The Hurt Locker

[Lazy Boy]

http://10moviestosee.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/hurtlocker-poster.jpg

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Written by Mark Boal

Genre: Action/drama/thriller

Plot: Iraq. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, Evangeline Lilly

Rated R for war violence and language.

Runtime: 131 minutes

The excellent reviews have gotten me excited -- looks like the ideal "smart" action flick to see this weekend, good counterprogramming. Bigelow is an underrated director; don't know if it's because she's a woman in a male dominated industry, but she deserves a lot of respect for some damn good films.

[Danger^Cart]

This film is pure fiction, and I cringe at the thought of impressionable youths thinking this is how shit even remotely works over there.

That being said, it's a very well directed, enertaining, if not melodramtic action/suspense film.

Jeremy Renner is a really likeable leading man. Also love the cameo from Ralph Fiennes.

[electriclite]

This is most certainly a suspense-thriller in every sense of the word, but do not go in expecting any kind of story. Its almost documentary-like in the way the film follows these men on their missions, since its mainly about these guys and how they behave/react to their situation.

[Reigh Kaufman]

This is most certainly a suspense-thriller in every sense of the word, but do not go in expecting any kind of story. Its almost documentary-like in the way the film follows these men on their missions, since its mainly about these guys and how they behave/react to their situation.

Agreed. I did, however, love the tension the film created as a result of this.

One word of warning: the "big" names in the cast are all cameos.

[ilovemovies]

Yeah, there really isn't a plot to this movie other than it following these 3 soldiers as they go through one tense situation after another. But man does Katharine Bigalow know sustain tension. This movie some incredibly tense moments. Jeremy Renner deserves to become a big star with this movie. He is superb. So are the other two actors playing the soldiers. I don't think I would consider this to be a great movie, there are some moments that are predictable for instance. But you'll be clawing your seats most of the way through.

7/10

[BakeTheMooCow]

I thought about downloading it since the dvdrip has been out there for ages, but I want to see it on the big screen. Looks excellent.

[JCPhoenix]

My roommate saw this at TIFF and thought it was great...the good reviews are also getting me pumped and I've enjoyed Kathryn Bigelow's work in the past. Hoping to see this next Friday (if it opens in Toronto then) in a triple feature :D (Moon/Public Enemies/Hurt Locker)...

[MisterChristian]

Believe it's opening tomorrow *somewhere* in Toronto, JCPhoenix (maybe Varsity?). I will have to check online when I get up to confirm.

Dying to see this film!

*UPDATE: Seems it doesn't open in Canada until July 10.

[SpiralEye]

Loved it! Jeremy Renner was great in it, he deserves attention for this.

[overwatch]

Great fucking movie. I really loved the stance the movie took and I loved seeing a movie that takes place in war that doesn't have people going nuts. People don't always go fucking nuts per hollywood war movies.

[cupajoe]

I wanna know who plays the song at the end.

[retlaw]

With the exception of a couple of terriffic scenes i did not like this movie at all. During the movie i constantly had the feeling something was going to happen and that it was building up to something, but it really never did. It felt like some great scenes were randomly put together without an actual story to back it up and in the end it was going nowhere. More like some kind of documentary. Also didnt like the use of some good actors that were killed of to soon, you know what i mean when you see it.

[chinton]

It doesn't really have a plot but I thought it all really held well together well mainly because of the fine attention paid to the three main soldiers actors. Jeremy Renner really holds the film up with a great performance.

The setpieces were great but what I liked most was how they were constructed. Bigelow really laid every set piece out so well so we along with the bomb diffusers got a good sense of not only where everything is but really helping us the audience understand the different distraction that are happening around the diffusal. The best example would be the car bomb scene where we see multiple levels of threat going on at once. It really doesn't sound like much but the set-up in these scene were phenomenal.

I also loved the pacing in the set-pieces particuraly the great sniper scene that much like Kubricks sniper scene in clockwork orange really did a great job of showing the patience that goes into a fight like this. I love the small details in the scene with flies and the near misses as they shot back and forth.

Its a long movie that really is more a documentary than a narrative feature but its extremely well put together and by far the best Iraq war film that has come out so far.

8/10

[echo_bravo]

I definitely need to see this.

A couple of my friends saw it and loved it. They mentioned it was refreshing that it didnt have some preachy message shoved down the audiences throats.

[casey_play]

I just love the actions and explosions and the thrill to in this film.. =)

[poopontheshoes7]

Huge fan of Bigalow here. But this isn't playing at a theater near me which pisses me off. Cool to see this get so good buzz.

[someguy]

mild spoilers here

I liked the movie but I thought it was a little too long and most of the attempts to put a more human side on Renner's character fell flat. The scene where he sneaks out of the army base was a little too ridiculous for me. I know it doesn't make much sense to have that aspect come across as too implausible but I thought that whole section should have been cut out. Same goes for the small section with him at home. Other than that the directing is great, the acting is good all around (whoever did the casting here was pretty damn clever) and the disarming scenes will probably be remembered for a long time for their intensity. It's a good movie and I hope that with the massive love that critics gave it can get a wider release.

[Lazy Boy]

7/10

I liked the movie, but in no way did I feel any tension during the scenes where I was supposed to -- pretty strange considering one of the taglines to the film being that war is a drug. Truthfully, I thought each attempt by the IED squad to diffuse a bomb ended in an anticlimactic way (if that's the right word), and it was repeated over the course of the two hours. The one thing that took me out of the tension was the slow motion shots of the bullet slowly hitting the ground (during an otherwise well done sniper back and forth in the middle of the desert) and the veneer of a car being stripped away, and granules of dirt slowly rising in the air in the beginning.

What does work (and is a major reason why I don't give the film less than a seven) is the performance by Jeremy Renner. The kevlar suit is pretty much all about his character -- tough guy with it on, but once it's off he kind of breaks down. Breakthrough stuff. The side story of him looking for a young boy ultimately leads to another dead end, but character wise, I like how it ties into his child at home, and how he thinks of the woman from whom he may or may not be divorced. There's a great scene near the end where he basically points out the one thing in his life that fuels his fire, and not the monotony of home life. The end title card is an ironic capper to the tag. War is a drug. Renner's performance enables that more than the fine direction by Bigelow.

Of the other performers, don't expect much from some of the bigger names mentioned, as they are resorted to basically one sceners. Brian Geraghty, otoh, I thought was pretty awful in his scenes with the army psychiatrist -- "I just saw him standing there!" and other lines are woodenly delivered by Geraghty. Anthony Mackie is solid, but he only truly shines in a late monologue about children, something his character doesn't see as a necessity in his life. You kind of see why his mind changes.

[visual_tension]

Just came back from a screening followed by a Q&A with Bigelow and Boal. This is one of the best films I've seen this so far this year. Very suspenseful. After reading comments about how there's pretty much no story, I thought it would bother me but it didn't. It's a gripping experience from start to finish.

8/10

[John Galt]

Really great I thought. Awesome direction by Bigelow and it had some really cool sequences. Jeremy Renner is way more of a convincing leading man than say, Leonardo DiCaprio. It was also really nice to see Evangeline Lilly after "The Incident", albeit for a fraction of a second. And yes, thank goodness they didn't have some preachy message in it being crammed down your throat.
It was cool they also had a bunch of songs by Ministry as well.

8/10

[echo_bravo]

Saw it last night. Incredible film.

I really hope this puts Renner into the mainstream.

Mackie was great as well.

The cat and mouse game with the enemy snipers was very well done and I was on the edge of my seat for most of the film.

9/10

[Monotreme]

Saw it a while ago, and I gave it the same rating as Lazy Boy (7/10), but for different reasons. I actually thought that the "action scenes"/the scenes in which we see the unit in action were expertly done and nerve-rackingly tense; in general, I think the film is a technical wonder and showcases some really impressive directing and production. But what bothered me more is that it's not really focused. The characters aren't all entirely fleshed out and I felt that the Jeremy Renner character, who was supposed to be the center of the movie, only really shifted into focus near the end, which was good (the whole adrenialine addict thing was well done), but before that, the movie is really just more of a general depiction of events, and it even seems at first that it is Mackie's character who is supposed to be the emotional core. So in short, I thought it was a good movie with some great ideas and some excellent directing and really tense and well-made scenes, but it's not QUITE the masterpiece that some people make it out to be.

[bigred760]

I'm wanting and am looking forward to seeing this. It'll be here this Friday apparently.

Sweeeeeeet.

[bigred760]

The only impressive thing about this movie were the individual scenes involving the bomb disarming, other than that . . . this movie was dull. There really wasn't a story, just the day-to-day life of the army bomb squad and the people involved. It could've been somewhat of a character movie, but there wasn't much character development from any of the characters . . . the leader's a hot shot, his 2nd didn't like him much, and the specialist was a kid who probably had the most potential as far as character was concerned, but that didn't go anywhere either. I did like the Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, and David Morse cameos, but other than Pearce . . . they really didn't do much either. The movie was basically main guys disarming bombs and that was it. I was kind of hoping for something a little more.

5/10

[BakeTheMooCow]

There really wasn't a story, just the day-to-day life of the army bomb squad and the people involved.

Yeah, that was kinda the point.

Great film. Barring some plot points, the acting and direction is very good and loved some of the shots like James putting his helmet on in his bed and being unable to choose between cereal boxes. Little things that really highlighted the themes of the movie.

7/10

[bigred760]

Yeah, that was kinda the point.


Yeah, and it was kind of redundant. It got to the point where I was wondering which individual story of them checking out a bomb was going to be the last one. It also got a little predictable. I just didn't get into the movie at all, mostly because there really wasn't any progress to what was going on, other than the countdown to them getting out of Iraq.

[Katel2]

The Hurt Lock is a great war film. It is completely unique- the look of it, the subject matter- the ability to take us into a highly dangerous job and the day to day heat and boredom of being a soldier in Iraq. I think this will be looked upon 20 years from now as one of the greats. Bigelow's style will be influential to other directors and war and action films.

I love what Ebert said about it.
"Certainly James behaves recklessly at times, even in his use of protective clothing. He takes risks boldly. But in the actual task of defusing a bomb, he is as careful as if he were operating on his own heart. Bigelow uses no phony suspense-generating mechanisms in this film. No false alarms. No gung ho. It is about personalities in terrible danger. The suspense is real, and it is earned. Hitchcock said when there’s a bomb under a table, and it explodes, that’s action. When we know the bomb is there, and the people at the table play cards, and it doesn’t explode, that’s suspense.

"The Hurt Locker" is a great film, an intelligent film, a film shot clearly so that we know exactly who everybody is and where they are and what they're doing and why. The camera work is at the service of the story. Bigelow knows that you can't build suspense with shots lasting one or two seconds. And you can't tell a story that way, either -- not one that deals with the mystery of why a man like James seems to depend on risking his life. A leading contender for Academy Awards."

[Badbird]

I really liked this movie. Very intense. But I've been a big fan of Kathryn Bigelow for a long, long time. I knew she wouldn't disappoint.

It's my second favorite movie of the year, so far, right behind Taken.

9/10

[APzombie]

i saw The Hurt Locker about two months ago at the Maryland Film Festival with Kathryn Bigelow in attendance. I liked the movie a lot, though there are some aspects about it that turned me off. A lot of the situations became predictable after the first half an hour. It was still a solid film though.

[lancer42678]

One of the best movies I have seen in awhile. Great acting and great setting.9/10

[Brendan M.]

I saw this movie again last night for a second time. Still, wow. My rating went up from an 8/10 to a 9/10.