Yeah right

Rating: 5/10 (11 January 2010)

This is a tough one. How do I review this movie? Is it an action flick? Is it a war flick? Or is the Hurt Locker a social comment on the Iraq experience?
While some will claim the movie is all three of those things, I personally don't know the answer and after watching the Hurt Locker I'm quite sure neither does director Kathryn Bigelow.
The Hurt Locker is a movie full of all the right intentions, a lot of competent actors, and many many camera setups. But there is not one powerful scene, not one notable performance and not a single memorable image for all its two hours of run time.
We follow a group of U.S. Soldiers, but it feels like they are the only group in all of Baghdad. Intentional or budgetary restraints? We roam the anarchic streets of Baghdad (which, credit to the filmmakers, actually feels like a real Arab country. And after seeing the movie, I learned they went all the way to Jordan. Bravo, as the setting actually feels authentic.) We disarm a lot of bombs and enter many uncertain doorways. While the movie aims to be exciting, I just couldn't "suspend disbelief" when the director is trying so hard to be realistic by shaking the camera so much. And why can't a troupe of former British SAS officers handle a handful of insurgents in an empty cinder block shed. I call shenanigans.
OK I understand the idea of dramatic license, but there is no way a former SAS sharpshooter is going to miss a shot, die from a window sniper half a mile away and an American G.I. will save the day taking over on the guy's Barrett .50 cal.. I'm not putting anybody down here, but I would bet most people with some sort of know will be with me in saying "Yeah Right." This scene is a poster child for the movie at large - like most of the movie, makes little sense and very little is rooted in any sort of reality. But the camera shakes so its oh so real! Quite frankly I laughed my butt off in the sequence.
Dude, she made Point Break...POINT BREAK! How could you expect any different? If you haven't figured it out by this point, Kathryn Bigelow isn't going into the books as one of the greats. From what I read, the crew shot endless setups to get a "documentary feel." Well as a documentary photographer I can tell you, to document something, you only really need one camera. The rest depends on vision. Something Kathryn Bigelow doesn't have.
The script is laughable, the characters forgettable, and the direction completely platitudinous, the only Hurt Locker is the seat you're stuck in until this turkey plays itself out.