A spy (Brad Pitt) lands in WWII Morocco and connects with a female colleague (Marion Cotillard). They pretend to be husband and wife, infiltrate a Nazi dinner party and assassinate the German ambassador. The mission goes well and they decide to go back to London and get married for real. However, one section of the RAF suspects Marion might actually be a Nazi double agent.

The plot presents an interesting premise which it then utterly fails to deliver on. There’s no real connection between the couple and when the potential deception is introduced it’s hard to care. Then just as everything should be hotting up, Zemeckis drags it out for a whole hour before quickly wrapping it all up in the last 10 minutes.

Weirder still is the ridiculous over-reliance on CG imagery, particularly in key scenes. Just before their dangerous first mission together Brad and Marion decide to have sex in the car during a sandstorm because they don’t know if they’ll make it out alive. This serves as the whole premise for them eventually getting together and yet the special effects are so off-putting it becomes a bit of a joke. It’s unforgivable in an age where kids on their laptops can whip up realistic footage.

Spies, the war, planes, exotic places, good looking people - this film really has it all! And yet Allied completely fails to grab your attention. It’s a loveless love story and a suspense-less thriller.

https://benoliver999.com/film/2017/08/19/allied/

**Marriage made in the field never work!**

This is definitely among the top five films of the year. But the sad part is the Oscars snub. Nominated for Costume Design, but I expected the Best Actor, Actress, and particularly Original Screenplay and Motion Picture. This amazing spy thriller-drama was directed by Robert Zemeckis of many popular flicks. The best casting in the recent films and visually so good of those 40s atmosphere, like it be the war or the society.

This is the story of two spies from different nation who meet in Casablanca for a mission. Pretending to be a newly wed couple, soon they enter the real wedlock. The rest of the tale follows a couple of years later when a big question arises, in that they have to prove their innocence. Failing it could lead them to a serious consequence. So the narration filled with suspense and thriller takes over with a greater pace till the end.

Obviously the film was long, but I did not mind or I could say I did not know how the two hours went on so quickly. Engaging plot kept me my focus on the screen. As we know, all these years the Oscars turned down the best performance recognitions, including this one for Brad.

Before going to watch this film, I thought it was another World War II film which might be inspired by the real. But it was not. Takes place in the background of the same war, but this is a spy film. And their personal life and profession, how one another influences is what revealed. Now I don't know when such kind of a great spy thriller I'm going to watch next. I think it is massively underrated, especially stupid film critics and their takes on it was unbelievably wrong. I surely, highly recommend it.

_9/10_

Marion Cotillard, yeah, she's one of those people that you know you've seen her before but you can't exactly place her and it tortures you for the duration of the film.

She also looks so much like she was actually from The Greatest Generation that she's probably one of those actors that can morph with every role she's in. And, looking at her on IMDB, I've actually seen her more than I thought I had.

At any rate, she blends well with the era...but, unfortunately, Pitt looks less from the times than he did in his other WWII movies, which is odd given how he can blend as well. I guess the producers wanted to feature him more for the draw of Brad Pitt.

In either case, it is a suspenseful and emotional film and one that will sit among the better spy movies ever made. It's low key, the action and the violence is down played to the point where it's far removed from Bond and comes across as a very straight spy thriller.

In other words it's the type of movie we unfortunately don't see enough of these days, subtle and straight. It's a movie that is based around the characters, the script, and the acting more than special effects and because of that it's easy to get involved emotionally with the plot and the people, even if it does move a bit faster than I would have liked.

Overall, it's a breath of fresh air in the era of the MCU and over-the-top effects and it pays off in the end from pure emotion. You can't get much better.