Anyone see The Hurt Locker movie?

[JayB]

Just had to say , I rented The Hurt Locker from the Playstation Store last night , fucking amazing movie. I never would have rented it , but I saw it got a 97% aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes so I had to check it out. Turns out it absolutely deserves its hype , it is the only good movie about the Iraq war. It shows you an in depth look at the bomb squads over there, which is much more interesting than you would think. The main character is a crazy badass. Two thumbs up , check it out.

 

[Metaltastic]

Interesting, thanks for the heads-up dude, I'll check it out! And I definitely had no idea the Playstation store rented movies now, badass! (I've been using Netflix to stream though, which certainly is no slouch in the selection department )

 

[JayB]

Yeah I use Netflix with the disk through my Playstation also , but they don't ever have brand new movies. Usually at least 6 months old. But yeah , badass movie , check it out ! Playstation store rents and sells movies , in both standard and hi def. Just go to Playstation Store and then hit the Video tab on the very top!

 

[Metaltastic]

 

[JayB]

By the way I have to ask Metaltastic , what the hell is your avatar ? It is so funny and scary at the same time haha.

 

[spioraid]

Just saw the movie two nights ago.

I feel like this movie was done in a similar fashion to American Gangster (as previously mentioned in another thread, my man!). It takes no stance on trying to build a 'well crafted story' with story arches, the all-evil antagonist or the eponymous fop-y protagonist. It simply tells the story in a manner that better aligns itself with reality. The lines of cause and effect are blurred or sometimes not answered right away. No cape-twirlers or men with large black mustaches, no the enemy is hardly seen but always felt in the movie. It's quite different in a movie making perspective, but with that understanding you can really enjoy the film.

If I can gripe about anything it would be about the insubordination and the going AWOL by the EOD Chief being unchecked. Please tell me in today's modern military, actions such as these aren't tolerated? I wouldn't tolerate it one bit.

But again, it does paint a very real picture into military life for today's men and women serving. You got your rotations, your orders and your stations. Adjusting is never easy. Even being home for 6 months on paid leave can be killer if you can't adjust.

I'd give it two thumbs up with an understanding that this is not an action film, a thriller or tragedy. It's a real life drama.

 

[JayB]

I do agree with the gripes about the EOD chief, but at the same time while watching it I thought "How many other guys are crazy and good enough to do what this guy is doing ?" I thought he did more good than harm. Like when the black soldier wanted to blow him up in the desert I was like , Are you fucking kidding ? Yeah the dude was messing with him pretty badly but think of all the lives that guy saved. And to start another rotation right after - the only thing he truly loves as he says - I don't think there are too many guys like that in today's world. So if he left AWOL and came back or took off his headset , what more could they really do to punish him worse than "Go out there and disarm that fuckin A-Bomb strapped to that guy over there." You know?

 

[spioraid]

Quite true, in it's final effect it did more harm than good in those situations. But it takes is one hot head who thinks he knows better to get an entire squad killed. And certainly the words and actions of his comrade who wanted to blow him up were just as wrong.

In the one scene (geheh...spoiler!) when he's disarming the car with all the shells in the trunk, he was wise to take off his gear and use his headset. With that amount of explosives in those shells it would have leveled that block - wearing lead armor is not going to do squat. But I did have a problem with him not responding even to let his squad know what he was doing. It wouldn't have cost him anything or even crimped his style just to let the guys guarding his back what he was doing.

But in the end he did get people hurt. Going off on that personal vendetta almost killed the specialist, not to mention the leg wound that could have been fatal (Black Hawk Down, anyone?). I know I'm getting into semantics, but I think the point still stands that you do what you have to do to get a job done, but don't push that line harder than you have to.

 

[JayB]

Some good points there. I guess being cocky can be good and bad. I totally agree on the armor - My girlfriend was watching with me and she's like OMG what is he doing ! But it does make sense, all that shit would've blown them all to hell anyway. Also (spoiler) who else saw the Doctor getting blown up coming from ten miles away? From the first scene where the Specialist is saying "Just come out with us and see what we do" I knew he would be dead. Also from the first scene with the EOD chief where he takes the bomb shrapnel protection off his window you could see that he is completely unafraid of death , which as was said can be good , but he should've cared more for the lives of his comrades as was said.