A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

At times its like watching an amdram u tube home made affair, in others its top rank .just give it a go .. over all its not wasted time .

Apart from the model aircraft used, for example the three ME 109s strafing and bombing at the start and the burning bomber with a whole wing on fire - then it's not too bad a movie.The combat action scenes and the acting I thought were very good. The locations were excellent and there were quite a few twists and turns of the plot in that one never knew what might happen next. Or who, if anyone was going to get away safely to Sweden. One thing I didn't think rang true and realistic was those of the survivors reaching the Swedish border, then acting as though it was just a simple walk across the border. There were always German guards patrolling the border, looking out for escapees and others trying to get into Sweden.

I am always up for a good World War II "men on a mission" movie. Emphasis on "good". This British production is quite lacking in a number of areas that at the end make the movie overall unsatisfying. The first flaw is the budget. I realize that this didn't have a Hollywood budget, and I did see that the production squeezed every last penny they had, but much of the movie looks kind of skimpy. But the movie could still have worked had it not been for the next problem - much of the movie is not exciting. After the opening action sequence, it takes forever for the next true action scene to come along. And the footage between is not very interesting - it's lacking a sense of humor, colorful characters, and original situations. Things do pick up a little in the second half of the movie due to some nice scenery and some okay action, but this material is too little and too late. While the movie isn't actively bad, it's more often than not bland, and even Brits in the audience with an interest in World War II will likely grow weary with the movie some time before the end credits start rolling.

Why? That's what I want to know. Why does a talent like Bean sign up to a piece of half baked tripe like this? Why make yet another formulaic war film the likes we've seen a hundred times before? Why did I sit through this thing to the very, very disappointing end? Why,why,why? These are some of the questions that you can ask yourself If you sit down to watch "Age of Heroes" but I don't recommend it. The story is the standard: a bunch of "Heroes" are dropped into enemy territory, Steal/destroy something and get out again, the end. That's OK I suppose but it's just so underdeveloped in both story line and the characters that by the end you're left scratching your head thinking WTF. The only fun you'll have is laughing at the many clichés that riddle the movie. Ever seen a hard arsed sergeant major type whose really a great guy underneath? What about an unlikely hero whose doubted at first but eventually shows his true metal? You might also be familiar with the one dimensional psychopathic German soldier, smiling as he shoots civilian prisoners? And believe me there are many, many more. And then there's the ending. This is how I imagine the ending of this film was formulated: Producer: "What're we gonna do we've run out of money and we haven't finished the film yet?"Director: "Mmmmm, no problem we just say instead of a boat picking them up they have to walk to Sweden. They can walk around on a snowy hill for a while, stop and point into the distance and say 'that's Sweden', the end."Producer: "Brilliant!"A very poor end to a very poor film yes, but at least it's over and you can get on with your life. And as for Mr Bean, read the bloody script before you say yes, surely you can't need the money that badly.