Peter Berg Redeems Himself

Rating: 9/10 (4 February 2014)

After the mega flop "Battleship", I thought that Peter Berg would probably not follow this up with anything worth my time, but man am I glad to have been proved wrong. Rarely do I find myself drawn to a war movie, but this grabbed me and put me right in the middle of the action.
This movie had to have been one of the most intense movies I have had the pleasure of seeing in quite some time. The gunshots, the explosions everything sounded so genuine, so real. And it was good enough to be acknowledged by the Academy! Mark Wahlberg gave what I consider to be his best performance, and he was helped by incredibly talented actors such as Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Taylor Kitsch and Eric Bana.
Not having read the book, I don't know if it followed the book directly, but from what I've been told it was pretty spot on with the exception of the ending in the village.
This movie was in my opinion snubbed by the academy, it got two very well deserved nominations for sound, but the editing was top notch, visual effects were solid, acting was right on target, best picture wise, maybe with a little more persuading.
All in all, Berg did redeem himself with this effort, hopefully he can keep it up!