Storm Troopers? Really!
The Vice President wasn’t an important role so they apparently didn’t bother casting a regular in it. If you pay attention you can see three different people playing Roosevelt’s Vice President.
Another continuity blooper. If you watch the credits, you’ll see they have her last name listed as Roosevelt even before she got married.
They made Hitler a very unbelievable character IMHO. Really, how many times did he survive an assassination attempt because a bomb *just didn’t work *for some reason, or because he *just happened *to change his plans? I wouldn’t be surprised to find out in some “Making Of” special that he offed himself with a silver bullet or a solution made from unobtainium.
That whole North Africa campaign was just an excuse to introduce a desert setting. I think merchandising was pushing them to include one so kids could recreate it in their sandboxes.
It was a set-up for the spin off series, The Rat Patrol.
True. But they introduced the concept, and then threw it away. The bad guys secret weapon has no effect, and the good guys secret weapon wins the war. Very bad writing.
And did you notice how the scientists on the bad guys side are all conflicted? One slows up their atomic bomb secret weapon program and the other becomes a good guy in the sequel.
But I did like the comic release sequence where the high official of the bad guys flies to the good guys side, under their noses.
I dunno. I really like the use of the “shaky cam” footage. If I hadn’t know better I would say all that footage was taken during an actual war. I also like how they didn’t bow down to modern sensibilities and shot most of the movie in black and white for artistic effect (and the obvious moral implications of course).
And all the smoking going on throughout the show. I loved it. Fuck all those health nuts and “smoking is bad for you…mmkay?” There’s a war on, fuck you and your worries about second hand smoke.
Original songs, yes. There’s also at least two Pink Floyd cover songs.
Then there’s the biblical metaphor at the end. When the Eastern and Western sides of the Alliance can’t decide who owns Germany, they cut the baby in half.
(Fade In: Pitch meeting for new mini - series, World War Two: Electric Boogaloo. Less Grossman is pitching his episode.)
LG: OK. We’ll give the bad guys an ‘unsinkable’ battleship, the most powerful in the world . Name it after a former leader that unified the country. Act 1 - ship engages the good guys and sinks a battlecruiser with one shell - no survivors.
Anonymous exec: C’mon!
LG: OK - 3 survivors. Act 2. Cat and mouse in the North Atlantic. Skirmishes with the good guys then the ship heads for safe harbor
AE: C’mon. The good guys have the most powerful navy in the world, and radar. And the bad guy’s codes!
LG: Still, the BB is heading for safe harbor - one day out. The good guys laucnch obsolete planes against it. I know - let’s make 'em biplanes to show how obsolete they are…
AE: C’mon!
LG: … and inexperienced crews. Let’s show 'em attacking one of their own ships by mistake…
AE: C’mon!
LG: … to show how inexperienced they are. Then, on the last possible sortie…
AE: C’mon!
LG: … before the ship is safe, one of the airplanes launches its torpedo. The ship turns away, dramatic tension ensues. Can the ship turn in time? Will the torpedo hit? Dum, dum, dum …BAM! The torpedo hits the rudder …
AE: C’mon!
LG: … as the ship just barely fails to turn completely in time. Now that the ship is disabled the good guy’s navy can come in and finish it off.
C’mon!
I’ll give the WW2 producers one thumbs up. No freaking vampires or zombies.
And can you believe the scene where the Americans have just gotten in the war, and the British say, “Umm, you might want to start convoying your ships on the Eastern Seaboard. We’ve had two years experience in this war and we remember almost losing WW I.” and the US admirals blow them off? Like that would really happen.
They’re saving that for WW3.
and they lost me when they threw in the token black guys from Tuskegee and the token Indians creating an unbreakable code. c’mon.
Wasn’t there some over the top scene where a bomb was dropped right down a ship’s smokestack? Common now, the only thing missing there to take it totally over the top was a womp rat reference (preferably referencing Texas).
And the whole “going green” angle bugged me. You have massive industrial powers fighting and if folks recycle, car pool, turn in used pantyhose, and start backyard gardens thats gonna help you win the war? Really?
Don’t forget the token Japanese-Americans. They start out by getting blamed for what those other Japanese did, and are put in camps out in the desert. Then a few of them are let out so they can fight for the good guys, and they respond by being some of the fiercest fighters and winning a bunch of medals and stuff. As a reward. . . well, there isn’t really a reward. Their relatives still have to sit in camps out in the desert until the war ends.
You guys all missed the original series (“The Great War” - later renumbered (Lucas-style) into “WWI”), which had all those slapstick moments - starting with the assassination attempt that succeeds only because the Grand Duke’s motorcade takes a wrong turn and happens to drive right past the guy who had been trying to assassinate him all day long, and gets one last chance The fighter-pilots were also pretty broad comedy - throwing bricks at each other mid-flight, (trying) shooting through the propellers only to shoot the propellers off, or accidentally kill themselves with ricochets, etc. If you watch carefully, you’ll see the villain of the sequel has a bit part as a corporal in the prequel.
And that bit with the evil Germans, as the war is winding down, using their limited rail capacity to continue their genocidal work of shipping victims to the concentration camps rather than, you know, railing reinforcements to the front?