Frontlines of Iraq

Rating: 8/10 (31 August 2009)

I wasn't expecting much from this movie. But I happy to say I really enjoyed it. Great set pieces that delivers loads of intense action. This was more like Jarhead, but only better. Film does well to mix the right type of action and humour and still not lose it's way with the story. Performance wise, everyone was great in it. Jeremy Renner plays the mentally tortured soldier role very well. I liked his character from the start, even though he was a bit of reckless maverick, I still liked him. Anthony Mackie just keeps getting better and better, and in my opinion he's definitely one the best black actors out there. I thought he was absolutely great in this. David Morse continues to be reliable, Ralph Fiennes makes a short comedic cameo as a private contractor, and Brian Geraghty impresses as the paranoid Sgt Eldrigde. Kathryn Bigelow is a director who has made some really good movies, Near Dark and Point Break being two of them. She's made a war movie that isn't the usual USA gung ho crap. It's a true tale about what soldiers are facing each day on the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. And one that raises the question, what exactly are they fighting to protect? Go see!