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"MUNICH" (2005) (Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush) (R) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Heavy Extreme Extreme Extreme Extreme Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Mild Moderate Extreme None Extreme Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Extreme Moderate Moderate Heavy Extreme QUICK TAKE: Drama/Suspense: A Mossad officer and his small team of assassins try to track down and kill those responsible for the kidnapping and murders of members of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team. PLOT: It's 1972 and an extremist Palestinian group known as Black September has just kidnapped and killed eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich, Germany. In response, the Israeli government has ordered quick retaliation as a means of showing the terrorists and the world its strength and resolve. Accordingly, Mossad case officer Ephraim (GEOFFREY RUSH) chooses intelligence officer Avner (ERIC BANA) for the job. Married to Daphna (AYELET ZURER) who's pregnant with their child, Avner doesn't seem the most likely candidate for the job, but Ephraim and other high ranking officials believe in him. They've also set him up with a team of experts who will assist him in striking back at the terrorists. There's bomb maker Robert (MATHIEU KASSOVITZ), getaway driver Steve (DANIEL CRAIG), master forgery expert Hans (HANNS ZISCHLER) and Carl (CIARAN HINDS) who serves as the team's clean up man. With Daphna sent off to the U.S. without knowledge of Avner's specific assignment, the now officially unofficial Mossad agent begins tracking down the terrorists, mainly through paid tips from French informant Louis (MATHIEU AMALRIC) who works for his equally enigmatic father (MICHAEL LONSDALE). With their carefully planned assassinations under way, the team must not only deal with being on their own, but also the retaliatory response from the other side as well as thoughts and doubts about whether what they're doing is right or will even have any sort of long-lasting effect. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? Older teens might be, as might anyone who's a fan of director Steven Spielberg, or someone in the cast. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R For strong graphic violence, some sexual content, nudity and language. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: ERIC BANA plays the Mossad agent chosen to lead the retaliatory assassination strikes against the terrorists. He kills various people along the way, uses some strong profanity, drinks some, briefly smokes pot, misses his wife and newborn, and eventually wonders if what they're doing will make any difference. DANIEL CRAIG plays the team's steely getaway driver who similarly kills others and uses strong profanity, but doesn't seem to have any doubts about their mission. CIARAN HINDS plays the team's clean up man who bonds the most with Avner, kills some people, and apparently has casual sex with a stranger. MATHIEU KASSOVITZ plays the bomb maker who's concerned about the quality of the explosives he's given as well as the morality of what they're doing. HANNS ZISCHLER plays the oldest member of the team, a forgery expert who also participates in the assassination strikes. AYELET ZURER plays Avner's pregnant wife and then mother of their newborn who worries about him after being relocated to the U.S. GEOFFREY RUSH plays the Mossad case officer who serves as the team's officially unofficial contact and supplier who keeps at them to complete their mission. He uses strong profanity. MATHIEU AMALRIC plays the French informant and supplier who finds the team's targets for a price and appears as somewhat of a shady character. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: Here's a quick look at the content found in this R-rated dramatic thriller. Profanity consists of at least 16 "f" words, while other expletives and colorful phrases are uttered. Sexually related dialogue is present, while two sexual encounters between a married couple are seen (with movement, partial nudity and related sounds). A woman exposes her full frontal nudity to two men in hopes that they won't kill her, while nonsexual nudity (bare breasts, butts & mostly obscured full frontal male) is present. Violence consists of many people being killed by various means (gunfire, explosions, stabbed with a knife), much of which has extremely bloody and gory results. Those scenes and other moments of potential peril will be quite suspenseful and/or unsettling for some viewers, while various characters have extreme degrees of bad attitudes for their murderous actions. Various characters drink and/or smoke, while several share a joint in one scene. Some characters worry about their family members, while others talk about past deaths in their immediate families. Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. For those concerned with bright flashes of light on the screen, there's some of that in one scene. For those prone to visually induced motion sickness, there's lots of bouncy, handheld footage in various scenes in the film. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE A comment is made about knackwurst and lager. Avner has a beer. Avner and his team have wine with dinner. A woman smokes a joint, shares it with Avner and she then blows out smoke that another man inhales from her (before smoking the joint himself). Avner, Louis and another man have wine with a meal. A man buys some wine. Avner and some of his team have wine. Avner offers to buy Louis a drink, but the latter tells him to save his money. The team and Ephraim have wine with dinner. Louis and his father have wine. We see Avner shirtless. Avner has a drink, as do others in a bar. A woman there says she has the kind of job that drives you to drink, prompting Avner to joke that they must have the same job. Carl says he's going to have some brandy and wonders if Avner would like to join him, but Avner declines the offer. Hans has wine as do others with dinner. Louis' father has wine. BLOOD/GORE We see a dead person on the floor with a lot of blood on them and the floor around them. We see a flashback to the Olympic attack where one Israeli breaks a window to get out, but is shot at by a machine gun. Another has a knife that he wildly swings at the terrorists, one of which shoots him through his face (we see a very large and extremely bloody hole in his cheek -- he's alive, but is later shot in the chest and head with more extremely bloody results). One Israeli athlete takes a knife and stabs it into one terrorist's masked head, killing him. He then races into another room where he's blasted by machine gun fire (we don't see the impact on him, but do on the wall behind him that's filled with bullet holes and lots of his blood). We see blood mixing with milk on the floor after a man is shot. A massive explosion knocks Avner across the room and into a wall. He then gets up and goes to investigate the damage of taking out their latest target and sees a bloody, severed arm hanging from the slowly spinning ceiling fan. Other blood is elsewhere in the severely damaged room, while the couple that was in the room on the other side of the explosion is also bloody. A massive gun battle breaks out between opposing groups, with men on both sides being hit, sometimes with bloody results. An explosive is used to blow a door open, where men rush inside with their guns drawn, looking for a target. During this, a bloody man is shot by machine gun fire, as is a couple who are riddled with bullets (both with bloody results). The huge battle then continues outside with more on both sides being hit (wounded or killed). We see TV news footage of blood and brain matter (or other such tissue) being swept up by a man. Avner lifts a dead man's head from a pillow and there's blood on both. As an assassin slowly reaches for a gun after being confronted by them, Avner and another man fire some sort of projectiles (not from guns, but something like blow darts, but with no blowing involved) into her, leaving two holes in her chest and neck. She stumbles a bit and blood then pours out of her neck, with one man then firing another projectile that hits her in the head (with more bloody results), killing her. Avner and Steve sneak up on a house party at night, with scope-equipped rifles. A young lookout, however, spots them, causing them to shoot him in the head (blood comes out and the body falls into a pool). Some people who've been shot are bloody (seen in a flashback). DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE The terrorists obviously have bad attitudes for kidnapping and killing the Israeli athletes. Some could view Avner and his team and/or the Israeli government as being the ones with bad attitudes for ordering and carrying out government ordered assassinations. After completing most of his mission and losing some of his men, a general thanks Avner, but coldly says there won't be any medals or anything for their work and sacrifice. FRIGHTENING SCENES Scenes listed under "Violence," "Blood/Gore" and "Jump Scenes" may be unsettling, suspenseful or scary to some viewers especially if they have low tolerance levels for such material. We see the terrorists prepping their guns and then arriving at their destination where they try to push their way into the apartment, as one man struggles to keep them out (on the other side of the door). They then get inside and hold their guns on that man. We see a flashback to the Olympic attack where one Israeli breaks a window to get out, but is shot at by a machine gun. Another has a knife that he wildly swings at the terrorists, one of which shoots him through his face (we see a very large and extremely bloody hole in his cheek -- he's alive, but is later shot in the chest and head with more extremely bloody results). One Israeli athlete takes a knife and stabs it into one terrorist's masked head, killing him. He then races into another room where he's blasted by machine gun fire (we don't see the impact on him, but do on the wall behind him that's filled with bullet holes and lots of his blood). Another athlete escapes in his underwear and runs down the street, followed by a terrorist shooting at him with a machine gun. Avner and his team trail their first target, with Avner and Robert then following him into a building where they pull their guns on him. He tries to diffuse the situation by slowly having Avner lower his gun, but several shots then ring out and the target has been shot through the grocery bag he's carrying. We then see blood mixing with milk on the floor. Robert replaces the innards of a phone with a bomb after he and others break and enter into the home of their latest target. Equipped with a remote control detonator, they wait until after the man's wife and young daughter leave, but we then see their car return and the young girl goes inside. A team member then dials the number for the phone and the daughter picks it up (thus unknowingly giving the signal to detonate the bomb). The team members who see this then race back to stop Robert from detonating it and they barely abort the mission in the nick of time. We see the team planting a bomb inside the bed of their next target. Later, Avner is in the room next to that one, preparing to give the signal, but he sees that an amorous couple is in the room on the other side of the target, thus giving Avner some concern. A massive gun battle breaks out between opposing groups, with men on both sides being hit, sometimes with bloody results. An explosive is used to blow a door open, where men rush inside with their guns drawn, looking for a target. During this, a bloody man is shot by machine gun fire, as is a couple who are riddled with bullets (both with bloody results). The huge battle then continues outside with more on both sides being hit (wounded or killed). Avner and his team get into a gun standoff with a group of Arabs, both of which were given simultaneous access to a "safe house." Things finally calm down and no one is shot. After a bomb doesn't detonate, and as various enemy forces wait outside, Hans unexpectedly gets out of his car, marches into the building and up to the targeted room. He then tries to pull the pin on a grenade, but can't get it out, with the man inside the room grabbing his gun. Hans gets the pin out and throws the grenade inside, and then struggles with that man at the door, eventually pulling it shut, trapping the man inside. The blast then blows the door and Hans backwards (presumably killing the man inside). Outside, Steve shoots one man dead, just like Carl who guns down a leader, with a gun battle then breaking out between Avner's team and those outside the building as the team escapes via cars that are fired upon. Several people are hit and wounded or killed during that battle. Avner and his team prepare to ambush another target on a rainy night, but when they approach him, others intervene, posing as old friends of Avner, but only do so to allow the target to leave. During this, one person punches another and then there's some struggling between the two groups. We see a flashback to the hostages being loaded on a bus. As an assassin slowly reaches for a gun after being confronted by them, Avner and another man fire some sort of projectiles (not from guns, but something like blow darts, but with no blowing involved) into her, leaving two holes in her chest and neck. She stumbles a bit and blood then pours out of her neck, with one man then firing another projectile that hits her in the head (with more bloody results), killing her. From a distance, we see the mostly silhouetted figure of one of the team members dead on a park bench (others say he was killed by a knife). Hearing a sound in his place, Avner gets his gun and slowly walks through the place. After finding no one there, he becomes paranoid that something in there might be rigged with a bomb, so he acts doubly cautious. Avner and Steve sneak up on a house party at night, with scope-equipped rifles. A young lookout, however, spots them, causing them to shoot him in the head (blood comes out and the body falls into a pool). This alerts the others who race out and repeatedly fire at Avner and Steve as they flee the scene. Avner is nearly hit by a car. Seeing a suspicious-looking car, Avner thinks he's being tailed for an assassination attempt and the car does seem to be following him, but then drives away. We see a flashback to the end of the tense hostage situation where a terrorist is shot and killed by a sniper, followed by them returning fire at the shooters and then shooting some of the hostages dead. One then throws a grenade into the chopper holding the hostages and it explodes. Some of the dead are bloody. GUNS/WEAPONS Handguns/Machine guns/Explosives/Knives: Carried and/or used to threaten, wound or kill others and/or cause property damage. See "Violence" for details. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "Don't f*ck with the Jews," "A f*cking game," "Where the f*ck is he?" "F*ck you," "F*cked up," "You ugly f*ck," "Who the f*ck..?" "F*ck off," "(Pompous) Bullsh*t," "Piece of sh*t," "Holy sh*t," "We're not sh*t and they don't tell us sh*t," "Honey trap" (promiscuous woman), "All hell has broken loose," "Shut up," "Piss," "You foul-mouthed son of a bitch," "Puss," "Stop chasing the mice inside your skull," "You asshole" and "Don't be an idiot." Several men in a car collectively give "the finger" to Avner and his team in passing. It's possible some kids could be enticed to plant booby traps for others as occurs in the film. JUMP SCENES The sudden sound of gunshots might startle some viewers. An explosion shatters glass in a building (seen from the outside). A massive explosion knocks Avner across the room and into a wall. A big explosion rips through a house (seen from the outside), killing the man inside it (not seen). MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) An extreme amount of ominous and suspenseful music plays in the film. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None. PROFANITY At least 16 "f" words (1 in English subtitles), 10 "s" words, 1 ass (used with "hole"), 1 hell, 1 S.O.B., 2 uses of "G-damn" and 1 use of "For God's sakes." SEX/NUDITY We hear heavy breathing and think it's Daphna in labor, but then see that she and Avner are having sex. She's on her side and lying down (we see her bare belly) and he's behind and partially on top of her, thrusting (we see the side of his bare butt and that both are sweaty, and hear both of their sexual sounds). When they're done, he makes some joking comment about sex, with her adding something about labor. During the initial attack, we see some of the athletes in just small/tight underwear (as they were awakened while sleeping). One guy jokes with Avner that "you were sleeping with my girlfriend." Talking to another woman, that guy says about Avner, "I think he wants to sleep with you" (but Avner doesn't). We see a miscellaneous couple making out on a balcony, with Avner's target (who's on the balcony between him and that couple) telling him that he shouldn't plan on getting any sleep that night since that couple keeps at it all night. Later, following the explosion that takes out the target and his room, that couple staggers out and is bloody. We see the woman's bare breasts and the man's bare butt as he holds a small towel or cloth across his crotch (he's otherwise nude). We see shirtless men changing into women's clothing for a pending raid. Questioning his loyalty to the Jewish cause, Steve says they should pull down Carl's pants and see if he's circumcised. A woman comes on to Avner in a bar, eventually saying she doesn't want to be forward, but that she has to get up early. When he doesn't respond to that, she asks, "Are you really going to make me ask?" He says he can't and she replies "Pity." When he later meets up with Carl, he jokingly informs him of this woman, telling him to watch out for the "honey trap." Later, Avner smells her perfume from Carl's room and thinks they've had sex. Avner goes into a room and finds a dead, nude man lying on the bed (full frontal nudity is present, but in the dark shadows so not much detail is seen). Hoping to keep from being killed, a woman exposes her breasts and then full frontal nudity to some men, but they kill her anyway (for being an assassin who took out one of their partners). We see Daphna kissing on Avner and then him getting on top of her between her legs. We see her reaction with him thrusting on top of her, but his mind is somewhere else (the scene cuts back and forth between this sexual encounter and him thinking of the earlier hostage situation, seen here as a flashback) and his thrusting becomes more intense as he becomes more agitated by his imagination of what occurred. SMOKING Louis, Steve and Carl (pipe) each smoke several times, while Avner smokes once and many minor and miscellaneous characters smoke in various scenes. We see photos of a woman smoking. TENSE FAMILY SCENES We see the families on both sides of the terrorist attack react to watching the story unfold on TV, including talk first that all of the terrorists have been killed (which is incorrect) and then that all of the hostages have been killed. Golda Meir states that her sister recently died from cancer. Avner's mom says that she doesn't visit Avner's dad much now, with Avner commenting that his dad was in prison when he was born. Louis' father talks of the many deaths his family experienced in a previous war. Carl states that his son died in a previous conflict. Avner cries from hearing his daughter on the phone (who he misses, just like his wife). Avner's mother states that most of her family died in Europe during the war. TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT The historical accuracy and/or any artistic license taken with the true story. The Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The issue of how to deal with terrorists and whether there will ever be an end to their actions. There's talk that the Arab terrorists are killing Israelis in response to what Avner and his team are doing. We see a TV news clip about a hijacking. Louis refers to his kind as ideologically promiscuous, adding that they hate all, but love all. Robert tells Avner that they're supposed to be the righteous ones. VIOLENCE We see the terrorists prepping their guns and then arriving at their destination where they try to push their way into the apartment, as one man struggles to keep them out (on the other side of the door). They then get inside and hold their guns on that man. We see a fireball from an explosion in the background of a shot. We see a flashback to the Olympic attack where one Israeli breaks a window to get out, but is shot at by a machine gun. Another has a knife that he wildly swings at the terrorists, one of which shoots him through his face (we see a very large and extremely bloody hole in his cheek -- he's alive, but is later shot in the chest and head with more extremely bloody results). One Israeli athlete takes a knife and stabs it into one terrorist's masked head, killing him. He then races into another room where he's blasted by machine gun fire (we don't see the impact on him, but do on the wall behind him that's filled with bullet holes and lots of his blood). Another athlete escapes in his underwear and runs down the street, followed by a terrorist shooting at him with a machine gun. Avner and his team trail their first target, with Avner and Robert then following him into a building where they pull their guns on him. He tries to diffuse the situation by slowly having Avner lower his gun, but several shots then ring out and the target has been shot through the grocery bag he's carrying. We then see blood mixing with milk on the floor. An explosion shatters glass in a building (seen from the outside), with the team hearing their target was injured but not killed (although they later hear that he died from those injuries). A massive explosion knocks Avner across the room and into a wall. He then gets up and goes to investigate the damage of taking out their latest target and sees a bloody, severed arm hanging from the slowly spinning ceiling fan. Other blood is elsewhere in the severely damaged room, while the couple that was in the room on the other side of the explosion is also bloody. A massive gun battle breaks out between opposing groups, with men on both sides being hit, sometimes with bloody results. An explosive is used to blow a door open, where men rush inside with their guns drawn, looking for a target. During this, a bloody man is shot by machine gun fire, as is a couple who are riddled with bullets (both with bloody results). The huge battle then continues outside with more on both sides being hit (wounded or killed). The team plants a bomb inside a TV, with Steve shooting out a street light to provide them some dark cover outside. After a bomb doesn't detonate, and as various enemy forces wait outside, Hans unexpectedly gets out of his car, marches into the building and up to the targeted room. He then tries to pull the pin on a grenade, but can't get it out, with the man inside the room grabbing his gun. Hans gets the pin out and throws the grenade inside, and then struggles with that man at the door, eventually pulling it shut, trapping the man inside. The blast then blows the door and Hans backwards (presumably killing the man inside). Outside, Steve shoots one man dead, just like Carl who guns down a leader, with a gun battle then breaking out between Avner's team and those outside the building as the team escapes via cars that are fired upon. Several people are hit and wounded or killed during that battle. Avner and his team prepare to ambush another target on a rainy night, but when they approach him, others intervene, posing as old friends of Avner, but only do so to allow the target to leave. During this, one person punches another and then there's some struggling between the two groups. Avner lifts a dead man's head from a pillow and there's blood on both (from a previous, unseen murder). As an assassin slowly reaches for a gun after being confronted by them, Avner and another man fire some sort of projectiles (not from guns, but something like blow darts, but with no blowing involved) into her, leaving two holes in her chest and neck. She stumbles a bit and blood then pours out of her neck, with one man then firing another projectile that hits her in the head (with more bloody results), killing her. From a distance, we see the mostly silhouetted figure of one of the team members dead on a park bench (others say he was killed by a knife). A big explosion rips through a house (seen from the outside), killing the man inside it (not seen). Avner and Steve sneak up on a house party at night, with scope-equipped rifles. A young lookout, however, spots them, causing them to shoot him in the head (blood comes out and the body falls into a pool). This alerts the others who race out and repeatedly fire at Avner and Steve as they flee the scene. Some guards struggle with Avner inside a government building after he barges in. We see a flashback to the end of the tense hostage situation where a terrorist is shot and killed by a sniper, followed by them returning fire at the shooters and then shooting some of the hostages dead. One then throws a grenade into the chopper holding the hostages and it explodes. Some of the dead are bloody. Reviewed December 6, 2005/ Posted December 23, 2005

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