A very very very good movie.

Rating: 7/10 (3 March 2010)

This will easily qualify as one of the best war movies about Iraq. It is excellent. It is thrilling. It will keep you on the edge of your seat. Is it deep? Is it worth 9 Oscar nominations? In my opinion no.
The only character I felt was portrayed believable, was James. He is absorbed by the war, and he does something about it. Sanborn is a pro, but cracks in the last explosion. Why? We don't really know. Eldridge turns from being afraid of dying, into a dude with a combat face, into someone mad about surviving the war. Why? We don't really know. What we do know, is, that what drives James, is the adrenaline kick - spoken out loudly by Eldridge for those who didn't see the first hour of the movie.
James is also let down by the script. There is no way this guy has defused 873 bombs, with that attitude. He would have been blown to kingdom come at bomb 3. It is plain silly that he is that irresponsible. The ambush in the desert is a much much better way of displaying how he gets his his kick. However, the ambush leads us to another weak point in the movie. If the Americans are using some serious state of the art tripod sniper hardware, why is it, that they have to fire 3-4 times before they hit their first guy, when on the other hand, the Iraqi snipers can stick the head out a window, and with a hand-held weapon, kills 3 targets with 3 shots? We don't really know, do we?
Finally, the ending is stating the obvious. A 20 second scene in a mall - and with his son? I think most of us got the point by now, and simply showing him pulling on the bomb suit, and saying "day 365", would have been enough.
Still an excellent war movie.