Over-hyped, but not Sub-Par

Rating: 5/10 (21 January 2015)

Riding on the coattails of current event relativism and the Bradley Cooper Hype Train, Clint Eastwood's film "American Sniper" promised us that it would be "the best film of the year" as well as "one of the best performances of the year." Naturally, I watched this film attempting to analyze these claims for myself.
Was "American Sniper" on of the best films of the year? Perhaps; it would mostly depend on who you talked to. In my personal opinion, I believe "American Sniper" was very similar to "The Hurt Locker" (2008); however, the latter was far superior. This comparison may come under criticism due to the fact that Eastwood's film is based on a true story while the other is not. To those that would argue this makes it more intriguing or better, pump your brakes. "American Sniper" is loosely based on the auto-biography of Chris Kyle himself, but some rather key character traits are lost in the movie (most likely for some kind of propaganda). If you do not believe me, I encourage you to do research yourself, Kyle is a very interesting study into psychology when it comes to the combination of hate, power, and respect. Moving on, the movie itself has some rather cheesy plot lines that look like they came straight out of "Enemy at the Gates." It is also an extremely fast paced film that covers several years of Kyle's life, but only focuses on a few days. In conclusion, there are plenty of other films that I thought were better this year, including "Fury," another war movie that deals with psychological issues and American heroes. If you want to see a great film on war that also deals with PTSD, please give "The Hurt Locker" a watch if you have not already seen it.
Did Bradley Cooper give one of the best performances of the year? No, but he did give the best performance of his career. Unfortunately for him, many other great actors also had tremendous years. Cooper will most likely get stomped by the other nominees in the Leading Actor category.
In short, "American Sniper" was good, however; the hype, money, and recognition it is receiving are highly undeserved in my opinion. I gave this film a 7 out of 10 for a great performance from Bradley Cooper and for its theater watch-ability. If you insist on seeing any of the garbage coming out in the next few months, see this instead, hopefully it will have an extended release because of its late release date.