The Hurt Locker will leave you scratching your head.

Rating: 3/10 (10 May 2010)

By the time I saw the Hurt Locker, I already knew that the picture had won Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing. I would say that expectations were high, but it won't change my review. The Hurt Locker is a movie lost in its own pointless plot. The story has been told before just in a different theater of combat. Jeremy Renner plays a soldier who is more comfortable in a war zone than his own home. He is the stereotypical renegade serving in an a Ordinance Disposal Unit. His character, Sergeant First Class William James, is fearless when it comes to defusing bombs. This puts him at odds with his unit who see him as dangerous and a threat to their own safety. Renner deserves no acclaim when it comes to his acting. He plays the character with well, but it really isn't acomplicated role.
Kathryn Bigelow received critical acclaim as the director for creating a suspenseful documentary-style film. I didn't feel the suspense other than the suspense of waiting for the film to live-up to the hype. It was boorish and unworthy of an Oscar. One has to wonder if the distributer of the film, Summit Entertainment, really deserves the credit for a well-run Oscar campaign, or was this slight against her ex-husband James Cameron who is better known for his bad-mannered arrogance than his movies within the Hollywood circles.
This is a movie that leaves a viewer saying aloud "is that it?" as the credits rolled. It also doesn't help that the true heroes of the Iraqi war, the veterans, admonished the film as "inaccurate" and "offending".