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The Hurt Locker

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macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 23, 2008
1,474
2
2nd Star to the Right
Just watched this movie after reading all the gushing reviews - 98% on RottenTomatos.

The movie critics must have watched a different movie than I did because I have one word about this movie: Meh.

Actually, I have more than a few words. Overwrought, unrealistic (yes, UNrealistic), melodramatic, cliched and vastly overrated. This movie was permanently stuck in the uncanny valley for me.

I had much more fun watching GI Joe and quite frankly, I think GI Joe was a vastly superior movie.
 
Two separate and different movies. GI Joe is for camp, excitement and action and is essentially the definition of a popcorn film.


The Hurt Locker is a great story that is riveting , interesting and suspenseful throughout it exceeded my expectations. Whether the bomb goes off or not is not a gimmick it is not even the main focal point of this film. The film is simple and is true in my opinion and everyone should see it. My favorite film this year so far.
 
Sorry, but no way The Hurt Locker was anything close to realistic. This is my basic problem with this movie. It attempts to be realistic, suspenseful and psychologically powerful. It fails in this regard because of all the dumb things that the characters do and how unrealistically soldiers are portrayed and behave.

Not more than a minute passes in this movie without the characters doing something extremely unrealistic and behaving and/or acting in ways that could never happen in real life.

The Hurt Locker tries to be authentic and fails. GI Joe doesn't attempt that and succeeds.
 
Finally rented The Hurt Locker on DVD.

I must say... I don't know what the Academy was thinking giving that movie Best Picture honors over Avatar. Apparently, sometimes the obvious choice is too confusing for people. They think they have to display their coolness credentials by casting a vote for someone far less deserving.

The Beatles? PFFFFFT! The greatest band evar is Hüsker Dü!

Five years... no... one year from now The Hurt Locker will be forgotten.

Twenty years from now, when Avatar is still recognized as a ground breaking movie, people will be shaking their heads asking, "They gave Best Picture to what?"

WHAT?!
 
citizenzen said:
Finally rented The Hurt Locker on DVD.

I must say... I don't know what the Academy was thinking giving that movie Best Picture honors over Avatar. Apparently, sometimes the obvious choice is too confusing for people. They think they have to display their coolness credentials by casting a vote for someone far less deserving.

The Beatles? PFFFFFT! The greatest band evar is Hüsker Dü!

Five years... no... one year from now The Hurt Locker will be forgotten.

Twenty years from now, when Avatar is still recognized as a ground breaking movie, people will be shaking their heads asking, "They gave Best Picture to what?"

WHAT?!
Click to expand...

Let's see......The Hurt Locker had an interesting new take on a military movies that was very entertaining to many.

Avatar is just a rehash of Dances with Wolves/Pocahontas/Fern Gulley type of story that blitzed everyone by the nice special effects

I'll take plot originality over special effects any day of the week

IMO, and many of my peers, Avatar is not worth seeing at home unless you have Blu-Ray. If you just have DVD, the movie loses lots of its luster

But of course, we all have our own opinions lol
 
citizenzen said:
Finally rented The Hurt Locker on DVD.

I must say... I don't know what the Academy was thinking giving that movie Best Picture honors over Avatar. Apparently, sometimes the obvious choice is too confusing for people. They think they have to display their coolness credentials by casting a vote for someone far less deserving.

The Beatles? PFFFFFT! The greatest band evar is Hüsker Dü!

Five years... no... one year from now The Hurt Locker will be forgotten.

Twenty years from now, when Avatar is still recognized as a ground breaking movie, people will be shaking their heads asking, "They gave Best Picture to what?"

WHAT?!
Click to expand...

I watched Avatar in a theater in 3D and I really enjoyed the movie. The detail that was put into that movie was just amazing. After I watched The Hurt Locker I thought it was not bad, but after the Oscar's, like you, I was just shaking my head....
 
Avatar shouldn't of won the Best Picture Oscar - it's a very cliche movie with fancy effects as its only good merit. Not saying Hurt Locker deserved it; but Avatar certainly didn't. Back on topic though; The Hurt Locker is a movie you either love or hate, it's as simple as that (personally I loved it).
 
Personally, I thought Up in the Air was a better movie than those two.

Avatar was cool with the special effects, but story-wise it was just a giant rehash. The Hurt Locker was good, especially the first time, when you dont know when a bomb will go go off or they will get ambushed. Very suspenseful.
 
dukebound85 said:
Let's see......The Hurt Locker had an interesting new take on a military movies that was very entertaining to many.

Avatar is just a rehash of Dances with Wolves/Pocahontas/Fern Gulley type of story that blitzed everyone by the nice special effects

I'll take plot originality over special effects any day of the week

IMO, and many of my peers, Avatar is not worth seeing at home unless you have Blu-Ray. If you just have DVD, the movie loses lots of its luster

But of course, we all have our own opinions lol
Click to expand...

Thank you. Trust me kiddies, Avatar will be forgotten in ten years. That story is as old as the hills and has been told a million times in much better ways. It was pretty to look at, but that's it. It was brainless otherwise. And OP, GI Joe was terrible. I'm embarrassed to admit I saw it.
 
I saw The Hurt Locker a few months ago, and thought it was good. Nothing special, but good.

This weekend we finally got around to seeing Inglorious Basterds. IMO, it was much better than The Hurt Locker. How did that not win best picture?

I didn't see Avatar (or all of the nominated movies) but if it were between the movies I saw: Inglorious Basterds, Up In The Air, and The Hurt Locker, Basterds wins hands down.

How did Quentin Tarantino not win best director for that? The direction was amazing.

The Oscars are a bunch of BS anyway. There's too much politics and campaigning for your movie going on.
 
Surely said:
The Oscars are a bunch of BS anyway. There's too much politics and campaigning for your movie going on.
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Indeed. According to the article niuniu linked to, one of the Hurt Locker producers emailed Academy voters urging them to vote for his film instead of Avatar! Little cheeky :p

I liked it. Don't think it should have won as many awards as it did...but it was enjoyable.
 
Surely said:
I saw The Hurt Locker a few months ago, and thought it was good. Nothing special, but good.

This weekend we finally got around to seeing Inglorious Basterds. IMO, it was much better than The Hurt Locker. How did that not win best picture?

I didn't see Avatar (or all of the nominated movies) but if it were between the movies I saw: Inglorious Basterds, Up In The Air, and The Hurt Locker, Basterds wins hands down.

How did Quentin Tarantino not win best director for that? The direction was amazing.

The Oscars are a bunch of BS anyway. There's too much politics and campaigning for your movie going on.
Click to expand...

Zombie Acorn said:
Have to agree with the comment that inglorious bastards was much better than the hurt locker.
Click to expand...

Yea, I agree. Inglorious Basterds was an amazing movie
 
bern1812 said:
Personally, I thought Up in the Air was a better movie than those two.

Avatar was cool with the special effects, but story-wise it was just a giant rehash. The Hurt Locker was good, especially the first time, when you dont know when a bomb will go go off or they will get ambushed. Very suspenseful.
Click to expand...

Up in the Air was indeed excellent. I certainly enjoyed it more than The Hurt Locker.
 
stonyc said:
Yes! And the actor who played Hans Landa... wow, just wow. I'm glad he won his Oscar, totally deserved it. I think I watched the dairy farmer scene like 30 times.
Click to expand...

That scene killed the whole movie for me. After that scene I was expecting 2 hours of genius, which I just didn't see. The suspense and dialogue was fantastic, the subtle threat just beneath the surface. Amazing. The rest of the film descended into a bit of a comedy romp so I was one of the few people who felt a bit disappointed with the movie in general.

But God yeah, he deserved that Oscar!
 
niuniu said:
That scene killed the whole movie for me. After that scene I was expecting 2 hours of genius, which I just didn't see. The suspense and dialogue was fantastic, the subtle threat just beneath the surface. Amazing. The rest of the film descended into a bit of a comedy romp so I was one of the few people who felt a bit disappointed with the movie in general.

But God yeah, he deserved that Oscar!
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Agreed with what you said; overall I didn't really think it was all that great. Truth be told, I only kept watching it for Hans Landa; the guy was absolutely brilliant.
 
Inglorious Basterds

Inglorious Basterd ought to have sweeped... It was one of the funniest movies ever, with sooo many little things to love about it. Tarantino's best, IMO.

Hurt Locker = Meh is RIGHT ON THE MONEY.

Typical Hollywood trite concerning an "unpopular" war and its effects on the poor volunteer fighting force.

I just cant stand it. I am not "pro-war" in the slightest, but trying to portray someone who signed up to get paid to fight as a victim, because they are fighting, is just too beyond the pale for me to handle. Every military person I know is incredibly proud of what they and their co-workers are doing.

Hurt Locker, Brothers, Redacted. No thanks! (The Kingdom WAS a good movie though)
 
MattSepeta said:
Brothers. No thanks!
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This was more about being a victim of post traumatic stress (shell shock more specifically). It can flip even the firmest and most proud of soldiers, and turn them into the victim.

+1 on Hans. Absolutely my favourite performance in the whole movie.
 
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