Review of 5 Days of War (2011) by Lee S — 08 Oct 2011

This film has fascinating subject matter and important underlying themes. It suffers, however, from descending into silly action movie cliches which severely hamper its claims to seriousness and it never fully delivers on its promise.

Nonetheless it is beautifully shot and its small budget seldom shows with some scenes looking rather epic. It would have benefited greatly from a slowed down pace and perhaps an expanded role given to Andy Garcia as Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President.

And of course after the third or so improbable last second escape it loses its capacity to really hook the audience. All in all a fine film, but in the ranks of war-zone correspondent films, this is no 'The Killing Fields'.