The Hurt Locker (2008, 131 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/
The movie I had literally heard nothing bad about. That's what position The Hurt Locker held for me before I watched it. Hailed as more than just a war movie, I was excited to check it out.
The film has two main stars. The first is Jeremy Renner as Staff Sergeant William James and the second is Anthony Mackie as Sergeant JT Sanborn. More minor roles go to Brian Geraghty as Specialist Owen Eldridge and Christian Camargo as Colonel John Cambridge. James, Sanborn, and Eldridge form an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, led by James. Cambridge serves as sort of a psychologist whom Eldridge talks to a few times.
Most of this film I liked. However, there were a few scenes that were stupid or out of place. For one, the movie really did seem like it was made in the format of: bomb scene, intermission back at the barracks, next bomb scene, next scene back at the barracks, repeat. There really wasn't much to these barracks scenes though which attempted to add character to the main people. I felt this could've been done better in the bomb scenes (of which this sometimes occurred and felt much more natural). For example, when things went bad with the sniper, I saw much more character development of James than in any of the barracks scenes. He was established as a character that while sometimes reckless when he felt everything was going right, knew when to slow down and follow the procedure when things got out of hand. This made him seem more real than just a one dimensional hothead. The bad thing, though, is that this same sniper scene seemed terribly unnatural. Sanborn was completely in the open for far too long, prone in the exact same position that a previous sniper had been shot in the head. Obviously if this guy had been shot, Sanborn should've been as well - or at least that's what I would have thought. This was the only time I really was confused at the movie sacrificing realism for entertainment.
Overall, I gave this film a 7/10. It's a pretty good war movie, I'll admit that. But it sure wasn't the perfect film that everyone seemed to hype it as. Did this really disappoint me? Perhaps a little. But I clearly wasn't expecting Saving Private Ryan when I watched it. Did it live up to a more recent, modern war movie such as Black Hawk Down? Probably not, but it was still quite a cool movie and I'm glad I checked it out.
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yea, I noticed that with the sniper too. even worse I think was the part at the end with the guy who had the bomb strapped to him. you'd think he'd have snipers on him.
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