Strip this movie from the hype and awards.

Rating: 6/10 (1 April 2020)

I usually give 'Academy Award' winning movies a wide birth, just to let the dust settle and the hype to die down. The usual red flag reviews on IMDb of either 1 or 10 out of 10, makes it even more difficult to get your head around. For a start Kathryn Bigelow is a highly accomplished film maker who tends to get very good performances out of her actors. As an action director, you know she is going to deliver some pretty tight, tense scenes (which there are many). Another point (but neither good or bad), is it's neither an 'Anti War Movie' or more importantly anti military; It just depicts the chaos of war and the mayhem it causes. Bomb disposal units throughout history are made up of fearless, heroic men and 'The Hurt Locker' reflects this. On the negative side, military personal (serving in E.O.D squads) say it's completely unrealistic. Personally Iv'e only seen three other pictures, concerning this highly contentious conflict and they (for one reason or another) are all superior. The entertaining 'Three Kings' (1999), The dramatic 'In the Valley of Elah' (2007) and the best of the lot 'Redacted' (of the same year). The latter makes you really question, What the hell were we doing there in the first place!?