Electric Direction & Stunning Cinematography Can't Quite Master This Hollow War Affair!

Rating: 6/10 (5 January 2010)

The Hurt Locker is a tense, vicious Iraq war movie pumped up with electric direction and stunning cinematography. Sharp script projected through some bold performances and a few cameos enter to really bring this movie to what its worthy of achieving! But the plot is so uneventful and the running time drags and can't quite captivate the audience all the way through. The first hour is blistering and never caves, but completely loses the mark in its last half an hour! Its gritty and it looks brutal, but some of the personalities in the movie are far from realistic, so we are never truly convinced. The hurt locker is free from the glamorised mists of Hollywood, and maintains its rugged sense of battle, but its just so hollow and long that 20 minutes shot off could easily score another star. There will be some really great scenes and they will just be really poorly executed. Stuff happens in the film with very little explanation and there are some features that just had me asking, 'why was that put in the movie?' Still, it's worth watching, and for fans of War movies, a must see.
Overall: Tense, gritty but tremendously hollow. Some electric direction and some stunning cinematography, but doesn't deserve to be one of the years best due to lack of plot and focus. But this is a rush for any war movie junkie!
6/10 3/5
-Simpson Reviews