Review of The Hurt Locker (2008) by Craig T — 19 Jun 2012

Right out the gate all the hype was high. "One of the great war movies" invites all viewers to come forth with certain expectations: Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, or whatever their favorite is. It' not all about hype, and since word of mouth can be often way off, sometimes it is dead on. When this movie was over I felt that I had missed something. Maybe I just didn't feel what I was supposed to. I can say it is not even in my Top 5 war movies. I named 3 of my five above, and Locker does not even begin to compare to these. It may sound as if I am dismissing this picture completely but that is not the case. I have allowed the messages and images to soak into my mind and over time it has grown on me more. This will have to viewed again because even though I can follow the adrenaline junkie bomb unit I still can't see what all the fuss is about.

Renner was definitely able to pull off a great role and he deserved his Oscar nom. I feel like we will see more great roles for him in the future. One of the last scenes is what made the whole experience worthwhile: the scene at the cereal aisle in the supermarket. I really hope Renner continues to pursues powerful roles like this. As far as direction goes, I also feel that Bigelow deserves her credit too. I think she has come a long way since her last good film (the entertaining Point Break) and has definitely brought her best work to light. Pierce and Fiennes bring various mixes to the project since they are pretty powerful as far as cameos go. All together is has a good lead role and the rest is pretty basic war drama. The story is brought to a boil over time and it has the potential to explode. When it didn't I was left to admire what I could.

I would estimate this is well above Jar Head but below even Black Hawk Down or We Were Soldiers. Maybe I'm the victim of hype because I'm standing almost completely alone on this one. It just didn't have the intensity I wanted and ultimately came up shorter than what I envisioned for it.

***After a 2nd viewing, I'm taking this up to a 4/5 (80%). I still do not see this as a masterpiece war film but it does shine at times, particularly the last 15 minutes in my opinion. Renner stole the show.