Rating: 
Summary: Are there holes in the road ahead?
Review: This is a movie that tells the tale of Czech fighter pilots during WWII. The movie opens prior to France and England giving Czechoslovakia to the Germans and we get to see the tension of the people. The main character (Franta Slama) training some pilots. With the capture of Czechoslovakia, the Franta and his best student leave for Poland (the movie skips over Poland and France to get us to England). In England, we get to see the Czech's being taught English (something that the air controllers had a real problem with the Czech and Polish pilots with) and demonstrating their use of English thru mock intercepts while riding bicycles (very funny because the bikes had mock wings and a transmitter on them!). Later we get to see some aerial combat between the Czech's and Germans (some of the best aerial combat I've seen. They had Spits, He-111's, and Me-109's, I believe the 109's were actually late war ones though). The movie does have a love story and does a good job with it. What's arguably the best piece of the movie though is that all of this is told as a dream because Franta is in a forced labor camp in Czechoslovakia (Czech troops who fought for the Western Allies that came home were put into forced labor camps to let the Communist take control of the country). This movie is VERY GOOD (really 4.5 stars, unfortunetly, Amazon won't let us use half stars!) Watch this one!
Rating: 
Summary: War, flying and romance combined - this time perfectly!
Review: This is a must-see film for everyone. Jan Sverak (Academy Award winner for "Kolya") again shows his skills and excellence - no wonder he is called "smaller budget Spielberg". But don't be mistaken, this is byfar the most expensive movie project done in this country EVER.Dark Blue World is a movie about Czechoslovak fighter pilots in World War 2, who escaped to Britain to continue their fight against Hitler, after German army has occupied their country. It is a story of war, friendship, love, and the cruelty of fortune, wonderfully entwined to produce a fantastic film. The film is a great drama, yet contains a lot of Sverak's humanity and humor at the same time... Among other things Dark Blue World is arguably the best World War 2 aviation movie I've seen - the aircraft are beautiful, historical background well-researched, and most of all air combat scenes are thrilling but very realistic (modern computer graphics possibilities finally allow these things to be done, and this movie avoided all of the "comic book" effects that todays' directors often get dragged into - see Pearl Harobr). What is really good though is that you can take your girlfriend or wife with you, and she will enjoy herself as well! Finally few important things to mention: For all its seeming similarity to Pearl Harbor, this is a much, much better movie.
Considering that roughly one third of dialogues in this movie are in English, it isn't really a typical "strange foreign subtitled movie", either...
And finally DVD features many excellent extras, including an excellent "The Filming Of" documentary, storyboards, edited scenes, documentary about special effects, and others - lots of goodies.
Be it whether you liked Pearl Harbor or were disappointed by it, this is a film you should see. Do get this DVD, you won't regret it... or even better, go see it in a movie theatre before you buy it, while you can!
Rating:
Summary: It works.
Review: This movie is not a great war film, and it is not a great love story. It is oversentimental and ridden with cliches...but it works. It is a very well done movie and I found it to be very moving. The special effects are extremely well done, but this is not a story about air battles (Battle of Britain is a movie about air battles) and it is not a story about pilots (Piece of Cake is a movie about pilots in war). This is a story about about a person who looses everything because of a war. Extremely well acted and a moving story. Don't expect a war movie though, war is the back drop of this story.
Rating:
Summary: Alot deeper than Peral Harbor
Review: This movie is what Peral Harbor should have been. With a budget of six million dollars compared to Peral Harbors 150 million this movie drove cricles around Peral Harbor. The sybolism and the acting was much more adavanced than the Hollywood specail effects. You get a whole different feel to world war two that things just blwoing up. This movie clearly displays the courage that rises up in someone during war. If you haven't seen a good world war two movie since Saving Private Ryan, then this will make up for all the bad ones that you may have witnessed.
Rating:
Summary: Tmavomodry Svet a Czech wonder
Review: Tmavomodry Svet (Dark Blue World) contrary to several reviews in the Czech Republic, is a wonderful blend of war, romance, and history. (This is one you can take your significant other to - male or female.) Best viewed in its original subtitled format, I highly recommend this film to movie goers this Holiday Season. I've been looking forward to its release in the U.S. after my return from the Czech Republic and am already a proud owner of the soundtrack which certainly rivals the soundtracks of our American composers. Don't be afraid of its Czech roots and history, Tmavomodry Svet shows what those of us who have lived there know . . . the Czech Republic has a lot to be proud of and is not the "third world country" many people imagine.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Movie
Review: Well I saw it at a theatre that plays foriegn films a while back. I've been waiting ever since for it to come out on video. Why? 1) Better action than Pearl Harbor (which I thought was a weak movie, action wise) 2) More realistic. I can count the amount of times I knew it was computer generated stuff on one hand. 3) Excellent plot. 4) The ending. I don't want to ruine it, but it sure as heck isn't as predictable as Pearl Harbor. This ending actually brought tears to my eyes, and revealed a message of how deep frendship goes.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasantly schmaltzy WWII period piece
Review: When DARK BLUE WORLD begins in 1950, we find Czech citizen Frantisek Slama imprisoned by his country's Communist regime for having fought with the Royal Air Force during World War II. Slama becomes seriously ill and is transferred to the prison's hospital ward, where he comes under the care of the resident physician, also a prisoner, who's formerly of the Nazi SS. Though Frantisek spent the war fighting Germans, the two men develop a relationship based on a respect of sorts, and Slama relates his war experiences. The film, co-produced by the Germans and Czechs, is essentially a sequence of long flashbacks in which Frantisek, a Czech air force officer in 1939 when the Germans occupied his country, tells how he and a student pilot, his friend Karel Vojtisek, flee to England to campaign on with the RAF. While there, and between aerial dogfights with the enemy, our heroes' friendship is tested by a local Englishwoman, Susan, whose husband with the Royal Navy has conveniently gone missing for a year. (I mean, isn't it always some dame that complicates a good friendship! When was the last time you saw on the silver screen two Real Men fight over a prized hunting dog, a lovingly restored '57 Chevy, or what beer to drink while watching the Big Game?) The general theme of DARK BLUE WORLD (2 square-jawed male pals, lots of planes and explosions, and one Babe) reminds one of PEARL HARBOR, though the epic stage of the latter rendered the love story almost irritating for its presence. (Wasn't the whole purpose of the attack on PH to bomb the threesome into oblivion? Even the Japanese were apparently annoyed.) On the other hand, DARK BLUE WORLD brings all the elements of the story - the combat, the male bonding, and the boy-girl mushy stuff - down to a smaller, more manageable, and therefore more acceptable scale. The principal actors of the film (Ondrej Vetchý as Frantisek, Krystof Hádek as Karel, Tara Fitzgerald as Susan) all create sympathetic characters that should be attractive to the audience. The air combat scenes are well done with aircraft models and several lovingly preserved Spitfires. Above all, DARK BLUE WORLD perhaps captures more than just a little of the flavor of the Battle of Britain and the camaraderie of military men, whether they were Czechs, Poles or Frenchman, who fought from foreign soil to liberate their Nazi-occupied homelands.
Rating:
Summary: Auctung! Czech Spitfires!
Review: While not a great movie, I would call this Czech entry very good and unique. The dogfight scenes are quite good, and for a change our heros don't shot down the whole Luftwaffle; but I still did not find the scenes any better than the old classic "Battle of Britain" movie from the 1960s. It would have been nice to see some different German aircraft besides HE 111s. Since it seems they were using computer generated aircraft for the special effects it seems they could have included some JU 88s or ME 110s for variety sake. Of course this is just a minor point and does not take away from the quality of the story. The saga of Czechs, Poles and others who fought in the RAF or in the British army deserves to be told as it is an aspect of WW2 that is not well covered. So much has been done on WW2 that anything different is welcomed! Overall a very good foriegn movie, without any of the over the top Hollywood stuff that often trivilizes the subject. Deffinitely a good war/romance epic that both male and female viewers can get into. The DVD has some nice behind the scenes features that enhance the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Auctung! Czech Spitfires!
Review: While not a great movie, I would call this Czech entry very good and unique. The dogfight scenes are quite good, and for a change our heros don't shot down the whole Luftwaffle; but I still did not find the scenes any better than the old classic "Battle of Britain" movie from the 1960s. It would have been nice to see some different German aircraft besides HE 111s. Since it seems they were using computer generated aircraft for the special effects it seems they could have included some JU 88s or ME 110s for variety sake. Of course this is just a minor point and does not take away from the quality of the story. The saga of Czechs, Poles and others who fought in the RAF or in the British army deserves to be told as it is an aspect of WW2 that is not well covered. So much has been done on WW2 that anything different is welcomed! Overall a very good foriegn movie, without any of the over the top Hollywood stuff that often trivilizes the subject. Deffinitely a good war/romance epic that both male and female viewers can get into. The DVD has some nice behind the scenes features that enhance the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Blue Masterpiece
Review: Years ago I collected and read many of the "Bantam War Book" Series. Each was a non-fictional first-hand personal story about "A World On Fire" - World War II. I was especially fascinated by the RAF pilots and their incredible Battle of Britain stories. They were extraordinary men, like Douglas Bader, Stanford Tuck, and Pierre Clostermann - the brave Frenchman who, like the heroes in "Dark Blue World," fled his occupied homeland to fight for the RAF. This movie is an undiscovered gem - resurrecting, again, the emotions of authenticity those books once evoked. While many films are ABOUT other times, this one seems like an actual peak into the past.
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