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Image via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
War movies are some of the oldest movies in cinema, with some being over 100 years old. The primary purpose is to showcase the great or gritty areas of war, especially wars long past, bringing the conflicts to the audience so that they may never forget the sacrifice that many of these soldiers went through. It's a genre that's hard to master, but so long as the filmmakers keep it respectful and engaging, it's hard to mess up, too. Or at least, you'd think it would be.
Indeed, there have been many war movies, even in the last two and a half decades or so, which have missed the mark completely, falling flat on their faces and destroying any and all prospects that they initially had. These are the worst war movies of the last 25 years, which take some of the most cherished stories of real-life heroes, and jumble them all up until they are only shadows of what they could have been.
11 'Company of Heroes' (2013)
Directed by Don Michael Paul
Image via Sony Even the distributors of Company of Heroes knew there was little hope for it, because it only came as a direct-to-video release, and never came out in theatres. If the name sounds familiar, that's because it's based on the real-time strategy video game of the same name. When it comes to film, video game adaptations are usually disasters, so there was next to no prospect for this movie right out of the gates.
The main problem is that it deviated too far from its source. The game is presented with an overhead perspective, allowing players to glimpse the scale of large battles from above, whereas the movie had too small of a budget, diminishing its ability to show the sweeping action and ravaged landscape. For fans of the games, this movie was never that hyped up, and fizzled out like a fart in the wind, passing into obscurity, where it belongs.
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Company of Heroes
Release Date February 25, 2013
Director Don Michael Paul
Runtime 100 minutes
10 'Windtalkers' (2002)
Directed by John Woo
Image via MGM Distribution Co. War films are generally supposed to be serious affairs. So one thing that filmmakers should really avoid doing is hiring actors that are super "out there" in their performances, like, say, Nicolas Cage, for example. Another bad idea is to have a war film directed by a film director who is known for their crazy over-the-top action flicks and suspending disbelief, such as, say, John Woo. But it turns out somebody didn't get the memo, because Windtalkers features the talent of both of these individuals.
Look, both the actor and the director can be perfectly fine in the right context, but this? This wasn't it. It was also a little degrading because the title and the plot all centre on Navajo Code Talkers, but the primary focus of the movie is Cage's character, when it really shouldn't be. For every thing this movie did right, like its impressive stunts, it did about ten things wrong, resulting in a sloppy mess of a war film that very few appreciated.
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Windtalkers
Release Date June 14, 2002
Runtime 134
9 'Pearl Harbor' (2001)
Directed by Michael Bay
Image via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution After James Cameron's 1997 disaster-romance movie Titanic became the highest-grossing movie ever made at the time, there were a lot of other films that wanted to get in on the action. One of these copycat productions was Pearl Harbor, directed by Michael Bay. Bay is perhaps best known for his action movies, definitely not his romance films, so this was already a step in the wrong direction.
What resulted is a film about America's first battle in the Second World War that was downright insulting. The pilots in the film cheated on their exams, performed daredevil stunts, and made the American military look like a bunch of undisciplined freeloaders. The romance plotline didn't make any sense, the movie has a twist that is way too predictable, and above all, it was boring, cheesy, and demeaning when it came to its portrayal of the American armed forces.
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Pearl Harbor
Release Date May 21, 2001
Runtime 3h 3m
8 'The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc' (1999)
Directed by Luc Besson
Image via Colombia Pictures The main problem with The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, aside from its overly-long and clunky title, is one major historical innacuracy. See, the film really tried to be a medieval action flick, but they got one thing wrong: the real Saint Joan of Arc never actually used a sword to kill people or fight. Instead, she would carry a flag, leading soldiers into battle, but rarely ever participating in the carnage herself.
The heroine of the Hundred Years' War, played by Milla Jovovich, is pretty dumbed down in this lackluster movie, as is pretty much everything else. It got to the point where one of the most interesting women in history felt completely boring by the end, which is certainly not doing the real heroine any justice. There are just better medieval combat movies to watch, ones that are way more accurate, coherent, and exciting.
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The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
Release Date October 27, 1999
Runtime 158 minutes
7 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' (2001)
Directed by John Madden
Image via Universal Pictures Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a war drama based on a novel of the same name by Louis de Bernières. Or at least, it says it is, but anyone who's actually read the book likely won't recognize it because of how different it is. Oh, and it stars Nicolas Cage again, whose performance kind of makes the drama even more dramatic than it should be.
Granted, there were a couple of chords that the movie struck right. For one, the cinematography is absolutely stunning, showcasing the natural beauty of the Greek Isles. But that's by far the best aspect about it, because the awkward and cringy dialogue is really jarring, and the pacing is way too fast for any drama movie. It's not an awful movie, but it certainly isn't average or even that good.
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Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Release Date April 18, 2001
Director John Madden
Runtime 131 minutes
6 'Jarhead 2: Field of Fire' (2014)
Directed by Don Michael Paul
Image via UFO International Productions The original Jarhead movie is based on a memoir by Anthony Swofford, who wrote about his time serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Gulf War. The original film wasn't the worst thing ever, in fact it wasn't bad at all. It's nothing amazing or life-changing, but it is enjoyable enough. But it should have stopped there. Typically, memoir movies don't get sequels, but that's exactly what happened with this one.
Jarhead 2: Field of Fire took everything bad about the first one and increased it tenfold, creating a brand new, made up story that was as illogical as it was improbable. The worst part is, this is the first of three sequels that were made, all of which were terrible, but this one is by far the worst. The three sequels were direct-to-video releases, and bombed with critics, to the surprise of absolutely no one considering how far removed it was from the original.
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Jarhead 2: Field of Fire
Release Date August 14, 2014
Director Don Michael Paul
Runtime 103
5 'USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage' (2016)
Directed by Mario van Peebles
Image via Saban Films For the third time, putting an eccentric actor like Nicolas Cage in what is a very serious genre is usually not a good idea, not unless you're actively trying to go for a comedy film. With USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, it's not quite clear what the director was going for, because it takes itself way too seriously at times, and at others, it's (unintentionally) hilarious.
The movie came out in 2016, but looks like it came out in the 90s with its atrocious special effects and overall bad production quality. Its script is clumsy and feels cobbled-together, not at all doing justice to the real deeds of Allied sailors during World War II. There are so many better naval warfare movies out there that don't feel like tacky attempts at comedy, whether by accident or on purpose.
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USS Indianapolis
Release Date September 22, 2016
Director Mario Van Peebles
Runtime 128
4 'Alexander' (2004)
Directed by Oliver Stone
Director Oliver Stone actually has a fairly impressive repertoire, which makes his abysmal swords-and-sandals epic Alexander hurt even more. The movie was supposed to be an astounding epic war movie starring Collin Farrell as the Macedonian King, Alexander the Great, in his various conquests and feas in battle. What resulted, though, was a horrid, sloppy mess full to the brim with clichés.
Alexander really loved making sure all the duller parts of the King's life were spot on, while the more exciting parts were secondary and very improbable
One of the main problems is that is was very concerned with historical accuracy, but not in the right way. It really loved making sure all the duller parts of the King's life were spot on, while the more exciting parts were secondary and very improbable. Historical value, or lack thereof aside, the entire film is dry and snore-inducing, and turns one of history's most famed rulers and conquerors into a laughing stock of cinema.
3 'Sniper: Special Ops' (2016)
Directed by Fred Olen Ray
Image via Lionsgate Sniper: Special Ops is a movie that is completely unrelated to the long-running Sniper series of films. Although, truth be told, even that franchise is pretty subpar. At first, this one sounds fine. It's an action movie starring Steven Seagal, an already-established action hero. How bad could it possibly be? Very bad apparently. In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to say it might be one of the worst action movies ever made.
Ideally, action movies are supposed to be thrilling and exciting, and aren't really supposed to feature the main protagonist sitting in a bloody chair for hours and doing absolutely nothing. Even the parts where he actually fires his rifle are extremely underwhelming, and are interspersed with Seagal's cynical grumbling about people. Funnily enough though, this movie does capture the essence of being a real sniper, in the sense that real snipers spend much of their time sitting around and waiting for things to happen, and can often grow bored out of their mind. But this immersion is more of a curse than a blessing.
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Sniper: Special Ops
Release Date April 3, 2016
Director Fred Olen Ray
Cast steven seagal , Tim Abell , Rob Szatkowski , Dale Dye , Charlene Amoia , Jason-Shane Scott , Daniel Booko , Anthony Batarse , Gerald Webb , Jeff Bosley , Matthew Anderson , Paul Logan , John Henry Richardson , Rita Khori , Jim Poole , Shary Nassimi , Scott Thomas Reynolds , J Ferguson , Rydell Danzie , Trevor Scott , Brad Monclova
Runtime 84 minutes
2 'Air Strike' (2018)
Directed by Xiao Feng
Air Strike was a film that was intended to be a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. However, it went through development hell while filming, and unfortunately, it did not come out of this rough patch for the better. Initially, all seemed well. It was a Chinese film that would be about the Second SIno-Japanese war, which began before the Second World War, but was sort of swallowed up by it, becoming a part of the larger conflict. It's an overlooked conflict rich in heroic stories and great moments. Plus, this one boasted an appearance by Hollywood actor Bruce Willis. Sounds great, right?
Well, it wasn't. The whole thing felt like the ridiculous B-movie that it was, with terrible editing, an incoherent chain of events, bad action, no consistency, and playing into every tired and overused cliché that has ever appeared in the war movie genre. It really could have told a good story, if it even bothered to actually tell it instead of doing... whatever it was trying to do. It fails in just about every aspect, and earned a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which makes it the worst war movie of the last 25 years, and there's no doubt about it.
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