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Released on Christmas Day, and directed by the one-and-only Steven Spielberg, this feel
good war-epic stars Jeremy Irvine as a young Briton who falls in love with a plucky thoroughbred
horse named Joey, who can seemingly do everything. When World War I breaks out, Joey is sold
to the army, and drifts from person to person during the war, going from one battlefield
to the next, with his wishful owner hoping he'll someday return. [CLIP] It is a simple,
and kid-friendly story about the love of a pet that transcends all boundaries, which
is why it's unfortunate this plot-thread is seemingly abandoned for the entire middle
act as Joey's owner is nowhere to be found. As expected though, the film is expertly direct
and filmed by Spielberg, who makes full use of the European countryside both before and
during the first great war. The acting is sufficient here, but sometimes approaches
soap-opera levels of scenery-chewing. Besides a clever scene between enemies who cease warfare
to help the injured Joey stuck in the barbed wire of No Man's Land - nothing particularly
amazing or surprising ever occurs in this film. Joey the horse is seen as an underdog
from the start, but that never stops him from constantly impressing the doubtful humans
taking care of him, whether it's the German army, or a small French girl who finds him
in a windmill. This is a fun, and delightful movie that plays everything by the book, and
never makes any missteps - but with a predictable ending, this film sorely lacks any real suspense
or consequence, and fails to really achieve a true level of greatness. "Warhorse", an
"Heavy-handed inspiration of wartime". Those are my thoughts, now let's take a look at
some of yours from the YouTube comments.
For the last time tonight, here's the Rate-O-Matic to score "War Horse", a SEVEN and a NINE.
You loved this film presentation and inspirational message, you scored it an "awesome". While
I appreciated everything this film accomplished, it never really impressed me - I thought it
was "cool".