The Hurt Locker...are you kidding me?

[brblx]

I guess there wasn't enough shoot-em-up action for most people. I thought it was pretty good.

no, there wasn't enough intelligent filmmaking. the plot was nonsensical, the characters illogical, and it barely even kept up the appearance of portraying an army unit in iraq, let alone even having some tiny sliver of accuracy in portraying EOD work.

you might as well call a wile e coyote cartoon 'the best war drama ever made.'

 

[DangerAardvark]

The 2nd act and the first part of the 3rd was too slow with too many pointless scenes, particularly the "alley scene", which was just fucking dumb as hell. But I thought the movie ended strong. Unfortunately, the ending highlights the failure of the movie as a whole. Only at the end do you really understand James' character, but that just makes you wonder why there was so much extraneous crap in the middle.

 

[brblx]

the ending was just an enormous slap in the face to anyone that wears a uniform.

the dumb wise and beautiful woman that made this movie should stick to making shit action movies with keanu reeves and patrick swayze. or patrick swayze's corpse, whatever, same difference.

 

[Locut0s]

I didn't like it as much as others did either but I would hardly call it trash. For one it's one of the more realistic contemporary war films I've seen in a long while. It also does a good job of ratcheting up the tension. I just wish the characters had been a little less cliché and that it had a different ending. I thought it should have ended with the guy killing himself instead of going back for another tour. But otherwise it wasn't 1/2 bad. I'd give it a 6-7/10.

 

[DangerAardvark]

The sniping section was pretty dumb. A non-sniper just grabs a Barret and hits a moving target half a mile a way. And the insurgent sniper apparently can't make the exact same shot he made a minute ago that killed the British guy who was in the exact same spot.

 

[DangerAardvark]

You know, the more I think about it, the more I realize that it was basically Lethal Weapon in the desert.

 

[rockyct]

It was a movie about war, not a war movie. I thought it was pretty good. Certainly not the best war movie.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I saw the movie 18 times...I just thorougly loved the movie!
In fact this movie was easily as good as Avatar or any of the Star Wars movie.
I would put in the same catagorie as Gone With The Wind!!
The plot was very intricately thought out.
It was such a pleasure to see some real acting.
I cannot say enough about how magnificent the movie was......
This movie was easily better mthan The Titanic.

Just awesome!!

 

[DanTMWTMP]

It was one of my favorite movies of all time. Very suspenseful, and had plenty of action. For the budget, it did a great job. I loved this movie. Don't be so cynical hehe. I didn't "like it for what it is (like shoot 'em up, and transformers...)." I liked it because it was simply a very good movie; plain and simple.

 

[MartyMcFly3]

I saw it. It was good and entertaining, but nothing spectacular. It felt like I was watching an episode of Cops, elongated and set in the military. You see down time, a mission, down time, another mission, more down time, another mission. They could have done so much more with this movie. The bomb defusal scenes were definitely intense, but I guess I was just looking for a bit more story.

 

[n yusef]

And I'd thought that I'd gone mad! Thanks so much for confirming that I'm not the only person who's not impressed by The Hurt Locker.

 

[tboo]

I thought it was very well done.

 

[Aharami]

I think it is a fantastic movie

 

[Legendary]

Thought it was great.
Can't describe how I felt walking out of that theater but it was something like a combination of awe and sadness.

 

[BeauJangles]

Thought it was great.
Can't describe how I felt walking out of that theater but it was something like a combination of awe and sadness.

I think that when you keep the quote the movie opens with in mind, everything makes sense and becomes very meaningful throughout the film. When I was watching it I was constantly reminded of the book War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. Not that I agree with everything the book had to say, but I found both the book and The Hurt Locker incredibly refreshing, especially when you juxtapose it with the traditional style of war movies.

 

[darkxshade]

The movie was good but unrealistic to the point of distration. Have you heard of a fully autonomous 3 man-unit that travels alone in Iraq disarming bombs, sniping insurgents and carry out alleyway assaults without having to call it in? I was almost disappointed their humvee didn't have any fixed wings on so they can fly missions as well. That's aside from the surprising fact that you can sneak out of base and get back in without any repercussions.

 

[amdhunter]

It was alright. I did expect more out of it, and the ending was extremely predictable. It got boring after a while.

 

[BoomerD]

I saw the movie 18 times...I just thorougly loved the movie!
In fact this movie was easily as good as Avatar or any of the Star Wars movie.
I would put in the same catagorie as Gone With The Wind!!
The plot was very intricately thought out.
It was such a pleasure to see some real acting.
I cannot say enough about how magnificent the movie was......
This movie was easily better mthan The Titanic.

Just awesome!!

That's pretty much what the local reviews are for this movie. Of course, Jeremy Renner is a "local boy," so I think that tends to affect their judgement a bit...

I haven't seen it, but I know it's at the Redbox, so I may rent it one of these days.

 

[RedRooster]

It was a movie about war, not a war movie. I thought it was pretty good. Certainly not the best war movie.

Agreed. In a way, its very similar to the series Generation Kill.
In fact I'd say Hurt Locker:Generation Kill as Saving Private Ryan:Band Of Brothers.

Two totally different types of movies, even though from the outside some might think its supposed to be a blow em up action movie.

 

[angry hampster]

I liked the disarmament scenes. I thought the scene where they were stuck in a stare-down in the desert with Iraqi snipers was absurd. The US Army snipers were lying on the hill, completely exposed for apparently hours and never shot at.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I thought it was a great movie. I thought it was intellectually deeper than you give it credit for. Like a previous poster referred to the scene where he is in the grocery cereal aisle. The scene where they are getting drunk and beating the piss out of each other shows the wildness and built up aggression the troops are most definitely going through. Then when the guy goes to sleep he asks the other soldier if he thinks he has what it takes to put the suit on. At that moment I thought about it and that question made me think of what kind of nerves of steel it takes to really do something like that. The hurt locker is the first realistic portrayal of the horror that goes on out there and for that alone deserves the praise it's getting.

 

[KeithTalent]

I thought it was great. I can see not liking the film, but calling it "stupid" or "terribad" is silly. It is very well put together, shot well, and has some interesting, well written scenes, if nothing else.

KT

 

[brblx]

these later replies have really clued me in to why this is popular.

it's an 'intellectual' movie for complete morons.

 

[BTA]

Wasn't it written/directed by a woman?

Women make terrible writer/directors....kinda like they make terrible comedians.

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

I thought it was a great movie. I thought it was intellectually deeper than you give it credit for. Like a previous poster referred to the scene where he is in the grocery cereal aisle. The scene where they are getting drunk and beating the piss out of each other shows the wildness and built up aggression the troops are most definitely going through. Then when the guy goes to sleep he asks the other soldier if he thinks he has what it takes to put the suit on. At that moment I thought about it and that question made me think of what kind of nerves of steel it takes to really do something like that. The hurt locker is the first realistic portrayal of the horror that goes on out there and for that alone deserves the praise it's getting.

Exactly. And then the movie shows the world we live in (the grocery scene) which is the exact opposite. The main character has nerves of steel to the point that nothing can give him the rush he needs to feel alive besides disarming an IED in Iraq. Wasnt the main point of the movie to show that he is an adrenaline junky constantly in search of his next rush? Not only that but it also showed that wide range of characters in the military - not everyone is a crazy adrenaline junky.