A Deservedly Ignored Video Game Movie Strategizes for Victory on Netflix

The video game adaptation continues to prove hugely inconsistent, even if the respective successes of Uncharted and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has made 2022 a year to remember for the genre. Of course, plenty of console-to-screen translations have long since been forgotten, which was very true of 2013’s Company of Heroes until this weekend.

Loosely based on the 2006 real-time strategy game of the same name, the World War II adventure was sent out into the VOD wilderness and left to wither on the vine, but the movie’s screenwriter Paul De Meo clearly won over the higher-ups at Relic Entertainment after being welcomed into the fold to help pen game sequel Company of Heroes 2.

The plot barely resembles the source material at all, with a band of American soldiers stranded behind enemy lines discovering that the Nazis have a super-weapon in development. After hearing of a plot to rescue a defecting scientist key to the program, the plucky company mount a daring raid to retrieve the man capable of ending any hopes of Hitler achieving his goal.

As you’d expect from an early 2010s genre flick that gave top billing to Tom Sizemore, Company of Heroes didn’t so much as sniff the inside of a theater, but it has at least managed to launch an unexpected offensive on the Netflix charts after being made available to stream yesterday in many international territories.

Per FlixPatrol, journeyman director Don Michael Paul’s lackadaisical effort has emerged overnight as the 25th most-watched title on the platform’s global charts, a sterling return for a project a lot of people never would have known existed until 24 hours ago.

via Sony

The video game adaptation continues to prove hugely inconsistent, even if the respective successes of Uncharted and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has made 2022 a year to remember for the genre. Of course, plenty of console-to-screen translations have long since been forgotten, which was very true of 2013’s Company of Heroes until this weekend.

Loosely based on the 2006 real-time strategy game of the same name, the World War II adventure was sent out into the VOD wilderness and left to wither on the vine, but the movie’s screenwriter Paul De Meo clearly won over the higher-ups at Relic Entertainment after being welcomed into the fold to help pen game sequel Company of Heroes 2.

The plot barely resembles the source material at all, with a band of American soldiers stranded behind enemy lines discovering that the Nazis have a super-weapon in development. After hearing of a plot to rescue a defecting scientist key to the program, the plucky company mount a daring raid to retrieve the man capable of ending any hopes of Hitler achieving his goal.

As you’d expect from an early 2010s genre flick that gave top billing to Tom Sizemore, Company of Heroes didn’t so much as sniff the inside of a theater, but it has at least managed to launch an unexpected offensive on the Netflix charts after being made available to stream yesterday in many international territories.

Per FlixPatrol, journeyman director Don Michael Paul’s lackadaisical effort has emerged overnight as the 25th most-watched title on the platform’s global charts, a sterling return for a project a lot of people never would have known existed until 24 hours ago.