A warless war picture

Rating: 4/10 (15 August 2008)

I don't know. I ordered a war movie but I got something else. I have never been to war but this movie made it appear dull and boring. I appreciate the "getting into the heads" of the characters. The acting was flawless. Like everyone else has said the cinematography was outstanding. Director, as always, does a great job.
Having said that, I found no arc to the story, and I am not sure the story was anything more than one soldier's perspective. It just seemed to be a random series of vignettes which relied heavily on homo erotic themes. Even the scene where the dude's wife screwed him over seemed to say 'women stink, stick with your man buddies'. That scene was shameless foreshadowing, by the way.
Jake's Christmas performance, which frankly was like watching a gay stripper, seemed out of character to me. But Jesus, can that boy shake his ass or what (but it pulled me out of the film). Furthermore there seemed to be a whole lot of Jake flesh and man flesh in general. Not that there's anything wrong with hot nekked men, but I thought I was going to see a movie about war.