Age of Heroes (2011) starring Sean Bean, Danny Dyer, Aksel Hennie, Izabella Miko, James D'Arcy, William Houston, John Dagleish directed by Adrian Vitoria Movie Review

Age of Heroes (2011)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Danny Dyer in Age of Heroes (2011)

Dyer Goes Commando

After days of combat Cpl. Bob Rains (Danny Dyer - Outlaw) leads an exhausted group of men back across France only to find themselves arrested by a jumped up Officer who has no sympathy for what they have been through. During time in the stockade Rains spots an opportunity to get out when Maj. Jack Jones (Sean Bean - Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief) shows up to have one of the men released to him. Jones has been put in charge of a mission by Lt. Cdr. Ian Fleming (James D'Arcy - An American Haunting) to lead a small band of men into Norway to sabotage a Nazi radar station.

The read up I found for "Age of Heroes" made a big deal about two things; firstly that this was based on a true story and secondly Ian Fleming's involvement. Sadly those two things whilst are part of this movie are misleading because what we have here is a war movie in the great tradition of war movies where we have a group assembled for a dangerous mission. But where as there have been some highly entertaining movies like this over the years such as "The Dirty Dozen" and "Where Eagles Dare" "Age of Heroes" is not one of them. It lacks atmosphere, flow and at times feels like a group of mates playing war heroes on a paintball field.

Sean Bean in Age of Heroes (2011)

The thing is that it has all the basics; we have Maj. Jones the tough leader picked to lead this mission and we have Bob Rains the young soldier who has been arrested. We have the obligatory training scenes as well of course the actual mission where people die, some get caught and so and so forth. But that is all it has got, just the basics and it lacks the style, the atmosphere, the characters which can make these sorts of movies great. And as such whilst it is based on the true story of Ian Fleming's commandos it doesn't feel like it is a true story movie just a poorly made modern movie trying to do what was done to better effect during the 1960s..

As for the acting well probably the most interesting performance comes from James D'Arcy who makes Ian Fleming both posh and smooth, how true that is to the real Ian Fleming I don't know but at least he plays a character. But then you have Danny Dyer as Bob Rains who in all honesty looks like he is having too much fun in a movie where the words "war is hell" don't seem to apply. And as for Sean Bean as Maj. Jack Jones, well Bean looks like he is going through the motions.

What this all boils down to is that "Age of Heroes" is disappointing and lacks everything that a great war movie should have. It might appeal to those who have never watched the classics but for those who have this is poor.


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