Half decent, overrated movie

Rating: 5/10 (14 March 2017)

Throughout cinematic history there have been films that have become classics, some have deserved it and others are wildly over-hyped. Sadly this movie is one such example of the latter. Truthfully they could've made the whole movie about the boot camp scenes as they're the only good parts of it. The boot camp shows how gruelling the training was, giving the impression it was worse than the actual war itself with a truly memorable appearance from R. Lee Ermey who you have to give praise to for improvising a lot if not all of his dialogue drawing from his experience as a real life drill sergeant around the time of the Vietnam War you do find yourself feeling sorry for Private Pyle who is the unfortunate SOB on the receiving end of Ermey's insults. However everything kind of goes downhill after Ermey's murder and Pyle's suicide in the bathroom halfway through. There is no excitement in the combat and nothing memorable in them whatsoever which is a shame. The movie could've been better either doing more for the combat scenes or been set entirely in the boot camp, ending just as they're being shipped off to Vietnam but alas it falls into that category of mine where a movie is so over-hyped that it just collapses upon watching.