Review: The Hurt Locker

Posted by Ali at 15:49 on 24 Aug 2009 Reviews A-Z

Pop quiz, hotshot: name five female directors. Tick-tock, tick-tock... Did you manage five? Congratulations if so. Round two: name five female directors who don't make drippy, sappy, piece-of-shit rom-coms, musicals or turgid period dramas. Give up? Yeah, thought so. Doesn't say much for the fairer sex, does it?

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9 comments.

Posted by Luke at 20:46 on 08/03/10

You got up early too? Did you and Matt have a sleepover? Did you do each other's hair? Did you sing 'Uptown Girl' into your brushes? Can I come next time?

Posted by Ali at 17:38 on 08/03/10

So if there were better films, the worse films would be less likely to win? Stunning conclusion, Holmes.

I'm the one who's been up since 4.30am.

Posted by Luke at 16:47 on 08/03/10

Maybe I've just not been into films so much the last few years (an odd comment from someone working on a film website), but I can't name that many films worthy of oscar contention. If the year had been stronger I doubt HL would have even been given a look-in, and Avatar would have struggled.

Posted by neophyte at 16:04 on 08/03/10

Good point there with the screenplay award, Ali.
Anyways, for me, the best scene of the film is when this main protagonist (forgot his name) speaks to his son about toys. The rest of film is just regular stuff. Nothing that we haven't seen/heard in war films yet. Although director didn't pretend her picture would be a game changer, so expectations hadn't been so high as in you-know-where. Glad that HL won over A, but still I think HL isn't so wonderful. Maybe it's winter, making me unable to see beauty in films.

Posted by Matt at 07:53 on 08/03/10

Dude - don't spoil it!

Posted by Ali at 05:10 on 08/03/10

Derp derp derp.

Oh well. Thought Avatar was the more obvious choice, but I'm relatively happy this won Best Picture. Not sure how it won Best Original Screenplay though; I'm presuming the screenplay read as follows:

THEY FIND A BOMB
He defuses it.

THEY FIND A BOMB
He defuses it.

THEY FIND A BOMB
He defuses it.

The end.

Posted by keyser_soze at 19:11 on 03/09/09

really interesting take on the war film genre, seeemed to have more feeling than usual, some scenes i found incredible, amazing filming, shes a talented lass!!

Posted by Luke at 22:30 on 29/08/09

I actually thought this was a pretty good film. Concentrated more on the people and their situations, rather than the all-encompassing war. Wasn't too heavy on the maudlin either.

It did suffer a bit from such a small cast - presumably because of a limited budget. A few extra characters to flesh it out a bit more would have been useful.

Posted by Goatboy at 16:05 on 24/08/09

I like Bigelow's movies a lot, Blue Steel is still one of my favourite pyscho vs citizen pics.
But I won't watch this one, glad to hear it's not sensationalising the issues.

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