Review of Stop-Loss (2008) by Sajeeva S — 05 Dec 2008

A military based movie, that may seem quite stereotypical, however this explores the impact of a rule that arguably outlines every soldier's nightmare. Stop Loss tells the story of one man's war against the policy and his persistence in his search for wellbeing and life beyond the military.

Ryan Phillipppe leads the cast of up and coming actors Channing Tatum and Abbie Cornish, whilst Joseph Gordon-Levitt rounds up the cast as the self destructive Tommy. What Phillippe achieves in this tends to miles away from any other famous actor playing a powerful male soldier protagonist. This is unequivocally the most challenging role Phillippe has had to play, especially faced with the quest of leading a cast. However he comes across as plastic, very amateur and you soon begin to realise that nothing much has changed in his skill since 'I know what you did last summer' approximately 10 ago. Channing Tatum, who plays his best friend provided a strong supporting performance, that it would have been only wise at the time to have him lead the cast instead. The most powerful performance was by Joseph Gordon Levitt, who has clearly grown into such a phenomenal actor ever since his turn as the clueless and yet adorable Tommy in TV's. 'Third Rock from the Sun.' His consecutive performances only outline the submissive battle to obliterate the typecast, but that mission is unfortunately one of the most underrated successful kid to adult transitions in Hollywood. Finally the female lead Abbie Cornish, who once again provides a solid performance as she did in 'Candy' opposite the late Heath Ledger. As an Australian actress, its would take a while for Cornish to be taken seriously by the critics, however she is clearly on the right path.

Though this movie was meant to have an impact, the directing and the story unravelling is a lot to be desired, making this a mediocre action packed drama with a Hollywood B-list cast.