Bombs can be boring

Rating: 5/10 (24 March 2010)

Sad, bad; made me mad that I spent time watching this half-baked war flick. What's the problem? No real plot, nothing too interesting going on, hyper-realism that's both essentially boring and at the same time all too real...so it's more like a documentary highlighted by typical "illuminating" contrived back stories. The entire movie felt very phony in its pretensions. That said, it wasn't preachy, at least not directly, and the acting was credible. I give lots of credit to the director for getting this movie made, but it's not much of a movie either. How could it have been improved?- by adding a political framework for the Iraqi point of view...are we just supposed to assume the usual contagion/animosity and all its stereotypical components? What about the sectarian strife between Muslim factions, etc? Is this merely a bomb squad movie that happens to be set some place in the Middle East?