Jarhead - just another war movie

Rating: 5/10 (10 May 2006)

Mediocre war movie. You know how they go: first half training, second half fighting. Hard to believe these days someone would still use the old 80s formula... let alone trade the action of the latter half to "making a point". Please! Sure I care for the characters but 10 bucks for politics instead of fireworks in a war movie - that's a cheat! This story is better off as a book, but I guess "somehow" Hollywood is obliged to release a big budget war movie every so often...
To put it short, "Jarhead" criticizes the war on Iraq. In a way the superior "Three kings" already did 6 years ago, minus the action, minus half the entertainment, minus half the story... yes, *sigh*. Well, you don't actually need to get a pillow for this (except maybe for the last 10 minutes when they *try to* sum it up) because there are some truly effective scenes, but as a whole it lacks punch. As did Sam Mendes' previous attempt, "Road to Perdition". Makes me wonder if "American beauty" had really been (even) that good without Kevin Spacey. Gyllenhaal gives a fine performance (doesn't he always) but he can't save this film.