Title: The Hurt Locker (2008)
This movie hurts on a few levels. Namely it just won an Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year. Do not get me wrong, it is a good movie. But not the best.
I did enjoy the action and some of the mental anguish you see the soldiers go through. Not that I enjoyed their anguish, I just enjoyed that it was a glimpse into the realities of war. And I loved that it focused on the EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) group. But it just did not measure up in other ways.
Take the action. Sure it was realistic in some scenes, but it did not carry the weight that other movies did about the seriousness of war. Take Saving Private Ryan or even Band of Brothers. While there is some romanticism of war in each, they are also very grounded in reality. The Hurt Locker did not carry that as well as I would have liked. It was too soft and cozy at times.
The actors did a great job though. They stood out quite well above the plot and the action. The tension between them, the bond between soldiers, everything was there. Even the loss of sanity. Maybe a larger cast would have helped.
In the end, The Hurt Locker was good, but not great. With a plot that had some holes and all the hype that makes you expect a ground-breaking movie, I was disappointed. Even though they are much lighter in their mood, I think you would get more for your money by watching The Devil's Brigade or Memphis Belle.
2 comments:
I don't know man, I LOVED this movie. That said, my broke ass saw very few movies this year - this may be the only Oscar nominee for best picture that I saw...but I was pleased when it won. I thought it earned it and I'd like to see more movies like this win (or at least be serious contenders). I was sure Avatar would come in and kill it...and I was so happy to see it didn't go that way. SO happy. :)
1979 - I saw Avatar (in 2D) and didn't think it deserved Best Picture over Hurt Locker, so I'm glad they at least got that right. As for the other movies nominated, I think those were the only two I saw. So to some degree, I'm glad Hurt Locker won because it was so much lower budget than Avatar and I love rooting for the underdog. But I've seen many other movies this year (certainly not all new movies, but some were recent) that were much better than Hurt Locker. Wish I could have seen Blind Side and Precious since they both sounded much better.
Post a Comment