Best movie of this year hands down!

People are voting emotionally.

hyped garbage

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The scenery and acting seem authentic (to one who was never there). However, to escape the team trudges for a week over the mountains and when they get down at the other end then *surprise* the bad guy is there waiting for them, It just isn't credible.If you can suspend belief about the plot is is a great movie, but beware, there is a tear jerker at the end!

A reporter is kidnapped by the Taliban resulting in the Special Forces taking a trip to Afghanistan to get her out. Things don't go as planned forcing them to survive on foot crossing the desert, always under attack.This was well done. The film is French but the version I seen was dubbed in English. I think it would be better watched in the original language. It was a French Behind Enemy Lines or Courage Under Fire. The cinematography was stunning as you went from the snow to the deserts. The sound was amazing as you could hear the bullets flying by and sometimes even see them when they slowed down some shots. They go all out with the helicopters, guns and major explosions.There are lame scenes like when someone dies another person will clutch onto the body, then look up to the sky as dramatic music starts to play and gets gradually louder as the camera pans around them. You know the ones. Other than that quite an enjoyable film.

Sometimes movies require a certain suspension of the accepted laws of reality, and for various reasons every plot device is not explained by a bread trail. This movie, Special Forces (2011), requires a certain indulgence of both. I've read other critical reviews that take exception to various scenes that to me aren't that mysterious or unclear, while certain things I've noticed on repeated viewings aren't mentioned. So let me say, this is a good movie, with very good (and realistic, in conflict with some reviewers opinions) action scenes about French Special Forces on a rescue mission of a French journalist. She happens to be a female, and one of the SF guys is single, so there's that subplot. The main plot is of the SF group who are sent on a recon mission, then pressed into a rescue mission. That particular plot point seems to escape some, who have unrealistic views of why potentially sacrifice many (the SF team) for a stubborn journalist who didn't get out even with repeated warnings to do so. Apparently this makes her less attractive to rescue, as this is her fault, after all. The SF group does the job, as that is what they do. They are not fans of the press or this journalist in particular (another plot thread) but, as it is in real life - soldiers do what they are told. The best do it with a passion that makes failure worse than any feelings they have about the mission. This is also real. At least from what I've seen. There are other plot directions, e.g., the new guy on the team who hasn't proved he has the right stuff, then takes an unbelievable risk to divide the forces in chase and does prove exactly who he is. Who lives, who dies, this is all familiar ground for anyone who watches the "Rescue movie." Some claim they know, saw it a mile away, no surprises; yet I've seen this same thing play out many different ways. (The unexpected death; that's what makes a Director "edgy".) The tactics, the weapons, the scenery, and the journey - Yes you've seen it before (with variation). This version was an enjoyable (with subtitles, as much of it is in different languages) tale, beautifully filmed that is worth watching more than once. I would recommend it without hesitation. 8/10, because some of the extreme human effort that the entire group of survivors achieves, and the curious coincidence of the lucky Taliban group who find what the French Army and Navy can't.

Special Forces (2011)The main reason to see this movie is to get a look at a French parallel to American war movies set in Afghanistan. There are clear similarities, and even some borrowed clichés (assuming the American movies created the clichés—mostly from earlier war movies). And there are some interesting differences, like the way the characters are developed and their slightly different sense of camaraderie.The bulk of this movie is similar to many adventure films. A group of "good guys" is trying to escape from forces of evil that want to kill them. This is on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the "bad guys" are some extremist Taliban (if that's not redundant). The main bad guy conveniently speaks perfect Oxbridge English (not French) and is thoughtful and thoughtless at once. All of this seems like good stuff, and it is somehow interesting for its uniqueness coming out of French movie-making and French national pride. Don't expect any soul searching here, or actual revelations about character or even about the cause of war. The good and evil aspects are simply given, and then shown in the usual way. What sustains the movie through all this is that it's very well done, and the acting (and therefore the characters) are quite believable. There is true heroism and suffering. And a taut suspense in many scenes.It's too long by far, however, and there is a huge chuck of the movie where the group, with its shrinking numbers, struggles through the mountains that seem to become impossibly snowy and alpine. It isn't clear why the French military gives up trying to save them after dropping them in enemy territory. The Americans, who would have been there more or less de facto, are not mentioned or hinted at (which I don't mind, but it's not quite realistic as the crisis gets worse).There's even an improbable moment, after days of absolute struggle through some high snowy terrain, that the bad guys show up as if they took a taxi. Maybe they did. But it's all so convenient and packaged.So, take it for what it is. Well done, solid in some ways, and wobbly in its larger arc.