The Hurt Locker Review
Hollywood loves classical three act structure. The Hurt Locker could give a damn, is my guess, and that’s great.
For around 90 minutes The Hurt Locker hurtles along, keeping the tension super-high and the narrative episodic. Usually an episodic narrative in a feature format might drag, but not for the first 90 minutes of this film.
Trouble is The Hurt Locker is longer than 90 minutes.
It starts to drag, no matter how incredibly dangerous the situation the crew of US soldier/bomb defusers is in, after awhile it starts to get a little monotonous. What separates one day on the job from the next? Is this building towards something?
The Hurt Locker ultimately is most succesful as a string of terrific bomb defusing scenes linked by glimpses at the personalities making up a bomb defusing crew working in Iraq. The actors all acquit themselves well, in particular Jeremy Renner in the featured “wild man” role, whose going places in his career, no question. He’s got the mega-wattage star power of a young Tom Cruise.
The film is not too political, though when it is it’s more so about simple logic than red/blue state politics.
Is this the film to break the Iraq movie curse? Well, my guess is Summit and Co. have their expectations set to reasonable with a no-name cast, but the stellar reviews certainly won’t hurt. He’s another one, The Hurt Locker is one of the better movies of the summer. It might not be perfect, but there’s enough to recommend.
A Perfect Getaway
Twists are tough. Just knowing that there is a twist is often enough to help you guess the twist, as was the case for me with A Perfect Getaway.
Might I not have guessed it had I not read some of the reviews beforehand? Perhaps. But a story shouldn’t be made or unmade by the level of surprise generated by a crucial twist. Rather the impact of that twist is the more important part.
This twist was a bit blaah to me.
Also problematic was the insistence on meta-fiction, characters referring to movies and acting and even a random passerby saying “lots of twists and turns ahead”. This movie is first of all not good enough to telegraph it’s twists and turns, you get the feeling the movie thinks it’s a lot more entertaining and original than it is.
Second of all this insider movie stuff usually comes off smug and pointless, and that’s sorta the case here. I’m sure it was fun to write, but onscreen it comes off as totally superfluous and distracting.
It’s great to see Steve Zahn and Timothy Olyphant getting work, especially in roles uniquely suited to their particular talents. Also it was cool to see Milla Jovovich playing something other than badass killer of zombie chick, and she has a few nice moments of true acting.
But this movie doesn’t have nearly enough going on to get to the finish line intact, and the self-references only worsen matters.
Better luck next time.
-Dan Benamor