4/4  You are a genius Ms Bigelow
“The Hurt Locker” could well be the movie of the year and is definitely in contention for the academy’s grand prize. It is very rare for a film to come along in which it is a struggle to find no fault with, yet this is one of them. A movie... (read full)

3/4  Very well done film
This film was very well done, and quite an eye opener. The cast was very good, and the storyline was quite strong, and kept you interested. This was the 1st well done film that referenced the current war in Iraq, and the struggles that a... (read full)

4/4  I hate myself. (and i'm not emo.)
Okay Last Year, right off the bat i named "The Dark Knight" the best movie of the year last year. This seems okay, but i did it before seeing all the contenders. After i had, i came to my senses and recognized "Slumdog Millionaire" as 08's... (read full)

3/4  Good and intense but not perfect
saw the hurt locker and liked it but not to an extreme amount. The flaws I saw in it were few but there. One being the main hero did standard action movie cliche of not using the safe method instead using the "cool" method (not using the ... (read full)

4/4  Tough to watch, but very good
A breakthough regarding recent war-themed movies, The Hurt Locker is a stunning and suspenseful film about a bomb squad in Baghdad nearing the end of their rotation. As they struggle daily with dangerous situations, a new sergeant joins t... (read full)

1.5/4  Hurt Locker...it hurts to watch
Not sure what the big fuss is. I'm not crazy about war movies, but there is little more than explosions and character arcs and people coming to grips with the reality of war. It might sound enlightening, but it's really nothing more than t... (read full)

3/4  The Hurt Locker Quick Review
It may not be the best war film, heck, it may not be the best Iraq war film, but it has some outstanding performances and a gripping story line. If you like drama and serious tension, this should be intense enough for you.

3/4  The Hurt Locker Quick Review
I noticed some are comparing this to Jarhead, their is no comparison. Jeremy Renner wasn't as great as some think, but the movie was great. And, my wife liked it, and if she liked it, you know it was good because she doesn't like much.

3/4  The Hurt Locker Quick Review
Seriously? People are calling this the Slumdog of 2009? I don't think so. It is a good movie but I don't think it is Oscar worthy. Solid at best with Jarhead crushing this movie in terms of Desert war movies.

4/4  The Hurt Locker Quick Review
Arguably the best movie so far in 2009 and the best war movie since Saving Private Ryan. Check out the Hurt Locker, it's worth the watch.

4/4  The Hurt Locker Quick Review
Tense story, compelling characters. best war movie since platoon & deer hunter. A+++

5/5 Taut war drama exploring the psychology of soldiering
  by DarthRad (CA United States)
The movie opens with the quote - "the rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug" (a modern paraphrase of Churchill's older and more famous maxim - "there is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result")

This is a thriller of a movie about a U.S. Army bomb disposal unit in Iraq and their daily grind in dealing with the IEDs and insurgents there.

This movie does have several stars - but Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pierce, and Evangeline Lilly all have fairly small roles. Blink, and you'll miss them. Their presence in this movie is more a testament to director/producer Kathryn Bigelow's status in the entertainment industry than anything else.

Jeremy Renner is Sergeant James, a bomb tech. Unlike his affable predecessor, he is a wild man. He seems not only indifferent to the dangers of his job, he absolutely revels in the dangers. It is the ultimate in thrill seeking behavior, getting that dopamine surge in his brain. Near the end of the movie, Sgt. James gets accused of being an adrenaline junkie, but we know now that the neurochemical at work here is dopamine. Bomb disposal is not just a job for him, but his passion, his addiction, his reason for being in the Army.

Renner's character ends up like a cross between Elmer Fudd, with his perpetually placid and slightly befuddled gaze, and Bugs Bunny, with his wile and lust for excitement and danger.

His two partners in the unit, Sgt. Sanborn and Specialist Eldridge, who have to cover him and just want to survive their tour of duty, don't know quite how to deal with his determination to confront danger. One wonders at why Sgt. James puts himself in danger, why he takes the extra risks to defuse a bomb when detonating it would do. The scene that explains it all is when Sgt. James returns home to America one day and we see him doing the mundane chores of life as a civilian, cleaning out the rain gutters, cleaning up the kitchen, shopping with his wife and baby at the grocery store. As he stares at an entire wall full of colorful cereal boxes stacked along a grocery store aisle, a look of utter blankness, boredom, and despair fills his face.....nope, not for him, this dull life as a civilian....

The movie's storyline is a series of daily missions, almost like a documentary or a TV series, each episode standing alone and yet building upon previous episodes, each one presenting a new danger, a new challenge, another piece of the puzzle that is the war in Iraq.

What makes this movie work is the recreation of Iraq in this movie - it was filmed in Jordan with local Iraqi expatriates. We feel the oppressive tension of the whole country, of not knowing who the bad guys are and where the next bomb or bullet is going to come from. We feel the fear and uncertainty of the American soldiers, caught between their desire to be the good guys and wanting to make nice with the local Iraqis, while constantly needing to remain vigilant and suspicious, never knowing who is a good Iraqi, and who deserves to get shot. We feel the bewilderment and resentment of the local Iraqis, who get pushed around at every turn by the American soldiers.

Unlike so many other recent Iraq war movies, this movie makes no political statements, there is no right or wrong here. These are just men at work, doing a dangerous and dirty job, and these guys are darn good at what they do for their country, whatever the reasons are that they are doing it.



5/5 Brilliant performance by Jeremy Renner
  by Senor Zoidbergo (Washington D.C.)
I wasn't familiar with director Kathryn Bigelow's work prior to watching Hurt Locker (she directed Point Break, K-19, and others), but I am now a convert. She directed a brilliant and visceral Iraq war movie, which unlike many of its peers, is also apolitical. It's not overly preachy (In the Valley of Elah or Stop Loss) or pure action (The Kingdom), but manages to strike its own ground. The scenes are gritty, shaky; thankfully the shaky cam/documentary style footage is tastefully done here. The movie was filmed on location in Jordan, lending to the film's authenticity and immersivity. The viewer can almost taste the dust in the air, and feel the stares from the unwelcoming populace. It's the first mainstream movie to highlight the work of bomb defusal technicians , and it's a thankless and extremely hazardous job. The movie is Black Hawk Down good, albeit on a more intimate level.


The movie follows three members of Bravo Company's Explosive Ordanance Disposal (EOD) squad, as they struggle to finish the last few days of their year long tour of duty. Everyone copes differently; Specialist Eldridge (Geraghty) is overwhelmed at times with the death that surrounds them, Staff Sergeant James (Renner) is addicted to the rush of battle, and Sergeant Sanborn (Mackie) supports James as best he can. James is a complex, fascinating and tragic character; he's extremely competent, yet eccentric and even reckless to the point where his teammates consider fragging him in order to make it back alive. In a thoughtful gesture, he respects the work of his adversaries and keeps all the trigger mechanisms of bombs he has defused in the past. Every engagement the soldiers experience until their departure affects them, and we see every emotional impact.


Big Hollywood names like Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, and David Morse make short, but memorable appearances. Even LOST actress Evangelline Lily has an extended cameo as James' wife. The bomb defusal scenes are nerve-wracklingly tense, and the audience sweats alongside the defusing technician. The team constantly scans for snipers, or the suspicious civilian about to make a cell phone call to trigger an IED. The movie does an excellent job of communicating the hazards of the EOD job, and one leaves with a deep appreciation of their work.


6 stars, highly recommended. It is an action filled, yet contemplative movie.


5/5 'Bout time........
  by Master Blaster
As a retired Army Bomb Disposal Team Leader I have to say it's right up there with 'Danger UXB' and A+++++to the writer and the director!!! A really well done depiction without the usual Hollywood hype/litery license/theater/BS.
Oh, yea, about 'not being able to adjust after the regimented life', it has nothing to do with 'not being able to' and everything to do with 'not wanting to'. You'll enjoy the view into the lives of this very small brotherhood of military Bomb Disposers.

2/5 An Iraq War Veteran's Perspective
  by
Had I not served in Iraq in 2004, perhaps I could have maintained a suspension of disbelief and enjoyed the film. However, it is extremely irritating to have the producers of this film and high-level movie critics gush about an "accurate depiction of war" when it is about as close as 2001: A Space Odyssey is to an accurate depiction of NASA. The writer claimed he spent "some time" embedded with an EOD unit, but I can't imagine his time amounted to too much more than a week.

Let's start with some glaring discrepencies. In the film, all soldiers seen are wearing uniforms known as ACUs, which feature the digital camouflage pattern. In 2004, those uniforms had not yet been fully developed or issued. Soldiers wore the DCUs, which feature tan and brown woodland-style camouflage patterns. ACUs were being field-tested with select units, but the prototypes still retained the traditional camo. At that time, only the Marines were wearing uniforms with digital patterns, though their uniforms feature different color patterns and different cuts. Additionally, every soldier wears an American flag patch on the right shoulder. These were conspicuously absent throughout.

The presentation of humvees and other military vehicles add a further level of unreality. Military vehicles typically have unit and vehicle identifations stenciled on bumpers, doors, or hoods. The names of principle occupants are usually stenciled on each side of the windshield. The dashboard and area between the front seats is packed full of radio equipment. There are generally MREs and misc. mission oriented debris lying around the interior. Not much of this was evident. What was evident was the utterly and completely absurd medivac scene that featured HUEY helicopters. Yes, those same Hueys that saw a great deal of service during the Vietnam War, but have long been replaced by the ubiquitous Blackhawk.

The ridiculous misrepresentation, misuse, and absence of military equipment continues on down to things like night optical devices (NODs). NODs are those things soldiers strap to their helmets and flip down over their eyes to see in the dark. All throughout the movie, the three main characters are shown to have the NOD mounting plates attached to their helmets. Yet, when they tear off on a hunt for bad guys during a night mission they run around shining flashlights, which is tactically one of the dumbest things a soldier could do.

Running around with flashlights at night is but one example of things real soldiers would not do. They would not split up "to cover more ground." An enlisted soldier would not call a colonel "colonel." He would call the colonel "sir." A soldier would not sneak out of base disguised as a civilian, hijack an Iraqi's car at gunpoint, confront an Iraqi family, then weasel his way back on base with the lame excuse he'd been to whorehouse. There would have been serious consequences to his actions. The film gives the impression that the three EOD soldiers are gun totin' cowboys who answer to no one. In reality, there would be commanding officer who would, at the least, issue operation orders and hold the NCOs to a certain level of accountability.

The characters themselves are fairly unbelievabe. They don't talk like real soldiers. I didn't hear "hooah" uttered once. Nor did I hear much of the plethora of abbreviations and acronyms that comprises the military jargon spoken by soldiers. While SSG James' two sidekicks are cardboard cut-outs of Hollywood military cliches, James himself is an erratic, irresponsible, borderline-psychopath who would not last long in the leadership of men or the diffusement of bombs. His obsession/concern for the Iraqi boy he has unrealistically befriended is completely out of character.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. On the plus side, the landscape does look like Iraq, and the urban shots replicate the appearance of Baghdad quite well. The acting is adequate, I suppose, but I was not particularly enthusiastic about any specific performance. Quite frankly, it amazes me that they would make a film this sloppy and inaccurate, when correct information is so readily available. As it is, this is not a realistic war movie; it is a fantasy with nearly as much imagination as Avatar.

On a closing note, if you want to see an excellent film that provides an accurate view of the Iraq War in 2004, check out "The War Tapes." It's a documentary shot by soldiers themselves, and provides honest insight into the impact of war's daily grind.



4/5 An instant classic war film
  by Monkdude (Hampton, Virginia)
Watching The Hurt Locker is quite an experience. It feels so real that you will leave the theater thinking you just spent a little over two hours under the Iraq sun, spitting sand out of your teeth. Word of mouth and some great reviews from just about every critic in the country got me to notice this under the radar gem of a film. There are so many moments of suspense that are built up brilliantly, most of which involving bomb defusion. All of the lead and supporting actors (Ralph Fiennes in a tiny role) are extremely believable, but Jeremy Renner steals the show. This is a star making performance that should be honored with a nomination come Oscar season. I've only seen him on The Unusuals (an average new TV show), but he is capable of much bigger and better things if he sticks to doing movies and roles of this calibur.

The Hurt Locker is one of the better films of 2009 and is easily in my top 5 war flicks ever. It's an honest look, without taking sides or pushing the filmmaker's agenda. One things for sure, no movie about the Iraq war even comes close to this one in terms of realism and I don't expect any will in the near future. When you see it, you'll understand why this one stands alone.