Top 10 WWI Movies in honor of Veteran's Day

 Veteran's day was first celebrated as Armistice Day in in 1919. President Woodrow Wilson declared it a national holiday to celebrate the end of World War 1.

In honor of Veteran's day, I have compiled a list of the top 10 movies set in World War I.

10. “The Red Baron” (2008) – A German movie, filmed in English for increased international marketability, it tells the story of famed German fighter pilot, Manfred von Richthofen.

9. “Flyboys” (2006) – Starring the one and only James Franco, this film is follows a French squadron that included 38 American volunteers who wanted to help in the war in the years before the U.S. Officially joined the war.

8. “Dawn” (1928) – A silent film from Britain, this tells the tale of Edith Cavell, a nurse who risked her own life by rescuing British Prisoners of War from the Germans.

7. “Wings” (1927) – The first film, and only silent film to ever win the Academy Award for best picture, this was one of Gary Cooper's first big roles. The film tells the tale of two fighter pilots from enlistment through the battle of Saint-Mihiel.

6. “Four Horseman of the Apocalypse” (1962) – Initially a flop, this lost over $6 million at the box office, based mostly on unfavorable reviews from critics saying it wasn't as good as the 1921 silent movie version. This is not technically a WWI film, as the setting was changed to WWII, but the original film, and the book it was based on were set in the first World War.

5. “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1979) – The only made-for-TV film on the list, this is a remake of a film of the same name from 1930. Both films were based on a book also of the same name. This one shows what the young men went through struggling to cope with the violence of war.

4. “Behind the Lines” (1997) – The story of a psychiartrist working with “shell shocked” vets at an asylum in an attempt to get them back out on the front lines.

3. “Galipoli” (1981) – The story of a battle of the same name in which Australian and New Zealand troops combine forces to attempt to capture Istanbul. Through a series of ill-fated decisions the troops on the front line suffer the most for their leader's mistakes.

2. “All the King's Men” (1999) – Not to be confused with the two other movies of the same name that are based on political scandals, this film is all about the The Royal British Army's Sandringham Company, which was comprised solely of servants belonging to King George V.

1. “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) – One of the best movie of all-time, this is clearly the best WWI movie ever made. Starring Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness and Anthony Quinn, this is all about the life of T.E. Lawrence and his campaigns in Arabia during the war, specifically the battles of Aqaba and Damascus.

X-Men: No Class

   OK, the film doesn't really have no class, but it's far from "first class" entertainment when it comes to tying into the other movies in the series.  It obviously was trying to tie into those movies based on cameos and other small things, but way to many things don't add up when it comes to series continuity.  That aside, the film was still enjoyable. I mean who doesn't want to watch X-Men fight Nazi's? OK sure, that doesn't technically happen, but it could have.

   Plot Synopsis: Before Charles Xavier (McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Fassbender) took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time, working together to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known.  The film  features a star-studded supporting cast, including Academy Award-nominee Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone), January Jones (“Mad Men”), Rose Byrne (28 Weeks Later), Zoë Kravitz (“Californication”), Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man), Lucas Till (Walk the Line), and Emmy Award-nominee Oliver Platt (“The West Wing”).

   I'll start with the visuals like I did in my last review the transfer to the disc is great, very few flaws, and watching it HD rather than on the grainy theater screen was a true treat. (Jennifer Lawrence half naked most of the time didn't hurt either...) The effects were all pretty believable in this world, but nothing to write home about.

   The audio here was pretty standard, again nothing to write home about.  The only thing stood out as excellent to me was Magneto's daunting theme music, but nothing was blatantly bad so it's slightly above average at best. The sound mix worked well together, but it just felt like it was lacking something to me.

Now for the extras, this disc isn't packed full geeky goodness like some, but what it has is fantastic.  First off it starts with 10 free digital comics that help to tell the back story of the actual "first class" and they are all great, though I'm still adapting to the digital comic phenomena. Also included is a 7 part making of documentary, that while annoying to be broken into segments that run about 10 minutes a piece, is still a very fine documentary in the long run.  Several deleted/extended scenes are included (sorry I didn't count them and don't have the disc sitting next to me as I write this), as is some behind the scenes info on scenes, and a really cool feature that lets the viewer 'control' cerebro in a feature that when you find and click on the various mutants you get scenes from all of the films that mutant has been in within the live-action franchise.  The glaring  omission is the lack of a director's commentary.

Final grade is a 3 out of 5 on this one. There just isn't enough stuff to put this edition over the top.