pierrem-m Whilst the basic idea of this movie is a good one -"In 1943, five US soldiers are recruited by the OSS for a time travel mission to save the world from the tyranny of Hitler's 25th Reich."the execution was lamentable! (I'm trying to find a copy of the book it's based so I can do a comparison)The low point for me being a 'homosexual', using the term very loosely, rape of the Captain commanding the GIs by one of his own men who's been turned into a giant metallic spider by a flying swastika in the year 2237 (it seems that they overshot the mark on their return from 50,000 years in the past). (This is also a concise summary of the standard, of lack thereof, of this film)Whilst not at the depths so 'brilliantly' hit by Ed Wood Jr in "PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE" in 1959 "The 25th Reich" is certainly heading in that direction fast!When I consider what my country's film industry can turn out I'm almost ashamed to admit my nationality if that also involves admitting any connection, even a cultural one, with this turkey of a film.Now having comprehensively (I hope) canned it I find myself strangely hoping that they do make the sequel "The 25th Reich - War against God" so I can see if they can 'surpass' the late Mr Wood's fantastically low achievement!Btw my wife's critique was "Wtf" and she asked "Is there a rating less than 1". And she was being charitable at the time!

demelewis It's difficult to know what the film-makers were trying to achieve here. One minute it wants to be a serious low-budget sci-fi, next an homage to 50's B movies, next it's a parody, then a comedy, etc. And the trouble is, you get the impression that if it would have stuck to one of those genres, it wouldn't have been half bad.Because ironically enough, there is actually some good acting on show here from most of the cast, in spite of the vast majority of the them being slightly too old for their various roles, and the lack of a clearly defined tone for the movie. This is notwithstanding Jak Wyld's appalling attempt at a 'good old boy southern US drawl' for the character of Cpl Updike, which continuously lapses into his native Australian, detracting terribly from any semblance of the suspension of belief one manages to muster, particularly given the way it flips from genre-to-genre. Clearly Wyld can act, but he quite clearly can't do a consistent Yank accent, which makes one think that a few additional takes might have yielded a better result; something the director should perhaps have considered, instead of rushing to get it in the can, which certainly only adds to the problems this movie has.Similarly, there is decent camera-work and art direction on show for the many scenes, much of it referencing well-known war movies in a clever way if you are familiar with them, but then we come to the not-quite-so-special, special effects, which only serve to jar terribly with the good camera work. It's tempting to imagine that these effects are intended to be self-referentially bad as an homage to the 1950's era B-movies which the 25th Reich is obviously attempting to channel, but the trouble is, they are neither cheesy enough, nor convincing enough as to be either an in-joke or a serious attempt at persuading us of either intent.In fairness, one or two effects are pretty good. Similarly one or two are cheesy enough to almost convince us it was a deliberate attempt to 'do a Plan 9 from Outer Space', but the majority fall firmly between these two stools and the end result is that it just looks like bad film-making.As if these gripes were not enough of a problem, some scenes are appalling misjudged, notably one which was obviously intended to be an (ill-advised) humorous reference to the rape-scene in the movie Deliverance, but instead (of course) ends up being simply in very bad taste indeed. Not to mention the fact that it sticks out like a sore thumb as far as the rest of the movie's tone is concerned, especially when the movie is already having problems in this area.Comparisons with Iron Sky - largely because of the Nazi 'what if?' subject material - will doubtless be drawn, however, where Iron Sky succeeds massively in hitting its target, the 25th Reich is a film which attempts to mash up a few genres and ends up doing a disservice to all of them. There are flashes of genuine talent here from the director and indeed some of the cast and production crew, which leads one to imagine that we might expect great things from some of those involved in this thing, but this movie isn't one of them.

robin-433 As a kid, I loved to watch old war movies. I still do! And back then, there seemed to be a never ending supply of them. Many of them, I later found out, made by B-movie specialist Sam Fuller. The 25th Reich took me back to those days. It is a film that seems to have been made with a desire to rekindle those nostalgic feelings, while also slipping off to places that the 50's war pics would never have dreamed of going, mainly due to 50's censorship. Set in Australia in 1943, a small unit of G.I.'s are tasked with tracking down some escaped pumas only to discover that they've been duped and their mission has a totally different purpose... Sam Fuller meets 50s science fiction pulp! Crazy stuff I admit, and I had a smile on my face all the way through it. Initially, I thought some of the acting and FX were coming across as a bit cheesy, but then I realised the filmmakers were deliberately echoing the spirit of the films of that era. I'm not sure if the younger generation will necessarily make that connection, but I sure did. Without a large budget, the filmmakers seem determined to throw everything they could at the screen, but not to cover up their lack of resources. They did it because they wanted to. They did it to make a film that was good and fun. With a nice sense of tongue in cheek bravado about it, they really delivered. I wasn't fully sure what to expect, and it took me a bit by surprise, but in a good way. Sam Fuller isn't really dead. His spirit just moved Down Under!

production-217 Cinema is an experience. You want to be taken to places and meet people that the everyday world can't possibly throw up. You get that in spades with The 25th Reich. This is WWII meets Stephen King meets giant robo-Nazi's mixed up with aliens and time travel, all set in the glorious backdrop of the Australian bush... top that! The 25th Reich mashes all these ingredients together with the tropes of a classic B-movie, and takes you on a wild, mind bending ride through time and space to arrive at a Nazi dominated world where the last thing you want to do is become the sparkle in the eye of an angry robot with less than honourable intentions. Great fun - by the time you pick your jaw up off the floor, you will be back to watch it again.