they're certainly unlike any tank the Germans used but are also unlike any tank you've seen . It's also very obvious that the explosions are created via CGI on a par with the ones used in SyFy Channel productions . You'll also notice that the American weapons aren't American weapons from that period

You can overlook these errors and perhaps suspend disbelief that the Nazis were close to developing the Atomic bomb if there was a compelling storyline but the screenplay is incredibly clumsy and strewn with errors that don't make sense within the film's own internal logic .For example :

On watching the Americans escape on a train bound for Germany the chief Nazi villain states " So now the hunt moves to Stuttgart " . Wouldn't a better idea be to just stop the train and shoot the Americans ? Also fortunate for the story that the railway line is intact after all that allied bombing

A Soviet character introduces himself and says he was a POW of the Germans . The problem is he's several pounds overweight , not something Soviet prisoners of war suffered from at the hands of the Nazis . I kept thinking this guy was a plant put there by the Nazis but as it turns out he is a genuine Soviet POW

A character introduces himself as " 'Allo I'm Willoughby British airforce " . No Briton would ever describe themself in that way . It might be British royal airforce " or British RAF " but never British airforce

Two characters walk down a busy street in Stuttgart speaking English and no one over hears them

A character mentions the Nazis have developed an atomic bomb and yet no one asks the obvious question " What's an atomic bomb ? " I'm led to believe even the crew of Enola Gay hadn't heard of the term until they were on the flight to Hiroshima

A character mentions they must " flee with the atomic bomb before the allies bomb the factory tomorrow " Would an OSS agent be told of the bombing schedule of the allied airforces ? If the allies want to get their hands on the bomb why not wait to see if the mission is a success before bombing the factory ?

This had the potential to be if not a good wartime action adventure then certainly better than the mediocre mess that it ended up as

Well, yes, they do, apparently. In the old days war movies used to be full of inaccuracy's, have stupid plots, really stupid action sequences and the occasional love story. They were enjoyable for what they were - a piece of entertainment but without the seriousness to stop you enjoying s good old fashioned shoot-em-up war flick. Then came movies like Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down to spoil the lot. All this realism, slight adherence to facts and decent story lines really wrecked the genre. So thanks be to God there is still someone out there who doesn't give a f**k about all of that and can still make the same pile of do-do we got in the 1960's. Guns that can shoot endless rounds of ammo, bazooka's which can blow up tanks, tanks that look like nothing you are ever likely to find in any book about tanks, German's who can line up as if on parade to get shot, prisoners who are well fed, camps which look like building sites, etc. etc. etc. This is not the worst war movie I have ever seen but it was close. What the f**k Tom Sizemore and Jurgen Pronchnow were doing in it only their pay check knows. And, yes, there is a nude scene for no apparent reason. Like the rest of the movie you ask yourself WHY??????

The film has unnecessary subscripts as to the locations, as the scene informs you where they are at. Also the opening gives you the basic plot. A group of men are trapped behind enemy lines post Battle of the Bulge and find a great weapon being developed by the Nazis. You could have figured all of this out by yourself- really.

What makes pseudo histories are the characters. This film concentrated on one particular character, sniper Nate Burrows (Chad Michael Collins) pretty much to the exclusion of everyone else. Vinnie Jones was a welcomed addition. Some of the scenes worked well, while others were simply bad, making this a very haphazard production. I loved the scene of the killing of the German soldiers done to the opera of "Faust." Shades of "Clockwork Orange." However, the CG graphics of the planes and gun fire flames was noticeably fake. What really hurt this film is that they squandered dialogue which should have been better utilized to build character rather than conceal it, as in the case of the main character.

Makes for a rental for Vinnie Jones fans. Vinnie knows bar fights.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex. Brief "Witness" style nudity (Melia Kreiling who plays Bathsheba in "The Bible" mini series)