97% Rotten Tomatoes? You must be kidding!

Rating: Null/10 (3 September 2011)

I saw this one because it got raving reviews. Jeremy Renner did an excellent job, and he'd deserved to have had a better script. Hell, he deserved to have had a script at all. All he had was a bunch of clichés stacked two hours high and a hand-held camera.
New NCO initially welcomed with hostility because he replaces dead comrade? Check!
NCO wins over squad despite his unconventional, hard-charging methods? Check!
NCO befriends 12-year old boy from the enemy camp? Check!
12-year old boy killed? Check!
The squad nerd kills a hostile and grows a pair? Check!
And after dutifully plodding through the motions it ends with a big, big surprise: James is an adrenaline addict! And just to make sure nobody is caught off guard by this startling conclusion, the movie opens with the quote: "War is a drug."
James Coburn did this whole movie in a two-minute sequence of "Cross of Iron" where he leaves the hospital and a hot nurse - Peckinpah having his priorities straight - and he didn't utter a single word.