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 Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

Film of 2012 #56

Geena Davis stars in this film that hints a little at the Bourne Films, at the start of the film she knows she has amnesia and to a certain level has accepted this. She has hired private investigators to try and find her past, one of these investigators is played by Samuel L Jackson in a post Pulp Fiction role. He starts as a fraudster just trying to take Geena Davis for all he can, to then becoming her partner as she tries to piece together her life. As with these things there is a secret from her past that comes back to haunt her in her new life and as with all these stories there is a decision to be made whether she wants to return to her old life or the new life she has found since amnesia.

As with a lot of these films there is a point where you have to suspend your disbelief about the situation and what actually could and does happen but overall this is a lot of fun. You pretty much stay with the Geena Davis character and as she finds out things so do you as the watcher. I think that there is a level where they felt back in the 80's and 90's that small stories did not work and they need to be bigger and bigger and push the levels all the way. It works in this film as it sort of runs along the fantastical and gets more and more unreal for everybody involved. There is a nice point when it switches from the Geena Davis character on to the Samuel L Jackson character and he ends up the one not knowing what is happening.

This is a fun film without being anything mind-blowing, it is well worth watching especially if you like the Bourne films it is an older female role that I think is a different take but very similar to these stories. Overall this is a 3 star film that I think you should watch.

Drive Angry 3D (2011)

This film was another pay check for Nicholas Cage I went to see it with very little information thinking that it would be a good chance for them to use the 3D in an action/gory type way. The performance from William Fichtner as the accountant was excellent, really enjoyable and the direction they gave Hell was interesting and good idea.

However overall the film made very little to no sense it was a series of set pieces with a thin watery story running through it. There was the opportunity for an interesting twists and story line but I think this film was cut and adjusted or just very poor and only got released because Nicholas Cage was in it and they knew there was an audience that would go and see it because of that.

I cannot recommend this film to anyone, if you want to know the interesting thing they do with Hell, ask me and I will let you know. But avoid this film, the 3D is not even good enough to justify seeing the film. 1 Star from me on this one.