THE HURT LOCKER [2008] review

I unexpectedly had a chance to watch THE HURT LOCKER tonight, a movie I definitely wanted to see before composing my 2009 top ten movie list.  However, I was not blown away by THE HURT LOCKER as I was expecting to be.  I thought it was going to be a very feel-bad movie, but it was not.  For me it did not have nearly the emotional impact that GENERATION KILL did.

Thinking about THE HURT LOCKER more now, it seems the movie is basically the minimum any movie worth seeing should be, and nothing special, save for a few different lines of excellent dialogue, especially at the end with Sgt. James talking to his baby son about the number of things you love as you get older.  Great line.

THE HURT LOCKER follows a very small crew of three whose job is to disarm bombs in all shapes, sizes and locations in Iraq after the main invasion, circa 2004.  Sgt. James is so brazen in his disarming of bombs the viewer hardly feels any fear because Sgt. James displays none.

Some of the fighting seems a bit random, as in Sgt. James and crew come across some British guns for hire having car trouble.  There is little emotional impact at the end of the movie, just like the Iraq war itself, the movie just goes on, only we are not paying attention to it anymore.

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