Good but not Great

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 2005)

This movie was a for sure rental. Jarhead is a war movie about how not killing is hell. It was very well performed, has a great storyline, but there is no action. Jarhead is a war movie that rises above the war and tells a soldier's story. It tells it with the urgency and pointlessness that all men's stories have, because if something has happened to us, then it is important to us no matter how indifferent the world may be. The movie is uncanny in its effect. It contains no heroism, little action, but it is good for a couple of laughs. Apparently non-wars are hell too. Jarhead opens like Full Metal Jacket redux, with Jamie Foxx as the insane drill instructor. But it belongs to a surprising Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, unravelling in the desert, turning to scorpion-fights and porn for entertainment, and eventually turning on each other. Bottomline - if you're looking for blood and gore; this is not the movie to see.