The Hurt Locker

Two men (Mackie and Geraghty) question their loyalty to their Army bomb squad when a reckless Sergeant First Class (Renner) takes over in the final five weeks of their tour in Iraq. A gripping story and a talented cast. But you have to wonder where the film is going. There are no memorable characters like Brando's Col. Kurtz from "Apocalypse Now" or Emery's Gny. Sgt. Hartman from "Full Metal Jacket", which is fine if you have an untold story… but even the film fails at that. There's nothing notable about this story or its characters. What this film contains are your average Joes, in everyday war situations. One can argue that there's nothing wrong with that. But you have to wonder, why not just make a documentary instead? In fact, the film may have been perfect had it been a documentary. But it wasn't. Instead, they waste three strong actors by giving them bland characters and (worst of all) pointless cameos from A-list actors that didn't move the story along at all. So what it has come down to is that it's documentary-like… except it's actually just another filmmaker's interpretation, which we've all seen before.