Little to take away from this film, unfortunately.

Rating: 6/10 (9 March 2010)

Upon hearing that 'The Hurt Locker' had won best picture, a friend of mine invited me round to watch it on DVD. I was full of anticipation, and when the film started up I was initially impressed. Though the movie is rife with 'how does that make sense?' moments from the outset (for example, the RC disposal unit pulls a trolley with some C4 blocks. The trolley wheels come off. Why risk planting the C4 on the bomb by hand, and just drag the box?) I stopped myself from being pedantic and tried my best to enjoy the movie as an intellectual exercise. I was disappointed. The 'nutty, reckless soldier' stereotype has been done before and done better, from the classic Vietnam films 'Full Metal Jacket' and 'Apocalypse Now' to the HBO series 'Generation Kill', and as for the other two members of 'the squad' I felt zero connection with them (unlike the character of Sam Bell in 'Moon', who I feel should have won 'best actor' at the very least). The film is not entirely without merit. The scene I enjoyed was when the unit bumped into a group of British contractors (especially their leader), who I feel delivered a performance far superior to the lame warrior visage of 'the war nut'. The 'war is hell' message of the film was delivered in a manner which was frankly embarrassing. The hammy 'it's just a roll of the dice' dialogue between 'the war nut' and the black sergeant was unforgivably boring, and was a poor attempt at emulating the 'Russian Roulette' of 'The Deer Hunter', and by the second half of the film I did not give a fig about how it was going to end (especially the 'finding Beckham' subplot). That this film won best picture just shows how big names (James Cameron, James Cameron's ex) have more power in the academy than genuine talent, as Moon was not so much as glanced at, inexplicably in favour of this joke of a film. Instead of watching this, you should take out the box set of 'Generation Kill', as well as DVDs of 'Jarhead', 'Full Metal Jacket', 'The Deer Hunter', 'Platoon' and 'Apocalypse Now'. This film tries to be all four of these, and winds up tying itself in knots.