7 upcoming movies we want to see at the base theater

By the time I got to Fort Meade for tech school (that's AIT or A-School for those not in the Air Force), it was 2002 and I was ready to go back to the movies. I quickly learned that the AAFES base theater attracts a much different crowd than your average hometown picture show.

The first movie I saw at the base theater was "Black Hawk Down." I wasn't entirely surprised by the national anthem that opened up the screening. What surprised me was when half of the crowd jumped up and down cheering as the Hoot's team took over a Somali technical and started using it against the bad guys.

So after that, I learned that all war movies are best watched on base, because even the worst war movies have some great fight scenes, and the military crowd cheers for troops onscreen like it's opening night on the KISS Love Gun Tour in 1977.

Thankfully, there is no shortage of war movies coming down the line.

1. Horse Soldiers

This film doesn't come out until 2018 but stars Michael Shannon (aka General Zod) and Chris Hemsworth as the CIA agents and Special Forces operators who invaded Afghanistan on horseback to avenge the 9/11 attacks.

It comes from the non-fiction book of the same name.

2. War Machine

Ok, this one is only going out on Netflix, but wouldn't it be great to see this in a base theater? Just judging by an extended trailer, it looks like there's definitely some Marine combat in Afghanistan. You know something explosive is going to happen and I want to be in a room full of screaming people when it does.

3. Dunkirk

This isn't about America, no. And if you know your history, you know it doesn't end well for the good guys. But this is about Christopher Nolan directing a gritty war film – a gritty World War II film... with Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy.

4. Flags Over Berlin

Releasing in 2018, "Flags Over Berlin" is the story of a Western intelligence operative posing as a journalist during World War II. He follows the Red Army, linking up with the Soviet forces as they prepare to storm Berlin.

The name of the film comes from the iconic image of Red Army soldiers raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag.

5. Whatever Joss Whedon is Currently Writing

In 2016, Slashfilm reported that the sci-fi/fantasy writer-director extraordinaire's next project is a World War II-set horror movie, a movie he says is "as dark as anything I've ever written."

"I got to tell you, I was in Germany and Poland doing research for this movie and I was seeing so many parallels [to the U.S.]. And I know it's a shopworn thing to compare the orange guy to the little guy with the mustache, but you see things, indelible things in terms of propaganda, the state of the country, and the parallels are eerie as f*ck."

6. Tough As They Come

"Tough As They Come" is adapted from the book of the same name, written by Army veteran and quadruple amputee Travis Mills. Sylvester Stallone is attached to star and direct alongside actor and Marine Corps veteran Adam Driver.

Mills is only one of five soldiers to survive a quadruple amputation from battlefield wounds. Stallone recently turned down an offer to join the Trump Administration as chair of the National Endowment of the Arts.

7. Heartbreak Ridge

So what if the movie is 30 years old. Let's put it back in the base theater and cheer when Gunny Highway takes that hill in Grenada and then tells off his CO.