The Last Rescue (2015) User Reviews

Not very good, ya

[bfwhalen3 · 3/10 · 31 July 2015]

This is what happens when you make a cheap movie in south Alabama. The scenery was wrong for northern France.

Women didn't serve in combat in 1944. WACs and nurses didn't have hairstyles like Nancy and Vera.

There were no German vehicles in movie. They just tossed Nazi flags over U.S. Jeeps. The German spoken was unrecognizable, and I speak German. They just used a bunch of familiar words like schnell. One of the German soldiers spoke with a Brooklyn accent.

Maxwell disappeared when grenade blew-up--poor special effects. The clothing and weapons were from post-Vietnam era.

Only a young person would be fooled by this poor excuse for a WWII movie.

Good effort, but ultimately fails.

[drgreenthumb1001 · 3/10 · 22 June 2015]

If you think you are getting an action movie you will be sorely mistaken, due to obvious budget implications this movie is more like a drama....or a "war soap opera".

Where the film is shot is not convincing, I don't feel like Im traveling through 1940s Europe, but some American forest.

The writing shows a true lack of understanding of what WW2 conflict was about, or the military in general and thusly the actors are not to able to portray this film accurately enough for the time period. The movie also rambles on in scenes, since the budget is low, and action scenes scarce, they try to write in scenes with supposedly deep, profound conversations but its just boring and cheesy.

Even the scenes of tension are lame, like the soldier hiding behind a door he would obviously have been seen by anyone, heck a 2 year old would have found him.

Then there is a scene where they just let some German soldiers go, (of course the decision comes back to haunt them) its completely unbelievable and lame you can tell the writer of this movie, never spent a day in the military, neither did the Director or any of the Producers.

BTW, there were like 3 pages of posts talking about how great this movies was 2 weeks ago, but it looks like IMDb dumped them all, I knew it was to good to be true, and when I turned the movie on, I was like yup, knew it...thank goodness it was a torrent!

Dull and Unrewarding WW2 film that will annoy war fans.

[t-dooley-69-386916 · 4/10 · 12 July 2015]

The last thing we needed was another low budget, badly scripted and poorly edited war film with re-enactors who can't act for toffee; but we don't always get what we want.

The plot is that it's 1944 and some American soldiers are lost behind enemy lines. One of them has a whoopsie in the trench and his Captain gets injured. This gives the makers the excuse to have some nurses in the mix too - for l'amour as it were. Then they have to get back to their lines etc etc.

Now the acting is actually OK in places so that is a break with the norm. The vehicles are all real but we have a tendency to use American materiel and drape a Swastika over the front to disguise it and fool us all into thinking it really is German. Why camouflage a vehicle then advertise it with a ruddy big red, white and black flag?

The music is a bit too dramatic - especially as there is very little action. The scenes go on far too long; this needed some vigorous editing to be honest. There is no tension and any that does build up soon evaporates in the lack of anything happening. The guns are OK in places but those with a keen eye will see some of our Nazi bods sporting a rather 'ahead of its time' AK 47. The uniforms are a bit ropey, there are too many plot holes to bother with and the cover art work is pure fantasy.

I tried to find something positive, and apart from some efforts in the acting department - there is nowt - even the plot is so dire and plain bad it is enough to make one cringe; its isn't even so bad that it is funny. If you want to waste your time you could clean your naval button fluff out instead it will be more rewarding.

It is almost like Saving Private Ryan, but without the Tiger tank.

[meritcoba · 3 September 2015]

A long time ago in a place far far away to the east of the US, a SS unit, spearheaded by an outdated assault gun(by golly, it is a Stug III!), attacks some US troops in what resembles a forest that is proclaimed to be in the North of France in World War II, but is probably located in the Apennines.

Some make a stand and others flee, like a a bunch of soldiers of the elite Screaming Eagles 101st airborne division, which might have greatly offended any vet still living and make him die with the sheer outrage of it. No US airborne unit operated in the autumn in the North of France(they were held in reserve), but no SS units did either(they were pulled in reserve for the planned counter attack later in the year). So it is just a lot of baloney either way.

Nor did the SS operate with a Stug III in what is obvious sandy camouflage, which nobody in his right mind would use in the green landscape of North West Europe. At least not for long considering the total air dominance by the allies.

So the SS surrounds a group of American soldiers, which also includes two women of the medical staff, one a nurse and the other a doctor. This surely attests to the reach of the counter attack as women medical staff didn't operate near the front-lines, so we are talking about a deep advance into liberated territory with one assault gun, a bunch of captured American vehicles and what might have been a SDKFZ 250.

Interestingly enough the SS officer later on tell us that they have been commanded to stay put. This makes it even a greater feat because it is an counter attack that is actually not a counter attack. It boggles the mind!

It is a pity that this feat has gone completely unrecorded in history, but lucky we got this movie to tell us all about it.

The story meanders a bit while the US soldiers liberate themselves, capture Germans, then get captured again, then escape again and so on. After a while you lose count of the many twists. It might even be called exasperating.

The cast has no script to work with, unless it must be a early draft of Rambo, as one inexperienced private escapes the German clutches and goes on a killing spree. Which isn't really a big deal as the Germans are the most inadequate hapless bunch I have ever seen. Their main type of attack is aiming. They never got to the pulling the trigger part of their combat training. Or perhaps they are to dumb operate on their own and require a specific command to fire their rifles. Most likely they know they don't have any real ammo, for they just shoot blanks in this movie.

Considering that these Germans managed to drive off the US forces earlier in the movie, this must say something about the quality of the US troops as well.

The Germans are interestingly dressed in almost every possible piece of uniform that they had from 1940 onward. Just look at the boots! Almost every type is present. It is a feast of merriment for anyone who is somewhat interested in the German army.

It looks to me that someone invited a bunch of re-enactors to play the Germans. Which must be true, because everyone, including the French dude, speaks English, which is lucky for the audience, because the Germans speak the most atrocious German I have ever heard. It isn't even close to German what they garble. Come on people, stick to English if you really can't speak a word of German, now you just look like the assorted bunch of pretending idiots that you are.

Almost everything is wrong in this movie, which has a Captain who is far too old for a field commission, a nurse who wears hair that is far too long and voluminous for the period, Germans who are too stupid to aim straight, Germans armed with assault rifles and machine pistols that they never use in the fight scenes(lucky for Rambo), Germans adorning their vehicles with very big German flags(which helps with the bombing). And on and on goes the list of foolishness in this dreadful piece of nonsense.

Is there any redeeming quality to this movie?

Well it is at better than Orcs!

Perhaps the movie would have been better with a Tiger tank in it?

Who knows.

I don't rate the scenario!!! Read and keep in mind that.

[darkskytmtm · 1/10 · 31 July 2015]

I don't rate the scenario!!! Read and keep in mind that. While not talking about the scenario...the rest is a big big crap. How the hell someone made something like that? The director has nothing to do with the army...and nobody has nothing to do with WW2. First there are no German tanks. Even if there are 1-2 tigers working in the world, or 4 PzKpfW IV, if you cannot afford them you can always use the 3D animators like everybody. But It's disgusting to use an American car with a big SS banner to simulate a Kubelwagen, or to use American tanks as German ones with cameo changed. Not saying about the first tank appearing in the movie which has a modern turret (made after 1990). Are you kidding me? Why not using Nasa Endeavour as Me-109 for example. And another thing: German Military police never worn hats, just helmets. And by God, you are making joke of history and German army. In Wehrmacht or SS etc you cannot find different colors in the soldier uniform. As I said...the first MP appearing has an very bad done plastic half-moon plate on his chest and feldgrau uniform, but kaki hat. MP were using helmets. ANd just some officers had the right to wear different colors in their uniform. Like trousers of one color and coat of another

Rescue the watchers! School film pretending to be a real movie

[dfoofnik-96655 · 2/10 · 14 September 2015]

The only real actor here is Brett Cullen, who had terrific short roles in Red Dawn 2012 and Person of Interest. Everyone else is fresh out of acting school, or in the case of the extras "faking death school." The production values are inconsistent: good film and sound, even with hand-held cameras; decent photographic direction(no blurred closeups); often-excellent editing; but abysmal special effects. And unfortunately the writing and production crew were also the "stars" of this badly-paced and melodramatic mish-mash. Ironically, it is the superb acting from Cullen that makes the others seem completely amateurish in their delivery, expressions, and movement. The screenplay is also sadly lacking in any real depth, so even with better actors this would have been a loss. I watched 5 minutes at a time as that's all I could take.

A little slow but had good points and a great bad guy!

[marchusweller · 5/10 · 6 June 2016]

It was a OK movie, it was well produced and edited fine. The biggest problem this film had was that it seems to be a rehash of every war film ever made, the same scenes, dialogue, story line we have seen before. Nothing original at all and that seems sad because there seems to be potential for what could have been a great movie. The one highlight of the film was the supporting lead Tino Struckmann he is a very gifted actor, really good performance. exciting to watch and clearly the most talented actor in the movie. Just sad the movies story did not match a great performance, just as it is a shame he did not have a bigger part, as there were story plots sadly left not pursued by the director. The worst thing was the lead bad guy continuously ranting on in a made up language, not German nor English, that was just a very bad piece of acting and writing if it was written? It could have been much better and missing a lot of action very dull slow going.

Redifines bad

[Saiph90 · 1/10 · 27 December 2015]

Now and again you get a film which is so bad it is laughable, this one was so bad I was not even laughing. This obviously never made the cinema or there would have been riots at the box office with punters demanding refunds. This was free on Sky and I still feel robbed, this was a really listless film, the actors looked utterly bored with the absurd script, a few spoilers, all films you must suspend logic but when a film goes over the line it becomes nonsense this supplies in buckets. When your returning to the American line like your on a tour of local vineyards you don't have the sense to take off the huge swastika? the Germans have enough time to set up what looks like a holiday camp and then the boxing match, give me strength. Then the "kid" when he strangles the fattest soldier to ever exist. Feel sorry for the actors as I suppose a job is a job. Boring, no pace the two girls must have been to the zombie school of acting with their total lack of emotion. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Good for What It Is

[deanocware · 5/10 · 9 June 2021]

I remember watching this movie and while it gets off to a somewhat slow start and the actors and actresses are slow to grow on you in the end they actually do. I would call this more of a World War Two vignette than an actual war movie nonetheless I thought it was an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes although I will admit I am somewhat of a World War II buff. That being said I would not call this a low budget but I would also not call it a feature film. The props are decent, the locale is plausible and the acting is above average.

A small group of Americans try to survive German-occupied France

[Wuchakk · 6/10 · 20 June 2022]

Several months after D-Day in northern France, three soldiers and two Army Corps nurses get stuck behind enemy lines and try to make it out alive.

"The Last Rescue" (2015) is a WW2 indie that's small in budget but big in heart. The producers didn't have the resources for authentic German vehicles (tanks or Kubelwagens) or convincing CGI and so did the best they could with what was available. Yet the movie scores well in the most important department, human interest.

This is basically a survival flick focusing on a small group of people who are thrust into a life or death situation and must work together in order to survive. The characters are believable, generally speaking, and the acting is very good. Sure, there are some unlikely elements, like the soldier hiding behind an open door, but all kinds of improbable scenarios like this took place in real-life. This is not to say that the titular rescue at the climax is believable. It's not; but, then again, it IS a movie.

In regards to cast, Elizabeth Rice and Hallie Shepherd appear on the feminine front as Nancy and Vera respectively. Elizabeth starred in the excellent horror indie "From Within" (2008). She's blossomed into a beautiful, intelligent woman.

On the other side of the gender spectrum there's Brett Cullen (the hardened Captain), Cody Kasch (the naïve Pvt. Lewis), Darren Keefe Reiher (Lt. Maxwell) and Tino Struckmann (German Lt. Dittrich).

Bottom line, this is similar to "Saving Private Ryan" (1997) as far as the small band of Americans traversing through northern France and encountering German patrols here and there. The difference is that it includes two women in the main cast and is very much a 'B' movie (with hand-held cameras). So don't expect any Tiger tanks, demolished European cities or authentic French locations.

The film runs 1 hour, 46 minutes, and was shot in Alabama.

GRADE: B-

Very bad

[docmej-62751 · 1/10 · 28 April 2017]

I am a Vietnam era vet that loves WWII movies. This is as bad as it gets. There were no WACs serving in Northern France in the fall of 1944. The women had very inappropriate hair styles. There were no German vehicles in the movie. Some of the men had long hair. The weapons were wrong. Horrible.

Ignore the negative reviews!

[lillightjc-85500 · 8/10 · 15 May 2022]

This was a well acted, well produced and directed movie showing the heroism of WWII soldiers and medical personnel trapped behind enemy lines. The excellent photography, the background music all add to the emotion and atmosphere of the story.

Heartfelt War Drama

[rolbyh2002 · 7/10 · 7 November 2019]

A good war drama - NOT jampacked action. Don't be mislead by the poster. It follows a young soldier and his comrades as they try to get to safety in the final months of WWII in France. The presence of the army nurses made this different, and the character introspection made it a heartfelt story that I appreciated. I felt for the characters and their struggles. Pretty good WWII story.

Too many obvious errors.

[apriliajs · 2/10 · 19 June 2016]

I'm not sure how small the budget was for this but the producers could have gone to a local VFW and at least found someone to volunteer as a military technical liaison. This way the producers would have at least had some semblance of rank knowledge.

Throughout the first 15 minutes of the movie they have 2nd Lieutenants giving orders to 1st Lieutenants. They must have felt that a gold bar is superior to a silver bar. Completely unaware that a Butter Bar (2nd Lieutenant with a gold bar) is the lowest rank officer for the Army and Air Force. Warrant officers not withstanding. The 2nd Lt nurse giving orders to the 1st Lt nurse was pretty bad. The infantrymen saluting the 2nd Lt outside in a war zone. Seriously? WWII Jeeps with a one piece windshield? Never happened, not available on CJ-3A\B until the early 1950's. I couldn't get past these discrepancies and quit watching about the 20 minute mark. Had to find something more riveting to watch, like the Westminster Dog Show.

bad bad bad

[ztammuz · 2/10 · 15 September 2016]

1-I love war movies (this is why i chose to see this one)

2-This is not a war movie!

3-This is a 4th grade lousy melodrama set in a scene which does look like France after D Day

4-The Germans are all mean and sadist and as such this is the best acting in the whole movie.

5-The Americans are all flat no personality no continuity of the characters.

6-whomever was concerned that the tanks are not authentic enough is probably right it is just that the tanks are a minor minor part of the story.

6-A complete flop

Cheesy acting

[gordonangrybirds · 3/10 · 16 August 2015]

At first i thought it was a good movie until the last half. Then it got cheesy. Like it showed that that guy only put like 6 sticks of dynamite but somehow he managed to put like 100 sticks of dynamite WITHOUT even being seen by the Germans! And then when all those dynamite blew up, the Germans all started running TOWARD the explosions! Who will do that? That is suicide! And then he comes and hides behind the door without being seen! And so they escape and then a German officer spots them right?And then if it was me, i would have shot them first thing. He just stood there for like 5 minutes and then the girl shot him! And that was also cheesy. The girl shot him once and then he didn't even fall! And then she shot him like 50 times! SO at the ending. The Americans spotted the car that they stole coming. There was a big swastika flag on it so the Americans thought it was Germans. So then the American was like Germans!! So a sniper got set up right? And the American is just staring at them coming with binoculars! And the sniper didn't even fire! I would have fired at them first thing! Overall good, but very cheesy

I hate to be that guy (that gives a 1 rating)

[RudeArtAndDesign_Com · 2/10 · 3 January 2020]

So I'm going to give it a 2. Hey, maybe it gets better after the 8 minute mark.

I'm going to keep this as short as possible to save you and me time. If you are the type of person that demands verisimilitude in any piece of historical fiction don't let yourself be tempted to watch "The Last Rescue". Nothing looks or feels right, the vehicles, the tanks, the uniforms, the locales, the dialogue. This movie is a mess. (Speaking in terms of historical accuracy)

If you're anything like me and just pick apart every inaccuracy and end up spending more time counting the anachronisms than enjoying a less than mediocre piece of historical fiction do youself a favor and don't bother.

pretty OK for a popcorn evening

[klarsichtgerda · 5/10 · 7 June 2016]

I have seen most war films made and interestingly I have seen every one of these scenes, heard the dialogue before and know the story line. The 5 min opening montage nearly made me give up but I had hopes. I do not understand what happened they seem to have had a good deal of money and cast, but they just didn't do anything interesting with any of it. Cody Kash and Tino Struckmann were by far the most interesting actors in this film, had they written it with some action and let their best actors square off or team up it could have been something. I agree with other comments on the bad guy German who could not speak either German or English I speak some German and laughed out loud at his rant at that point any semblance of drama was lost. I do not understand why nobody let that pass - oh well some directors wont listen I hear.

The story is just not even interesting...

[drinkmaker · 1/10 · 26 November 2015]

The way I feel about this movie, is like a low budget Saving Private Ryan copycat. Even though this is a WWII rescue movie, you can clearly count that they've probably utilize about 20 actors that actually have a name in the movie and the rest are just filler.The few main actors has been place on their knees with a gun pointed to their head for countless times and somehow they found the nicest Nazi SS soldier in the era of times and helps them or saves them intentionally or accidentally.

The good part about this movie is, it has successfully put me to sleep without fail every single time when my fairy tail story didn't.

Watch it if you want to fall asleep.

Try's Hard and partly succeeds....

[s3276169 · 6/10 · 18 June 2015]

The Last Rescue try's very hard to make a worthwhile B grade WWII drama/action flick and partly succeeds. The storytelling is reasonable, if predictable, and the acting is actually quite good.

Where this film falls down badly is the choice of locations. Its very obviously not Europe. Worse still its not careful in its use of what is available. Houses used in the film are clearly not European, they look American. I was not surprised to find this film was shot in the USA.

Perhaps this sounds petty but misuse of locations can really ruin the sense of atmosphere that was initially well established in the opening scenes of this drama.

The Last Rescue is a reasonable effort that could have been better again with a more considered choice of locations and buildings. Six out of ten from me.

There Are Still Worse Films Out There

[ETO_Buff · 1/10 · 10 January 2019]

Every few minutes while I forced myself to watch this film, I would inadvertently say, "This is stupid." I kind of knew what I was in for when there was a slideshow during the opening credits. That's always a dead giveaway when it comes to low-budget war films and mockbusters that use re-enactors for cast members, like the SS soldiers that was about 50 pounds overweight..

The bad acting is not the worst thing, nor is the exceptionally bad dialogue. It begins with two American soldiers laying in a foxhole having a conversation while their captain, in the same hole, shoots at Germans in the open that are running toward them, followed by a couple of concentration camp guard officers (SS Death's Head Brigade) leading a group of soldiers and a tank overrun a field surgical hospital that is in an obviously unsecured area on the front line for some reason. There are just so many things wrong with this film just in the first 30 minutes that this review would take a very long time if I listed everything. Nevertheless, I can't resist mentioning a few things:

The SS officer that shoots an American surgeon who won't discontinue closing up the wound of a patient on the table, then allows a nurse, who is calmly standing at the surgical table, to finish closing the patient's wound, is just one example of how bad the script is for this one. Then there's the SS officer that surrenders after shooting three Americans in a firefight, but isn't shot by the surviving Americans. Of course I can't forget about the late 20th century house in France.

It just continues on these lines until the final, utterly ridiculous scene, the last 10 seconds of which made me burst out laughing. Watching this film is a complete waste of time for anyone who is not trying to learn how to make a really bad film.

ENTERTAINING

[grahamvr · 8/10 · 26 July 2022]

As one reviewer said women did not serve in combat, so if this is the case what happened to the Army nurses who had to escape and fight for their lives? As for their hair not being right..... are you going to worry about your hair when trying to save your life?

So it was shot in Alabama, what difference does it make. Have the reviewers who said it looks nothing like Northern France ever been there? There is a lot of area to cover asI have been there bout certainly did not see it all. Many movies are set somewhere and shot in a different place.

Get over it people and watch a movie for entertainment not to judge every little piece of it. I thoroughly enjoyed this story even if it was fictional. Similar events did happen in this war. The acting was pretty good and showed the horrors of war that many young men had to endure.

Thanks Amazon Prime for including it in your library.

More good than bad in this war movie

[drystyx · 7/10 · 31 August 2022]

This war movie has a motif, which explains the way it is written and directed.

The motif is the apparent necessity to abandon humanity in combat situations.

However, we get an ironic twist on that in the end.

Two things a lot of the "Hollywood formula" lovers won't like. First, the lack of the contrived negativity in which bullets can only find characters with which you can relate. Here, it's more of a "the cards fall where the cards fall". Nothing is contrived. It has a very natural effect, and is totally iconoclastic to what has been the Hollywood formula since the mid 1960s.

Second, a lot of people won't like the low budget look, although it isn't a terribly low budget look. The movie just operates more on the principle of characters and motivations than on special effects. And that is what makes this a good war movie.

Honestly it's box art.

[dyzpgxb · 3/10 · 6 June 2020]

I got this for my birthday and thank the lord it was only 5 or ten dollars. On the case it looks interesting but it has neither a Panzer 3 or an easy eight. Poor acting, okish uniforms (don't know uniforms), the environment looks like my back yard in most cases and areas I've been (in SC USA). Honestly if it had cost more than 10 dollars I'd pay the person back as the box looks very neat and very well put together however if it had lived up to it I wouldn't be here I would be enjoying it.

AVOID

[jamesharringtondes · 3/10 · 31 May 2018]

One watching this movie has to wonder why money was spent creating it. The truck early in the movie could have been used to travel. Actors seem to be walking in the direction the truck was going, i.e., further behind enemy lines. You will instantly see good ol Zach from "Desp Hswv"--never letting any viewer down, Zach is still a downer kind of man.Always troubled by ...something. The two nurses eventually let their hair down once ensconced in a come-by house. Here is where the movie goes to sleep. Watching this on Roku there is a commercial every five minutes. Hooray. Time to retire and do something meaningful like sleep through this hazard to your mental health.