Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

Bursting in with as much subtlety as an Independence Day parade, comes Mel Gibson's Hacksaw ridge. A war movie that is Brutal, Excessive but definitely powerful.
Based on a true story the film follows a really interesting  real life character played by Andrew Garfield who does a really great performance in a somewhat similar role to what he plays in Silence. The drama is also strong and the films emotional moments hit quite hard, one of the things that really makes the film standout though are it's incredible sequences on the battlefield. The way it thrusts us into the heat of war creates a harsh, chaotic and intense experience. It's chock full of gory moments and action in excess that are shocking but also somewhat perversely satisfies those of us that enjoy a bit of bloody action even with its real life context. These sequences are ripe with tension and backed up by some great camerawork, editing and sound.
The rest of the movie is also very good and there are strong performances from all the rest of the cast. It is all very on the nose and there is a strong sense of patriotism running through it, but it never detracts from the viewing experience and overall this is just a really great war movie. ****

Eye In The Sky (2016)

Here's a thriller about military personnel debating about a drone strike that was a lot better than I'd thought it be. In fact it is actually really good and probably one of the best modern warfare based films I've seen. Is it heavy handed? yes, but it is also tense and very engaging especially for a film that is mainly just people debating and arguing. It has solid performances from a good cast that includes Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul and Alan Rickman in his last (live action) film role. It displays the different arguments whether political, legal or personal to do with the films proposed drone strike and ultimately creates a discussion for the audience about this serious issue, though the film does clearly have a bias at the end.Overall though this was a really solid, that I enjoyed considerably. ***1/2