Operation Brothers

Chris Evans's roles always lean to heroic and patriotic characterization and this film was perfect for him. I feel like this movie was underrated, and should be considered as a decent historical and action drama that really caters to all generations of movie fans.

This is the story of a group of heroic Mossad agents who pretend to lease a beach resort from the Sudanese government in order to use it as a hotel, but in fact use it as a seaside base for smuggling Ethiopian Jews from Africa. Both Ethiopia and Sudan were (and still are) volatile zones and Sudan is a Muslim country. It's basically the plot of Argo, but for another group of people, and it is also based on real events.

Now, the film is mediocre. The dramatic scenes are copy pasted from other films, the heroes are all ridiculously good looking, the evil antagonist is just evil for no good reason and all those tired 70's cliches rear out their ugly heads: every hero is reckless, the boss knows it, the idea is risky, the boss of the boss knows it, and somehow they smilingly admit going against every instinct and making it happen anyway. There is an especially cringe worthy scene where the bad guys inspect some trucks and, finding no bullet holes, conclude that those were not the trucks that smashed through a roadblock. Because smashing through other cars leaves no trace, unlike bullets.

There was a funny scene in the film when one of the characters says "It had to be Germans. It's always Germans!". It wasn't funny for the reasons the writers wanted, but because the entire film reeked of WWII hero movies where all the Nazis are bad and really stupid.

Bottom line: really by the numbers film that probably has very little to do with the actual events.

It's a very entertaining movie and it doesn't deserve the bad reception it got; the plot is good and the acting is decent; Jews have suffered greatly over several centuries and deserve respect.

There was a time when people (well... mainly hippies) used to take adventurous trips to Afghanistan. Nowadays, it seems ludicrous to think about that country - and Sudan - as attractive holiday destinations.

However, this movie reminds us that not as far in time as Afghanistan - actually, in the early 80s - a Red Sea diving resort in Sudan was a covetable destinations for Germans and other tourists.

Even if it's hard to believe that an African country on the brink of massive upheaval was visited by tourists, people actually do lots of stupid things. In this case, silly tourists were nothing more than "probable collateral damage" IRL, a handful of agents operated the resort as a cover for a rescue scheme that went on for years unnoticed. The Ethiopian were carried by trucks to the resort and shipped over to Israel, until the final mission, when the last bunch was transported by plane, because Sudanese officials . In this sort of movie, you should expect most (all?) characters to be a bit stereotyped. They are very much so that I did not get the need to introduce them quite at length, since their background was irrelevant to the development of the plot.

For instance, the Alex Hassle Max Rose's character, seemed quite interesting as a forever hungry assassin, but there is no development nor much action for him (nor for the others).

However, this is quite good entertainment with a solid, humanitarian background and not too much violence, apart from a horrific scene in a refugee camp.

This a moving film with exceptional performances by all actors involved. The direction and writing also hits good tones and avoids becoming a blow them up action movie. I really enjoyed this film from beginning to end. Chris Evans can act and there's a nice character arch with a few of the main players. Overall I really enjoyed this and will watch it again.

The fact that it's based on saving lives and happened during a really hard time in the Middle East and Africa (late 70's early 80's) makes it more poignant given the state of the world today.

Overall it's an A for me. I will recommend this to my friends and family. Enjoy :)