Edward Berger’s German remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, now in theatres, is simultaneously streaming on Netflix where I viewed it.

Although it is well made, it is unlikely to have the impact of Lewis Milestone’s Oscar-winning 1930 version of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, which follows a group of seven recent high school graduates who enlist in the Kaiser’s army during World War I. That version was released at a time when veterans of the senseless 1914-1918 war were still alive and suffering through the Great Depression.

In the new version, the group of seven is reduced to four. Unlike Lew Ayres in the original version, once in the fight, the protagonist, now played by Felix Kammerer, does not go home on leave in which he is welcomed with open arms. The only scenes away from the front are the newly interjected ones of the negotiations between the Germans, led by Daniel Bruhl, and their French counterparts.

In that respect, it has more in common with G.W. Pabst’s 1930 film Westfront 1918 in which the somewhat older protagonist (Gustav Diessl) goes home on leave only to find his mother waiting in line for a loaf of bread and his wife in bed with the landlord. The film is absorbing but unrelentingly bleak as is the new version of All Quiet on the Western Front.

Other recent films about World War I such as 2011’s War Horse, 2017’s British remake of 1930’s Journey’s End, and 2019’s 1917, have also been overwhelmingly bleak and sad but offered compensation in other areas. War Horse looked at the war from a different perspective. Journey’s End provided audiences with a film version of R.C. Sherriff’s novel and oft revived play that was readily available unlike James Whale’s brilliant but difficult to find earlier version.

Like those three films, the new version of All Quiet on the Western Front is beautifully photographed, but unlike those, it is highly manipulative, laying on its anti-war message a bit thicker than necessary. The ending in this version is not the beautifully rendered tender one in which the protagonist is shot and killed while reaching out for a butterfly. It hammers home its point by killing him off at the exact moment that the armistice goes into effect on the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day.

A likely Oscar nominee for Best International Film, I don’t see it getting a lot of Oscar love beyond that, although Best Cinematography wouldn’t be undeserved.

Michael Grandage’s My Policeman, based on Bethan Roberts’ 2012 novel, has also been simultaneously released in theatres and on streaming, this one via Amazon Prime Video, which is where I viewed it.

The film opens in 1997 Brighton where Gina McKee (Phantom Thread) is seen welcoming stroke victim Rupert Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding) into her home to the chagrin of her husband, Linus Roache (Priest). We are then transposed to forty years earlier, where McKee’s character is now played by Emma Corrin (Princess Di in seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown), Roache’s by Harry Styles (Don’t Worry Darling), and Everett’s by David Dawson (TV’s Ripper Street).

In 1957, Dawson is a closeted gay museum curator, allegedly based on writer E.M. Forster (Howards End), who is attracted to a handsome young policeman (Styles) who he calls “my policeman”. Corrin is a naïve schoolteacher who falls in love with Styles, not aware of his developing relationship with Dawson. Eventually, Corrin will become aware of the relationship, Dawson will be arrested on charges of indecency, put on trial, and jailed. He will suffer beatings both in jail and out of it, eventually leading to his stroke.

Back in 1997, McKee tries her best to bring Roache and the dying Everett back to together but doesn’t succeed until the big reveal which comes as more of a validation of the audience’s suspicions than a real surprise.

It’s well done and worth a viewing, but I don’t see it getting anywhere near major year-end awards recognition.

More to my liking was Firebird, also currently streaming on Prime, which is also based on a true story about two men and a woman.

Co-written and co-produced by British actor Tom Prior (The Theory of Everything), Firebird is based on The Story of Roman by Sergey Festisov (1952-2017).

Prior plays a fictionalized version of soldier-turned-actor Sergey who has an affair with Soviet pilot Roman, played by Ukrainian actor Oleg Sagorodnii, while his female admirer and fellow soldier Luisa, played by Russian actress Diana Pozharskaya, is also drawn to the pilot.

Taking place in Soviet occupied Estonia, and later in Moscow, in the 1970s, when homosexual affairs were not only frowned upon but led to degradation and shame as well as incarceration, it is wonderfully acted by the three leads with a strong supporting cast. It also has an ending that you won’t see coming and won’t fully understand unless you watch the final scene which comes at the end of the credits.

I don’t see this one, given a limited theatrical release earlier this year, receiving a lot of awards recognition either, but it did pick up some awards when it made the festival circuit in 2021. It’s certainly worth a viewing.

On the collection front, Top Gun: Maverick is now available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD.

This sequel to the 1986 box-office hit, Top Gun, proved to be an even bigger box-office sensation. As of this writing, it is the year’s biggest hit. Does it live up to the hype? Yes and no.

Although exceptionally well done, there is nothing new here. It’s essentially the same military service story that has been around for as long as there have been movies about the older guy (Tom Cruise reprising his role from nearly forty years ago) inspiring the younger ones. Cruise, who performed most if not all his stunts, is more amazing than ever even if his life-defying feats also defy credulity.

Also defying credulity is the principal younger guy, played by Miles Teller. He is the son of Cruise’s wingman (Anthony Edwards) from the earlier film. His character should be approaching fifty, not thirty or even forty, due to the length of time that has passed between the two films, both of which were set in their then present day.

More criticism, however, has been directed at the casting of 50-year-old Jennifer Connelly instead of 65-year-old Kelly McGillis from the first film as 60-year-old Cruise’s former lover. Apparently, his character broke more than one woman’s heart along the way.

Will it be nominated for Oscars? Probably. Will it win some? Maybe. Will it be a serious contender for Best Picture as is being predicted by numerous pundits? I don’t think so.