Nazi undead battle U.S. soldiers in WWII thriller
In case there are any young folks out there who aren’t convinced that the Nazis were bad — shockingly, there still seem to be stragglers — here stomps Julius Avery’s World War II thriller “Overlord,” a blast of righteous rage in which a group of good American boys avenge themselves against an SS goon squad made of child torturers, corpse defilers, icon burners, murderers and rapists.
“Overlord” is a jingoistic throwback to a time of moral clarity when there weren’t very fine people on both sides, adapted for an audience that likes its action movies to be structured like video games, with Pvt. Boyce (Jovan Adepo) creeping down brick hallways like he’s in a first-person shooter, pausing to pick up clues. Novel? Not especially. “Overlord” works best as a patriotism booster shot — it’s “Inglourious Basterds” without a swizzle of irony.
Overlord’s opening sequence is fantastic. It’s the night before D-Day, and the sky and seas are cluttered with soldiers steeling themselves for the morning’s big fight. Avery opens in the air with a plane of paratroopers preparing to take out a Nazi radio tower mounted like a wicked steeple atop an occupied village church. The camera focuses on the young Americans’ nerves, the bouncing knees, clenched fingers and empty boasting, as though loudmouth Tibbet (John Magaro) plans to personally assassinate Hitler. When they reach the French coast, they’re suddenly