Don't Believe the Hype

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Seven German soldiers played (mostly by Brits) are enclosed in one bunker during the Second World War. Made a year before the extravagant and bigger budget 1917 supernatural feast Deathwatch (2002), The Bunker is more compelling and ambiguous.Deathwatch, Outpost and Dead Snow were clearly influenced by the gifted short film director Rob Green in his feature debut. With a stella, strong cast of familiar British actors that include Jack Davenport, Eddie Marsan, Andrew Tiernan and the great Jason Flemyng you know you're in for a treat.It's a basic premise, soldiers retreat to bunker and while exploring the tunnel-system some strange events begin to drive them mad. It's odd to see British actors playing Germans who survive an American attack, an unusual and interesting spin by Screenwriter Clive Dawson and the casting director. There's a tension driven, eerie score by Russell Currie. The cast are a excellent, with notable performances from Flemying and Fairbank, who is on great menacing form in this low effectual film. The Bunker set is well constructed there's a tension and ominous atmosphere throughout the film.While not a horror or really scary, it's an exercise in paranoia and claustrophobia. It's the subtler of the aforementioned, and arguably less is more.

"The Bunker" features a cast of fine British character actors and Charley Boorman. That's not to say that Boorman isn't good in his role, just that this film is more his level. Guys like Jason Flemyng, Jack Davenport, Christopher Fairbank and even TV regulars Eddie Marsan and Andrew Tiernan could do this sort of film in their sleep, although they all pitch in to "The Bunker" with enthusiasm.Well, I say "enthusiasm" but I mean war-weary cynicism. The film is set at the nadir of the Third Reich and all the actors in "The Bunker" portray German soldiers in varying degrees of despair or denial. This was what kept me watching the film, as the men stuck in the bunker were forced to face some unknown evil and ended up tearing themselves (and each other) apart. It's a variation on the standard "Old Dark House" horror theme and it works quite well, but "The Bunker" brings very little that's new or exciting to the screen. There aren't many shocks - more a sense of creeping dread as events unfold, and what could be referred to as "The Twist" at the end has been regularly signposted all the way through the story with grainy flashback scenes.You may enjoy it but this old couch potato won't bother with "The Bunker" again. It's a quality production let down by a 6-bob screenplay.

Extremely boring war movie that tries to establishes a link with terror/horror theme but fails miserably in all the points. So, the movie is a completely failures as a war movie and as a terror/horror flick. The 'Bunker' has a simple plot, in fact. A group of German soldiers enter a bunker to escape an attack of Allied soldiers. In the bunker, they find an old private and a young soldier. There's an atmosphere of mystery all around. The old man is a bit out of mind and very frightened and the young soldier is mesmerized by the tales and weird stories always repeated by the old man about strange facts concerning the bunker. But you'll never know what is the real problem. But you'll have many options: ghosts? zombies? witches? Although all the cards put on the table, the game never ended because here's no satisfactory and reasonable answer at the end. The cast is correct with Jason Flemyng - here the most recognizable actor in the bunch - and Eddie Marsan who did a good job as the old private.

During WWII, a small group of German soldiers retreating from advancing Allied forces seek refuge in a tank bunker that's only manned by loony old man and a young kid who are low on ammunition. The Americans surround the bunker and the men inside wait for the onslaught. Soon they learn of an underground labyrinthine of tunnels, which could used to escape, but there's something not right about it. The old man tells stories that these tunnels are haunted, but the men believe that the Americans have found there way in.Disappointing… yeah this sneeringly bleak psychological hybrid that cross war with the supernatural ("The Keep" did it better) is for most part a real blurry and flatly handled project. The murky idea behind it isn't bad and there's a potent slickness to the film, but it's hard to shake that sense that it could have been far more to it and that it doesn't really lift itself for the occasion. It just sits there for too long and when it tries to hit its stride. It never takes off and ends in pretty much a fizzle. After making us wait, there are too little surprises and thrills conjured up. Two or three nightmarish images are just not enough. Rob Green (debut as director) elaborately paces the film slowly to milk the taut situation and he crafts a drably paranoid atmosphere that reeks of shadowy menace. It's too bad he had to fall into some predictable jump scares and uninspired clichés of haunted themes. Russell Currie pips in with an eerily shuddery music score and John Pardue's polished photography captures the saturated fixtures with precise detail. The editing by Richard Milward has that uncanny firework movement about it and surprisingly some of those dreary flashbacks are chillingly displayed.Subtleness is the key, but maybe it was just too implied and clever for its own good with its preachy mannerisms. Especially since I found the delusional characters hard to tell apart and to feel for them. No real connection is really made towards them. And the whole ambiguous touch of this unseen foe never fills that fulfilling when the answers come. For me it didn't entirely click and made it even more baffling and frustrating. More so it looks at the horrors of war and the haunting nature that it has on the serving soldiers. The script that's served up is severely lacking any sort of conviction and filled with flimsy dialogues. The cast on hand are more than capable; Jason Flemying, Andrew Tiernan, Christopher Fairbank and Jack Davenport. Instead what they have to work off is rather weakly drawn up.I'm rather unsure about this low-budget effort. It's looks very good, but the story's shifty progression confounds the overall outcome.