The Hurt Locker (2008)

The 2009 Best Oscar winning film from Katheryn Bigelow sees Jeremy Renner as a member of a Bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan and it explores how he and his team cope with the stress and pressure of the dangerous job. I have to say that this is another film when the I heard about it I was not that interested as I did not think it would appeal to me. It starts following Guy Pearce and after the opening scene then Jeremy Renner comes in and he has a bit of a cavalier attitude towards the bomb disposal and he seems to want to take risks.


It is an interesting film as it counts down their tour of duty and the time until they can go home, it also looks at several of the soldiers in the unit and how they are coping with the stresses of the war and a little bit about what happens. This really is powerful stuff I will be honest and say i do not know if it is worthy of a best Oscar nod however it really is a very good film and is well worth checking out. 

There are a couple of graphic scenes and while there is a constant feeling of danger there are only a few cases of graphic violence but it really is an exploration of the stress caused by war and the dangers that the brave men and women of the armed forces face everyday and what they have to think about when they come home. This is a solid 4 star film and is well worth watching.

The Road (2009)

Format - Cinema
Date - 15 January 2010
Director - John Hillcoat

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind and water. It is cold enough to crack stones, and, when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the warmer south, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing: just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless cannibalistic bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a rusting shopping cart of scavenged food and each other. Written by Sean Pollock.

Thanks to IMDb for the plot summary.

Your basic plot for this film surrounds a father and son walking through ruined America, approximately 10 years after an undetermined apocalypse. You have them seeing the land and the survivors. For the bleak concept and outlook the visuals are really well produced, the characters are believable and the situations are desperate and realistic.

I went to this film with a friend and it was not a film I had considered going to see at all. The source material by Cormac McCarthy is not a book I had ever thought of reading and to be honest after seeing the film not one i will be looking up in the near future. I have no idea if the film is a fair adaption of the book or how well the material has been transferred to the big screen, I went in being told that it was the book you could not filmed. This film was not for me, there were some good points, the best being everything is from the point of view of the Man and Boy, if they did not see what happened either did you, it was very clever.

I have to say that acting was excellent and the visuals were stunning. Viggo Mortensen was powerful as Man, he was a man on the edge looking out for Boy who has known nothing but the world in which he now finds himself. Boy is played by Kodi Smit-McPhee he is very good in the role and I think you will see him again, from an interview with the director John Hillcoat he knew he was the one to play Boy. You have flashbacks through the eyes of Man to Charlize Theron, Woman, his wife and Boy's mother and you get an insight into where and why the Man is doing what he is. There are also cameo's by Guy Pearce and Robert Duvall which are played really well.

I have to say that i would not go and see this film again, I could not recommend it to you if you like the films that I do, I have to say that it is well made, well shot and great acting but it depressed me, this film was not for me.

I would give this 2/5

Let me know if you have seen it and your thoughts on it.