Good 'fly on the wall' type treatment of bomb disposal in Iraq...

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2010)

Many years ago I remember being a fan of the English TV series "Danger: UXB". It was about a unit in World War II who dismantled bombs dropped in raids by German planes on English soil.
The Hurt Locker has a similar premise, except this time the unit is in enemy territory. It depicts a close unit who have to deal with a new bomb disposal expert...the new guy is taken to be a maverick.
Found this to be a good movie, but I'm not as big a convert to it as many critics, who give it full marks.
Generally the action seems quite realistic, but one sequence seemed improbable to me...when the maverick (Sergeant First Class William James, played by Jeremy Renner) takes his unit on a mission which wasn't part of their duties). Not sure if stuff like that really happens.
Otherwise a tense drama about the possibility of death at any moment. Unlike "Green zone", which was released around the same time as this movie in Australia, "The hurt locker" does not delve into the motivation for America's invasion of Iraq. Both movies have the same setting (Iraq) and are of the same time-frame. Green Zone is also a good movie...it's just more political.