Fury

Fury written and directed by David Ayer, starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, and Joh Bernthal.

I think the one thing that hinders this movie from being truly good is the ending.  For a movie that strives for realism visually (which is succeeds), production design (which is also succeeds), and from character stand point (which it mostly succeeds).  Then have an ending which falls back on typical Hollywood cliches kind of defeats the whole point of the movie. 

But other than that this was for the most part a good watch.  The movie doesn't lose track of main characters of the movie - namely the characters in the tank.  They are the focus of the movie and it doesn't get bogged down narrative-wise in anything else, the story line follows them and them only. Most screenplays now-a-days seemed more focused on everything else happening in the story but what they story is supposed to be focused about thus loosing the narrative of the story.  They  want to tell all the other stories in the movie but the main characters.  This movie is about the tank crew of the tank called Fury. And that is what this movie is about. 

From a visual stand point this movie does a good job of recreating the Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers production design that really helps to shape the world they live in.  It feels like a real war they are in and not some back stage production.  Ayer does a good job of creating the confinement and closeness of the tank crew inside the tank and does wonders when the camera goes outside of the tank as the visuals and wideness of the outside contrast with the smallness of the tank. 

The tank crew does have it's cliche characters but I thought they were a lot more well played than the ones presented in Saving Private Ryan.  I felt these guys didn't seem as forced into stereotyped roles and stayed true to their characters throughout the movie - which is something Hollywood has a hard time doing now-a-days.  All of the actors rose to the challenge with the characters and breathed a good bit of fresh air into them with each scene they were in.  I also liked how all the characters weren't extremely likable - this helped to make them seem more real.