The Worst Best Picture Film Ever?

Rating: 5/10 (5 August 2013)

I haven't seen every best picture winner I'll admit, but this one had my wife and I scratching our heads. I like Jeremy Renner and I wanted to (and expected to) like this film. It started out well and held my interest for probably the first half of the film. For a movie that appears to be going for "realism", there were clearly some things that even a non- military person could tell were not believable (the single bullet that ignites a car on fire - as another reviewer mentioned). But the bigger problem with the movie is the story - or lack thereof. I kept waiting to learn more about the characters and why they acted the way they did - never explained. I kept waiting for it all to lead up to a revealing scene to tell me why I spent two hours watching - it never came. This movie has no journey and as far as I could tell no point besides "war sucks". You could snip each scene from the final cut, throw the pile into the air, and splice it all back together in random order and I don't think it would matter. In the end I found it hard to believe this was even nominated for best picture.