national Arts Festival Banner

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

OVERLORD


(Jovan Adepo)

This is a thoroughly nasty, blood-spattered horror-porn picture that masquerades as a war movie. Perhaps it should be renamed Overload instead. (Review by Patrick Compton. 5/10)

Movie-goers beguiled by the title of this movie, which suggests that it’s about the Normandy landings in 1944, are going to be surprised.

Admittedly, the action during the first 30 minutes or so does suggest that a group of American paratroopers are setting out on a mission to destroy a German radio tower perched on top of a French church. If their mission is a success, it will disrupt the German communications network and aid the invading troops.

But then something very strange happens. The soldiers, specifically a sensitive African-American corporal, Boyce (Jovan Adepo), discover that beneath the tower, Nazi scientists are engaged in creating uber-soldiers, immune to bullets, who will be part and parcel of the forthcoming 1000-year Third Reich

At this point the movie changes from band of brothers to chamber of horrors as the Americans, aided by a comely French rebel (Mathilde Ollivier), set about undermining Herr Hitler’s attempt to change history.

On the plus side, this rip-snorting movie is made with some verve by Australian director Julius Avery and producer JJ Abrams, with the terrifying opening sequence on board a plane full of paratroopers particularly effective, while the sound and special effects have considerable shock value.

There’s a particularly unpleasant Nazi villain (Pilous Asbaek) overseeing some ghastly experiments, and an American tough guy (Wyatt Russell) who is not above a bit of torture himself.

The horror, however, founders on the fact that Nazi medical experimentation really did take place during World War 2, albeit with a very different purpose.

If you know that, this film, scripted by Billy Ray (who wrote Captain Phillips and The Hunger Games) leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth. But if you don’t care about such things, Overlord can be regarded as an entertaining and extremely bloody night out.

Overlord opened in Durban on Friday, November 9, 2018. - Patrick Compton