The Wall (2017) Reviews

• Not Anti-American

  westsideschl2017-08-28

  First off, most of the one star negative reviews are from people who saw this film as anti-American (whatever that is) and pro-terrorist. I disagree, I think it tried to show throughout the long tête-à-tête between the American sniper and the Iraqi sniper that they both have viewpoints in which they tried to justify their positions. Something that has always been lacking in both national and international politics, as well as each individual's personal everyday views on any subject. Trying to see that another viewpoint has justification is, and has always been, difficult. People have always taken advantage of this propensity shown by such phrasing as "If you're not for us, then you're against us." Second, I do agree that some of the scenarios were a little too set up such as at that range a sniper shot to a zigzagging water bottle, antenna, and knee is a bit much. But, I suppose it was just to set up a scenario where the dialogue plays the pivotal role. Also, our wounded American should have immediately communicated to the heli rescue (and they should have known) that the sniper would target them (so fly low in the other direction). Third, anybody who has been in a fight if given the opportunity to talk to their opponent soon discovers that they have a pov too.

• The Perfect One-Man movie .. One of the Best Thriller movies before being A War Movie of the year by far

  Abdo00792017-08-24

  This is what you can call The One-Man Movie , Way way underrated movie .. Aaron Taylor-Johnson ( Isaac ) makes a tremendous effort in this movie , Perfect performance and I really give him most of the credit .. Laith Nakli ( The Sniper ) also does a great job in performing the mysterious man of the show even by only his voice ! The movie itself is intelligent thriller till the last moment of it . I liked the dialogues , the convincing acting , the way Isac's thinking was portrayed and his insiders were shown . I mean , I really could feel him and found myself in his position The Location , The Shots , The Directing and The General Atmosphere were all perfectly carried out The Absence of music nearly the whole movie gets you living it in a more focused way Important point to consider is that this isn't mainly a war movie , It's a thriller one .. So Don't expect finding battles , fights , tanks and helicopters and so on Such a low budget film , few cast and under 90 minutes is considered in my opinion as a very pleasant experience which I heavily recommend for any fan of thriller genre movies .. Just keep it running till the end , You won't regret it

• BrainDead

  dintjommi2017-08-08

  Lets hope no war veterans or soldiers see this movie. First of all, i cannot understand why anyone, like a SNIPER, would carry binoculars they KNOW "fogs up" now and then. Just because good memories of his DEAD partner? And how anyone can spot anything if they just zoom across the horizon so fast that the image gets blurry, is beyond me. Now these 2 "soldiers" look so gritty and dirty and experienced, that it is shocking to see their panic and feeble fumbling when something actually happens. The amount of dust and dirt on their clothes, weapons and faces is just incredible. A pipeline is being built. All (some?) of the construction workers has been shot, along with their body guards ? 2 soldiers (our heros) are hiding in some bushes, looking at the bodies. WHY ARE THEY THERE ? Are they part of the "protection" for the construction workers ? Are they sent to investigate ? Did they just stumble over the scene by accident ? Do they have ANY orders ? They have been there for 20 hours, where is their relief ? Why is there not anyone coming in armored trucks to clear out the area and get the pipeline built ? Why do they not contact headquarters and ASK what to do ? Maybe they could get a drone in to spot for them ? So: WITHOUT CALLING HQ ON THE RADIO, the big soldier gets fed up with sniping, walks in to the open and gets shot. The little one then starts breathing heavily, and fumbles around with his equipment like a total noob, before he does the same. Does NOT call for help while hiding in the bushes, oh no, that would be too easy. The little one manages to get in cover, (whatever cover may be, when you have no clue where your enemy is), behind this "wall", a pile of bricks and rock that would provide very little protection in reality. Of course their mysterious enemy has shot his water bottle and radio, while he was running around in circles in the open, so he has no water, and no means of calling for help. Luckily, he does not need the radio, because by a MIRACLE: the rescue team calls him up on the intercom (short distance radio) and little soldier has no suspicion and proceeds to tell how his situation is, he is wounded and his buddy is shot and probably dead, all while breathing heavy, rolling in the dust, crying, and screaming Feck Feck Feck constantly. At this time i was hoping he would get shot more, because then maybe he would die faster. Then he frantically hammers a hole in the wall to peek out, and nearly demolishes his shooting finger when the wall collapses. Of course there is no rescue team, only the psycho (with a radio) who shot the water bottle and knocked the antenna off the radio, ON THE MOVE, FROM 8-900 yards away. Psycho is sitting in a pile of dung and waste, and has probably no hurry getting back to his hut for dinner, even though he must have been there for days. Now he want to scare the little soldier. But hey, little soldier manages, with his little retar*d brain to figure out where Psycho is, because of the background noise on the radio, from metal sheets banging against each other. If I had to sit and snipe in a waste pile for days, i would certainly put a stop to any banging metal sheets in my environment. That would just drive me crazy. I had to stop watching the film, it was just too stupid.

• A Bare Bones Thriller That Works More Than It Doesn't

  trublu2152017-05-12

  The Wall is the latest thriller from director Doug Liman and features Aaron Taylor-Johnson and John Cena as a two man recon team stationed in Iraq who are pinned down by sniper fire and must take refuge behind a wall. Their calls for help are heard by no one...except the enemy sniper. As the battle of wits rages on so does the courage of the two men and their will to survive. This proves to be very beneficial for this film because, honestly, it did not feel like it would be able to sustain a feature length film. However, with the sheer intensity of the film and the perfect performances from Johnson and Cena, The Wall works even when it doesn't. First off, the film is a lean, mean 80 minutes. As soon as the film starts, it starts. There is no warming up to it, it drops you in the movie unapologetic. What comes next is a reckoning of pure adrenaline pumping cinema. Much like last year's The Shallows, The Wall benefits from its bare bones approach. There isn't big explosions or typical warfare, this is more a war of wits which has been done before (and better) but this film is successful in the way that it doesn't need huge action numbers to sustain suspense. Director Doug Liman knows what it is and he knows the strengths are in the performances. It makes for a very interesting addition in the new age war film genre, sitting nicely between The Hurt Locker and American Sniper. Despite all that is well with the film, there are a few moments where you're expecting the film to go one way and then it absolutely does not take any risks and gives you exactly what you expected. For that, I have to say that it was disappointing to not see as much innovation with such a bare bones film. For me, I like when characters are forced to use their environments for their benefit. The Wall definitely did that but in sort of a half-assed way. There really isn't anything clever or cool about the way it all pans out. With that being said, it still makes for an intense movie even if sometimes it feels a little cheap. Overall, The Wall is a short yet intense film that will keep you hanging on until the last frame. The performances from Aaron Taylor Johnson and John Cena are nothing short of amazing. This is especially for John Cena, who absolutely blew me away with his fantastic performance as Matthews. While Cena shines, so does Aaron Taylor Johnson who bucks up and carries the movie on his shoulders without even thinking about it. It stands as Johnson and Cena's best performances to date and it definitely is worth watching.

• Dumb and Dumber: in the desert

  alexac-071562017-11-03

  So, it's about two brainless snipers. Except from being poorly equipped they also make bad choices. When one of them gets shot the other guy runs after him like a blind hen and - surprise - get's shot too. Theses two guys are supposed to be elites, but still a minimal amount of action makes them both totally lose it. To seem extra macho every sentence consists of at least 5x"fuck". Too bad watching them acting like 50's housewives hosting a dinner party kind of ruins the alpha image. Yeah... and then it just gets really boring. It's so dumb and unrealistic I can't imagine anyone with ANY experience with the military was involved during the making of this film. If you're a fan of war movies like me, this isn't worse your time.