interesting performances

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2016)

Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) and his men get caught in an ambush in Tikrit, Iraq. Several are killed in the incident. King returns home to Texas as a hero. Senator Orton Worrell promises to care for his injured comrade Rodriguez. His friend Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum) shows signs of PTSD scaring his fiancée Michelle (Abbie Cornish). Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is drunk and gets thrown out by his wife. Brandon, Tommy and Steve report back to the military. Brandon is surprised to be stop-loss. He is ordered back to Iraq despite expecting to be discharged. He goes AWOL. Along with Michelle, he heads for D.C. to get help from Senator Worrell.
There are a few interesting performances but the movie takes on too much. It needs more scenes of quiet character development and concentrate on fewer people. Not everything has to be issues about being a soldier. It pushes a little too hard when King goes super-soldier on those thieves. There's probably a better and simpler movie in here.