Dunkirk

Yeah, surprised me, too. But it turns out that the Bad Cat, apparently, is not a "moggie." Hence, patriotic exercises masquerading as a movie have little positive effect here. This is another example of "Saving Private Ryan" syndrome: "Let me throw a pastiche of combat scenes at you, which don't have any particular thread running through them other than their particular circumstance, and then I'll sit back and listen to your applause. Because, you know, War. And stuff." Narrative barely exists here; mostly, it's just an exercise in two hours of watching British guys sitting around looking mopey. And while certain creative liberties are to be expected in any movie, particularly a history of war flick, some of the license here borders on ridiculous. Day turns to night and then immediately back to day--the same day, apparently--again and again. And I'm pretty sure the same plane was shot down three different times. The movie drags, there seems to be little point (beyond setting up a Churchill oration book report), and the smart viewer's attention wavers to wondering how badly the British armed forces screwed up in allowing the situation to happen (and how incompetent the Nazis were in letting them get away). A major, major disappointment.