Echoes of War (2015) Reviews

• Banal and boring beyond belief.

  sxswguy2015-04-26

  Sitting through the entirety of Echoes of War was a difficult task, to say the least. I guess I was expecting something else, something totally different, something entertaining. It reminded me of sitting through one of those educational films in high school history or science class. You want to watch it because you're hoping to learn something (in this case be drawn in by a compelling story), but you end up with heavy eyelids and your mind drifting off thinking about whether you want a Big Mac or a Whopper when the bell rings or final credits come up. If I'm going to be expected to sit through a slow burn drama like this, it damn well better be captivating with staggering performances. Echoes of War had neither. I think James Badge Dale and William Forseythe are decent actors and did a fair job considering what they had to work with, but the material was simply too sub-par to expect anything more from them. The characters are one-dimensional and predictable. Difficult to tell if you can fault the direction on this or not. Sometimes even when you have a great director at the helm of a slow, deliberate drama, it can still fall flat and fail to move an audience. The other problem I had with this film was the score became slightly distracting at times. I gave this a rating of 3 only because I'm a fan of the Western genre, but if you're forced to watch this thing, I suggest you suck down 10 cups of coffee beforehand.

• #Bogus user reviews from the filmmakers?

  uta-496332015-04-30

  When you have made a film as inept as Echoes of War is, perhaps the only way to try and persuade anyone to take a chance on watching it is to post bogus user reviews about it. Case in point: read some of the user reviews with 9 & 10 star ratings and it is glaringly apparent that someone involved in the film has composed them in an effort to hoodwink filmgoers. I mean come on, comparing the director Kane Senes to Clint Eastwood? Really? I think not! Regarding this film, save your cash for a Lone Ranger marathon. The dialog in this was contrived, the scenes as predictable as a TV-movie, and yet the biggest sin was its dull premise with talking heads you don't really care too much about. Who do you blame for a film like this? The actors for not delivering stellar performances, the writers for a flawed script, or the director for not getting the right delivery out of an actor? In this case you can't really blame the cast even though the performances for the most part were non-riveting. The fault lies squarely in the writing which was lame, plus the direction screams inexperience. Putting bodies in period costumes doesn't make a film a Western. And it DEFINITELY DOESN'T make you comparable to Mr. Eastwood!

• Echoes of Bore

  austinlimits2015-05-07

  If you see one film this year, make sure it's NOT this one...unless you're in need of some shut-eye. In fact, if you see dozens of films this year, your time would best be spent doing anything else than watching this dreadful piece of garbage. Holy crap, the fellas who made this are clueless when it comes to storytelling. Dull and excruciatingly slow doesn't even begin to describe this regurgitated Hatfield & McCoy-type story. There's no tension or real drama, the plot is as bland as unseasoned potatoes, the acting is nothing to write home about, the music is downright annoying, the photography is, well...meh, The whole stinking thing is plain awful. As a matter of fact, to call this awful is actually an insult to awful films. Rating this 2 stars out of 10.

• Some films should never be made...

  lonestarsinger2015-04-22

  ...and unfortunately, this is one of them. Where does one even begin with this debacle? Let's start with the dialogue: OMG, people during the Civil War era didn't speak like the way the writers of this have written the characters. That immediately erased any suspension of disbelief. Next, the performances weren't terrible, but they weren't great either. A really deft cast might have been able to improvise the poorly written dialogue to elevate the film and their performances, but instead we are left with characters sounding almost like the way people in today's society would speak. Cinematography was okay for the most part but became a bit self-indulgent for the worse at a few points. The movie crawls along and is sabotaged by it's sluggish pacing. This film could have easily been a 60-70 minute film instead of a drawn-out 100 minute yawner. The overall story suffers from a complete lack of originality and consequently fails to really draw in the viewer. There are a few scenes that work, but the majority of them in this film are pointless and somewhat incoherent. If you value your time, you might want to avoid this one.

• One of the dullest Westerns ever

  DallasCinefile2015-04-17

  Lord almighty, I don't know what this filmmaker was trying to accomplish with this thing, but it was so incredibly boring. I was hoping this was going to be more interesting, but the pace was excruciatingly slow and the story not at all compelling. There was nothing in the way of performances to get excited about and the production value looked really chintzy. Doing a period piece in general is challenging enough, but doing a Western without stars or a seasoned director is a tall order certainly not filled by this effort. Unfortunately there is nothing I can recommend about Echoes of War other than it should be avoided if you value your time. Truly one of the dullest Westerns, if not films, I've ever seen. Zzz...