About What I Expected

Rating: 5/10 (14 January 2016)

I didn't get around to seeing this movie because it's just not my style. But often I will watch something because of the awards and the hype and I am pleasantly surprised. "The Hurt Locker" was an excellent film. It was riveting because I really cared about the characters and their resolve. This has some of the same issues but doesn't come close to the former film. Here we have a man whose reason for fighting has to do with what he sees on television. He is a man with little moral compass. He just would like to kill the bad guys. This whole film is so loaded with the military agenda, it makes a hero out of a guy who assaults women and children (yes, I know they carry bombs--but that's because this movie feeds us this). He goes into the houses of terrified people, begging for their lives, who don't happen to speak English. Hollywood and Clint Eastwood create a milieu where the deck is totally stacked. The domestic side of it is pure applesauce. The wife back home that he picked up in a bar. The atmosphere of violence that stays after all that this guy has seen. I was surprised at how manipulative and uninteresting the film is.