Putting Bombs Away

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2009)

Kathryn Bigelow is one of the few woman directors in Hollywood who can make a good action movies for the boys. With Heat Locker, this protégé of James Cameron turns up the heat in a movie clearly for the testosterone audience. Set in Iraq, the movie looks at a bunch of Bomb Disposal experts who are stationed in Baghdad for a count of days. As these men go through bomb after bomb losing fellow-soldiers along the way, the movie impresses upon the hopeless state to which the war-zone has fallen, and the mostly thankless high-risk job of the soldiers that risk their lives there. Yet the movie is not about the war, or its politics, but a zoned in look at one team's existence in it. While one soldier counts his days until they're relieved from duty, another lives at the thrill that the risk of their job brings them. Some great bomb sequences, a supremely-confidant lead performance by Jeremy Renner and a few awesome great cameos make this a great time at the movies. At least for the boys.