Warhorse One (2023) (2024)

Popular reviews

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  Review by Dennis ★★★½ 7

  Warhorse One is a low budget action movie with drama elements and high ambitions.

  When a soldier looses his unit in a helicopter explosion, he has the task to save a young kid and himself.
  William Kaufman and Johnny Strong are a match made in heaven.
  Whenever they work together, I'm thrilled to see the result.
  This time Johnny did way more than just act, he Co directed, wrote the script, made music and more.
  His enthusiasm pays off, I could see throughout the movie how much passion and love he put into it.

  While the budget was really low, you can see it in the action sequences, they tried to counter it with authenticity and "realism" which works very…

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  Review by max ivanov ★½ 2

  my parents dig up stuff like this from the pits of amazon prime and i’m reminded of just how bad movies can be

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  Review by Kristof Szabó ★★

  Waaay too corny, self-serious, slow and pathos-drenched to be an effective direct-to-video sidekick to Guy Ritchie's The Covenant ala being a reckoning with the violent legacy of Afghanistan even if the plot is virtually the same (hardened veteran saving someone, here a little girl). Johnny Strong's director buddy, the capable William Kaufman certainly had a hand in making the bloody, decently staged, tactical gunfights, but Strong's brooding, one-dimensional machismo and the underwritten script lacks any depth or nuance that would make the characters interesting. Which also renders the two hour runtime excessive. And ooof to that ending, top level jingoistic syrup.

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  Review by Film_Sammlung ★★½ 5

  Ein bisschen hab ich ja auf Johnny Strongs Regiedebüt hingefiebert. Doch irgendwie ist das nichts Halbes und nichts Ganzes.

  Master Chief Richard Mirko wird mit seinem Seal-Team-Helikopter genau über Taliban Gebiet abgeschossen. Als einziger Überlebender trifft er auf ein traumatisiertes Kind, welches er in Sicherheit bringen will. Doch nicht nur das Feindgebiet macht ihm zu schaffen, sondern die afghanische Wildnis kämpft ebenfalls gegen ihn.

  Wurde ja groß auf Social Media aufgeblasen, durch den einen Stunt, bei dem der Johnny fast ums Leben gekommen ist. Die Sequenz ist auch das Spektakulärste im Film ohne Frage.

  Sonst ist das alles eine Mischung aus "Lone Survivor" und "Der Pakt" ohne uns irgendetwas Neues zu bieten. In den ersten 45 Minuten geht es sogar…

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  Review by Des Saint ★★★★

  A precious little girl worth dying for.
  A special ops guy who alone stays behind Taliban lines facing numerous bad guys and trying to bring the girl home.
  I hope I never get into a firefight while watching over a little girl.
  That's one crazy mission.
  Athena Durner gives a hell of a performance as the little girl and I can see only good things for her in the future.

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  Review by The Dan with No Name ★★

  Writer-director-star-head of post-production-editor-colorist-composer-sound designer-VFX designer-miniature designer-makeup artist- camera operator-stunt coordinator-prop guy-light rigger Johnny Strong can be called many things. I'm not sure "good at what he does" is one of them.

  This action-thriller boils down to Strong walking through the wilderness with a little girl, punctuated occasionally by shot/reverse shot shootouts that grow tedious quickly. Strong makes no impression as a performer, the film clumsily attempts to flesh out the villains to little effect, it studiously avoids saying anything beyond how great the troops are, and nothing really happens.

  That is, until the finale, which has some genuinely impressive, well-structured tactical shootouts. Moving from cover to cover, establishing beats within the action that constantly give Strong something new to react to. William Kaufman shares the director credit, and I can't help but wonder what the division of labor on this production looked like.

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  Review by sillycatmom ★★★½

  Very well done escape from capture type movie. Warhorse is name of SEAL gun from USA and HE rescues a little girl ( 5 or 6 years old) whose family was killed by Taliban. He guides her throughout forest and rocks to hopefully freedom. She is magnificent. She’s a little toughy! He is strong by compassionate. It’s stressful but exciting. Welldone.

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  Review by Nicholas G ★★★½ 5

  In an era of overdone, suspenseless video-gameyness with John Wick's kitschy flash, Warhorse One instead channels war-era films where their makers were battle veterans. Director William Kaufman and lead actor-director Johnny Strong are a great dollar-for-dollar modern action film team, with a knowledge of tactical military procedure and use realistic weapon handling to be anything but bullish BS teenager fantasy.

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  Review by Justin J M ½

  No one with a letterboxd account watches this movie willingly; it is their parents who force them to watch it, and for the letterboxd user to log it to get something out of it.

  When it's family movie night, sometimes your dad will pick the most random movies.

  This is one of those cases.

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  Review by kjdson ★★★

  Well I had seen everything by William Kaufmann and then he goes and drops 3 movies in one year. Kaufmann and Johnny Strong have made a few movies together. The solid cop shoot em up Sinners and Saints, the forgettable zombie movie Daylight's End and the two co-direcred this wartime chase adventure.

  I've always considered Kaufmann a competent action director but have yet to be really floored by anything Strong had to offer. He's a tough guy and that's about it. Now this movie doesn't require much more from him so that's fine.

  He co-directed, wrote, scored and stars in this movie that brings to mind movies like Behind Enemy Lines with it's 'America can do no wrong' attitude. Also…

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  Review by filmsbyanabella ★½

  too much blood and you could tell what happens and it’s pretty straight forward tbh, definitely wasn’t terrible but i’ve seen better

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  Review by Alec Toombs ★★★

  I’ve heard of filmmakers wearing lots of hats on independent productions, but actor-turned-director Johnny Strong takes multitasking to an entirely different level by also serving as co-writer (alongside co-director William Kaufman), editor, colorist, composer, sound designer, VFX designer, special effects makeup artist, camera operator, stunt coordinator, props department member, head lighting technician and star … homie’s more like “Workhorse One.”

  While Strong succeeds on many of these fronts it might’ve behooved him to farm some of this work out to other folks. The helicopter crash is a confused mess – probably the result of a limited budget as opposed to Strong’s sagging filmmaking prowess. (This could’ve also been an artistic decision as such a crash would surely be confusing.) I…