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If you thought that the opening battle in Saving Private Ryan was intense, you haven’t seen anything yet. Overlord takes that PTSD-causing opening to task with a sequence in the skies above Germany as American paratroopers are absolutely gutted right before our eyes. Their mission is to land behind enemy lines and take out a church tower and the radio transmitter therein. The sequence of a midnight landing is bold and unique as, after a hail of gunfire and explosions, we wind up falling out of the sky alongside actor Jovan Adepo as Private First Class Ed Boyce.
And that fantastically well-edited and well-stop sequence is just the beginning of producer J.J. Abrams’ alarming and absolutely exciting Overlord. Turning well-worn war tropes on their head, this WWII horror film concerns itself with secret Nazi experiments as the survivors of the five survivors of the paratrooper squad get some seriously demented face-time with a bunch of fucked up Nazis, all hopped up on some incredibly bizarre serums that give them some seriously strong modifications.
Featuring Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Iain De Caestecker, Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn), Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Gianny Taufer, Pilou Asbæk, and Bokeem Woodbine, Overlord is a war film first and foremost. It dips its toes into the horror genre once it is revealed that the Nazis, especially those inside the church tower, are conducting all sorts of biogenetic experiments with the citizens in the nearby town.
And it is all to build the better super soldier for Hitler’s reign over the earth’s population.
Except these soldiers aren’t about to turn around and head for the hills; a job must be completed. Even if it means risking their own lives, these Nazi-designed monstrosities must be stopped at all costs. The horrors of D-Day have got nothing on the blood thirst in this laboratory. As equally gory as it is relentlessly entertaining, Overlord is one of the best movies of the year. {googleads}
Without a doubt, the violence in this movie – including unnatural body twists thanks to the ramifications of the serum (once injected into deceased soldiers and civilians alike) and lots and lots of beatings to the forehead – is graphic in its content and never disappointing for the gore-gore hounds out there. All of it works to cast a spell over its audience. We believe all of it and the performances, especially from Russell and Adepo, are dynamic in creating a response to the extraordinary creations being released in this tower.
Directed by Julius Avery, Overlord creates, from the very start, a tension that is not easily dismissed, even by the quiet moments as the group of soldiers try to figure out the best plan forward now that their war also includes mutants. The movie feels edgy like Inglourious Basterds but is a war movie like nothing else thanks to its Reanimator vibes. And go there it does!
The film, written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant), doesn’t take its themes of violence and monsters lightly. There are lots of moments where the whole violence begets violence topic is explored by the American troops – especially when a German soldier is beaten – and that makes for one hell of a topical movie. Nothing about this feature can be taken lightly and, to me, that makes for a genre film that defies the odds and truly becomes a masterpiece of mayhem.
Overlord deserves an Oscar.
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[tab title="Details"]
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, disturbing images, language, and brief sexual content.
Runtime: 110 mins
Director: Julius Avery
Writer: Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith
Cast: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier
Genre: Horror | Action
Tagline: From producer J.J. Abrams
Memorable Movie Quote: "Our greatest achievement. With it, we create super-Nazis; A thousand year army and it's thousand year soldiers."
Theatrical Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: November 9, 2018
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: February 19, 2019
Synopsis: With only hours until D-Day, a team of American paratroopers drop into Nazi-occupied France to carry out a mission that’s crucial to the invasion's success. Tasked with destroying a radio transmitter atop a fortified church, the desperate soldiers join forces with a young French villager to penetrate the walls and take down the tower. But, in a mysterious Nazi lab beneath the church, the outnumbered G.I.s come face-to-face with enemies unlike any the world has ever seen. From producer J.J. Abrams, Overlord is a thrilling, pulse-pounding action adventure with a twist.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
Home Video Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Available on Blu-ray - February 19, 2019
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos; English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1; German: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1; Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1; Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1; Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set; iTunes digital copy; Digital copy; DVD copy
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A
With a strong HD transfer, the release of Overlord on blu-ray by Paramount is incredibly rich. The textures and the details are STRONG with this release. Framed in an 2.40:1 and including a kick-ass Dolby Atmos soundtrack, there’s little room for improvement on the visual punch of the film. It looks fantastic and the black levels go deep. The details in the laboratory and in the soldier’s uniforms are crackling with fine detail and so too are the colors, keeping their shape thanks to some consistent edges. Shadows are defined and expressive with layers. Put it in, sit back, and CRANK it up. You will be blown away by a war movie hybrid that is full of blood and monsters.
Supplements:
Commentary:
- None
Special Features:
We get one supplemental item that is broken into six separate featurettes concerning the making of the movie and its creations. A DVD copy of the film and an iTunes digital copy code are included.
- Creation (11 min)
- Death Above (7 min)
- Death on the Ground (9 min)
- Death Below (6 min)
- Death No More (12 min)
- Brothers in Arms (5 min)
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