Should be titled "Telegraphing Everything to the Audience"

Rating: 3/10 (16 January 2015)

Firstly, Brad Cooper is a shining light in this film and deserves some or many awards, no doubt the acting was amazing. The film, story, ham handed script, and visual effects, not so good. I was surprised this serious material was turned into another Hollywood fantasy video game filled with bad, expendables level CGI blood effects, terrible fake rubber babies, and mustache twirling terrorists that are apparently led by a parkour loving sniper & phantom of the opera style, cape wearing villain. I half expected these one-dimensional caricatures to start yelling out "durka durka durka" -- Dear Hollywood, people DO NOT TALK LIKE THIS. Idiots in this movie may as well have been winking into the camera while delivering exposition like "YOU DID IT" and "THEY ARE EVIL" and "GET SOME" .. ridiculous 6 year old level writing that belongs in a Stallone film. No matter what your politics, one thing is for sure, this type of material should be taken more seriously and not turned into just another blockbuster action film with made up scenarios that did not happen in the true story. And speaking of which, is it protocol for snipers to just decide they want to suddenly leave their position and join foot soldiers in house raids? And can snipers also just start pretending they are in CSI Iraq and run around interrogating people to gather intel on high level targets? If so, then, OK. Either way this film is laughably simplistic in its delivery of the ham fisted messages, especially in regards to forcing us to feel one way or another during any given situation. WE GET IT OK? Let us for once think for ourselves and see beyond just black and white caricatures who speak their every thought aloud and always with prolific clarity. Hollywood does not seem to realize that they keep making war films with war heroes who act like they KNOW they are in a movie and KNOW they are being paid millions for it. I will say some of the very obvious non-actor veterans also shined in the film but overall this movie is empty, action for the sake of action, telegraphed, garbage that people seem to swallow these days as serious. It is one level above Team America in that regard, Have fun but no thanks on this one.