All the elements are there...but it doesn't work

Rating: 5/10 (1 June 2015)

I finally watched this movie on Blu-Ray last night. I love war/military type films so I figured it should be enjoyable considering all the good reviews. I don't know if the Full Metal Jacket clone first 30-minutes turned me off the to the rest of the film or just the generic story and acting? I like Jamie Fox in The Kingdom, which is a much better film. Jake Gyllenhaal was brilliant in Zodiac and End of Watch. I don't know if I've seen a film that spent so much of it's dialog on cursing as this movie does. As the story progresses you really feel the movie start to drag a bit and wonder if anything is actually going to ever happen. In the end this Marine unit misses the war and there is no fighting or shooting at all. Then to wrap up the movie is a retarded party seen with everyone drinking around bonfires and shooting their guns in the end. The only real saving grace of this film is Lucas Black's character and Peter Sarsgaard to some extent. There are so many much better war/military films then this, including the above mentioned The Kingdom and Green Zone if you like Middle East zones. I must also say that if this is how Marines typically act and are organized, they certainly aren't the well oiled machine I thought they were supposed to be.