MovieChat Forums > Guy X (2005) Discussion > Interesting premise, rotten movie

Interesting premise, rotten movie


If they had actually hired some real screenwriters, maybe this could have been a good movie. As it is, it sucked.

One particularly annoying part was that the timeframe just made no sense. At one point it was suggested this was Vietnam-era, which made some sense from the uniforms and insignia, but then this 1979 date crops up ... Huh?

The music seems to be all Vietnam-era.

I had a lot of trouble swallowing the whole premise, as would anyone who'd spent more than ten minutes in the Army. The only realistic part was the idiotic behavior and nonconformance with any real uniform or haircut regulations. That happens a lot in medical units, especially ones in some "armpit area" like Greenland. As far as I knew, at that time the only Army units we had in Greenland were the DEW line radars and some other air defense stuff at Thule AFB. Which was truly the armpit of the western world, and was (as they mention in the movie) generally considered a punishment assignment. If you really screwed up anywhere in Air Defense Command, you were likely to be sent to Thule.

Of course the whole logistics of getting these "patients" to some secret facility in Greenland, and pulling off this whole scam ... gimme a break. And we're to believe some LtCol managed this? It doesn't pass the giggle test.

I could have overlooked a lot of this if the movie hadn't been so disappointing. There were moments of humor, very dry and very black (which I ordinarily enjoy), but not nearly enough to keep this dog afloat. I kept having the feeling that this might have worked if they had different writers, or maybe a different director ... I dunno. It just failed, with me.

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The Lutonsky letter (the soldier that was cremated) was written in 1973. The US withdrew in 1975. Why is hard to believe that these soldiers lingered on for 4-6 years in this secret facility?

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