It's Hard To Say Where Exactly I Stand On This Film

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2014)

"That's not a knife, that's a f***ing duck." That line is too good to not be mentioned in this review.
This film really has me conflicted. I heard really good things about it when it came out, so I thought it would go above and beyond the usual military hero movie, but i'm not sure if it did. The strongest part of this film has to be the whole sequence of the squad being attacked by the Taliban. There are lots of great blood and gore effects that help make their injuries feel realistic, and you really feel bad for these guys. They go through so much and the movie does not pull any punches.
One of the biggest things I can't quite make my mind up about is whether or not I think the film is too "hurrah USA!" or not. The last little bit of the film feels too Hollywood, which would make you think so, but the amount of terrible things that happen to the characters makes me think otherwise. Regardless, I really respect the real men who died during this mission in real life, and the sequence at the end where they show real pictures of the men is quite moving, especially when we see footage from one of the men's wedding videos. Touching stuff.
I think the performances were pretty good all around. Mark Wahlberg is the main character, and he does a good job, but I actually think Ben Foster would have been more interesting in the role of the lead, because I found his performance extremely interesting and impressive.
There were also some things in this that I found humorous that i'm almost certain aren't supposed to be. The "f***ing duck" quote is obviously supposed to get a laugh, but i'm not sure about Mark Wahlberg yelling "i'm gonna f***ing kill you!" over and over at a group of Afghan men and a kid while holding a grenade. I couldn't help but laugh and I don't think that was the response the director wanted. Also the way one of the falling down the cliff sequences was edited almost seemed like he kept falling down the same slope and hitting the same rock, which made me laugh once again when I know it was supposed to be serious. I'm not one of those idiots who laughs at things all the time, I just don't think these scenes we're done well.
Overall, this is a good movie. Not great, just good. Take from it what you will. It certainly is an interesting story based on a real event, and I think that makes it worth a watch.