5 Days of War Blu-ray review

            Renny Harlin is a director best known for his brutal action films. From Stallone crushing hijackers in Cliffhanger to Willis using an icicle to finish off a terrorist in Die Hard 2, Harlin seems always attached to the more shocking moments in action films. For this reason it seems a perfect pairing to place Harlin at the helm of a good war film. While 5 Days of War is more of an action film plot set within the confines of an actual historical event, it has the feel of war mixed with 80s action.

            Taking place during the five-day war between Russia and Georgia in 2008, 5 Days of War follows an American journalist (Rupert Friend) and his cameraman (Richard Coyle) as they get caught in the middle of the conflict. Though the international press is not covering the story with as much attention as expected, these journalists discover evidence of Russian brutality that contradicts their side of the story. War crimes are committed and caught on tape and it is up to these two journalists to get the truth out to the world before they are hunted down and killed by the Russian army.

            Pitting the entire Russian army against a couple of journalists is a classic action storyline, though the end result is not the creative fight that would have resulted in a Die Hard film. Instead these two must avoid fighting. Some of the storyline borders on silly with the amount of coincidences that we are expected to buy amidst the combat zone. There is even a love interest when a young woman (Emmanuelle Chriqui) at a wedding gets pulled into the fight to bring the truth to light. Val Kilmer is also thrown in for humor.

            The Blu-ray includes a high definition presentation of all the explosive action scenes, as well as an audio commentary with director/producer Harlin. A few deleted scenes are also included.