The Hurt Schlocker

Rating: 1/10 (15 January 2011)

I was really looking forward to a great war movie, the Hurt Locker having won a pallet of Oscars, I figured I had just the right one. Boy was I wrong! The movie stunk from the opening moments in which one of the bomb squad team the movie follows is killed by a bomb that not only is detonated pretty far from him, but we see not a bit of shrapnel or debris come anywhere near the guy. The movie proceeds from one boring encounter with explosives and Iraquis to the next tedious and unbelievable encounter. The acting was just passable, but no member of the cast is even mildly interesting or compelling.
Boring, and stretching belief at every turn, Hurt Locker continues to try to top itself in boring tedium as it progresses. This movie does not just want you to suspend your disbelief, it wants you to explode it at the door. Stupid and remorselessly trite situation after stupid and remorselessly trite situation are unfolded, but by this time the viewer is indifferent to its bland characters and their acts of foolishness.
David Morse appears to have what amounts to a cameo as a loony American colonel, the obligatory ditsy and unfeeling brass that Hollywood feels obliged to insert in every war movie depicting Americans. Robert Duvall was infinitely better with his Lt. Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now.
With about 40 minutes left to run, I shut this crap off. I didn't care what happened to any of the characters, nor did I care how it ended. It has no real story, so I would not have to wonder how a story terminates.
What the heck happened to Oscar? This award used to mean something, but lavishing so many on this piece of dung devalues Oscar beyond redemption, IMO. A real piece of trash!