Anthropoid

Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan star as resistance fighters who parachute into occupied Czechoslovakia at the height of World War II with a mission to assassinate high-ranking Nazi General Reinhard Heydrich in the underwhelming Anthropoid (coincidentally, the upcoming HHhH, starring Mia Wasikowska and Rosamund Pike, covers the exact same ground). Based on the true story of Operation Anthropoid, this offering from director and co-writer Sean Ellis (Cashback) dishes out moldy drama leavened with thrilling action, although the war scenes unwittingly evoke the war-is-hell bloodlust of the Inglourious Basterds movie-within-a-movie Nation’s Pride more than anything else. It’s all over the map—the first half of Anthropoid is almost unbearably stodgy and polite, and then suddenly everyone’s getting their limbs and faces graphically blown off. As for the performances, Dornan proves that his wooden performance in 50 Shades of Grey was no fluke, while the talented Murphy is trapped without a character.