|
The Hurt Locker |  | Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Actors: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $26.99
Buy New: $19.49
as of 7/31/2010 04:39 EDT details
You Save: $7.50 (28%)
New (42) Used (35) Collectible (1) from $4.92
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  452 reviews
Sales Rank: 276
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Running Time: 131 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: SUMD66112279D
UPC: 025192048555
EAN: 0025192048555
ASIN: B00275EGWY
Theatrical Release Date: June 26, 2009
Release Date: January 12, 2010
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
IRAQ. FORCED TO PLAY A DANGEROUS GAME OF CAT-AND-MOUSE IN THE CHAOS OF WAR, AN ELITE ARMY BOMB SQUAD UNIT MUST COME TOGETHER IN A CITY WHERE EVERYONE IS A POTENTIAL ENEMY AND EVERY OBJECT COULD BE A DEADLY BOMB.
Amazon.com
The making of honest action movies has become so rare that Kathryn Bigelow's magnificent The Hurt Locker was shown mostly in art cinemas rather than multiplexes. That's fine; the picture is a work of art. But it also delivers more kinetic excitement, more breath-bating suspense, more putting-you-right-there in the danger zone than all the brain-dead, visually incoherent wrecking derbies hogging mall screens. Partly it's a matter of subject. The movie focuses on an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, the guys whose more or less daily job is to disarm the homemade bombs that have accounted for most U.S. casualties in Iraq. But even more, the film's extraordinary tension derives from the precision and intelligence of Bigelow's direction. She gets every sweaty detail and tactical nuance in the close-up confrontation of man and bomb, while keeping us alert to the volatile wraparound reality of an ineluctably foreign environment--hot streets and blank-walled buildings full of onlookers, some merely curious and some hostile, perhaps thumbing a cellphone that could become a trigger. This is exemplary moviemaking. You don't need CGI, just a human eye, and the imagination to realize that, say, the sight of dust and scale popped off a derelict car by an explosion half a block away delivers more shock value than a pixelated fireball. The setting may be Iraq in 2004, but it could just as well be Thermopylae; The Hurt Locker is no "Iraq War movie." Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal--who did time as a journalist embed with an EOD unit--align themselves with neither supporters nor opponents of the U.S. involvement. There's no politics here. War is just the job the characters in the movie do. One in particular, the supremely resourceful staff sergeant played by Jeremy Renner, is addicted to the almost nonstop adrenaline rush and the opportunity to express his esoteric, life-on-the-edge genius. The hurt locker of the title is a box he keeps under his bunk, filled with bomb parts and other signatory memorabilia of "things that could have killed me." That none of it has killed him so far is no real consolation. In this movie, you never know who's going to go and when; even high-profile talent (we won't name names here) is no guarantee. But one thing can be guaranteed, and that is that almost every sequence in the movie becomes a riveting, often fiercely enigmatic set piece. This is Kathryn Bigelow's best film since 1987's Near Dark. It could also be the best film of 2009. --Richard T. Jameson
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 452
 War Junkie's July 29, 2010
Ian Holdsworth (Melbourne, Australia)
This movie is ok, but I didn't think it was outstanding for a movie that has won an Oscar. The main character is a US Army Sergeant who is a Bomb Disposal Technician who has just been deployed to Iraq. He enjoys his job and the adrelien that goes with it. He is very good and professional at his job, but he seems to be addicted to the danger and violence. I thought the acting and special effects where excellent. I hope this movie reminds people at home in the U.S. and Australia what the average soldier is going thru and the dangers they face everyday.
 Not My Bag July 26, 2010
R. Bailin
I'll give this movie a C for the realistic hand-held 1st person perspective of the horrors of war. This kind of movie isn't my thing, though. There really isn't a story. It's more like a day (or several days) in the lives of a small unit of soldiers. I felt like I'd enlisted for the 2 hours + of the movie. I watch movies for the entertainment value and there isn't any of that here.
 A good fight July 25, 2010
J. R. Brideau (Lunenburg, Ma United States)
National Review gave a good rating...so do I. It's nice to see a movie that supports our troops while telling a story about heroes in a positive light. I not going to tell you anything about it because I got it blind sided and think it would stand on its own merit.
 Not Funny At All July 25, 2010
Gabriel J. McDonald
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie isn't nearly as funny as its publicity campaign made it out to be. I didn't laugh out loud once. I cracked a bit of a smile when the shrink got blown up, but that was such an obvious punchline and I could see it coming from so far away that the impact was really muted.
The Hurt Locker stars Jeremy Renner as the younger brother of Tom Cruise's character from Top Gun, who instead of fighting dastardly Russians gets to fight dastardly Iraqis with a blowing-stuff-up fetish. He's really reckless, doesn't care a mite about rules or authority, and all he ever thinks about is getting the job done, no matter how much danger it puts him in. Even though that's a character you can find in 80% of all war movies, we know this one is strikingly original because Roger Ebert said so.
The movie's wildly unpredictable originality continues with the introduction of a black sidekick who slaps him up and tells him to behave every time he disobeys the rules. Will he ever listen? That question is the most suspenseful thing in this movie.
As I said, I came into this movie expecting the kind of raucous comedy that the trailers promised, full of madcap war antics, silly clown suits with big collars, and witty dialogue exchanges like:
Soldier: [rifling through a box of things that "almost killed" the Jeremy Renner character] A wedding ring?
Renner's character: Like I said, things that almost killed me.
HAHAHAHAHA!!! That's such a hilarious line! And I SO did not see it coming.
But alas, those looking for any sort of comedic inspiration will be sorely disappointed. The movie bogs down in way too many overwrought bomb disposal scenes that are apparently meant to parody similar scenes in movies like "Blown Away," but these get very tedious very quickly. The movie also gets lost in its obsession with period details, but considering the fact that every Iraq War veteran who has seen this movie says it's howlingly inaccurate, I guess they studied the wrong war to get the details on.
The end result is a movie that, despite its daring (I'm surprised the filmmakers drew so little flak for something as irreverent as satirizing the Iraq War), really doesn't have much to recommend it, because it is in the end just a one joke movie. It's rare to see such subtle humor in the movies these days and these filmmakers do deserve credit for that, but for all the benefits of subtlety, you can't forget to be funny. Come to think of it, the humor in this movie is so low key, it's not unthinkable that they didn't intend it as a comedy at all and actually thought these tired war movie cliches that they had compiled actually said something about war. That's hardly unimaginable, considering the low today's movie industry has reached.
But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
 One of the worst movies ever made July 24, 2010
John Pines (Orlando, FL USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
After it won the academy award for best picture I decided to check it out. It was a shock to find that this movie has no plot, the acting is amatuerish at best, and even though there is a crew defusing bombs- no suspense whatsoever. Even though it's a story involving soldiers there are no villians or personal conflicts in this story. While one watches this film it appears that it goes out of its way not to be political and while events unfold these pains take all the wind out of its sails. The two worst scenes are when the soldiers are sniping some militants in the desert and even though they're shooting people there is no change of expressions on their faces whatsoever- just like they're doing a job. If you can call this a subplot, the hero James befriends some Iraqi boy making a connection with him. Later the hero finds him stitched up with an explosives inside him. Unfortunately, even though you think it would reveal some of the hero's character, it just doesn't go anywhere. Apparently, an academy award means nothing these days, the only indication that a film may be good is how much it makes at the box office. This was a 12 million dollar bomb. Even though it won an award, this movie is so vacuous it may actually be one of the worst movies ever made.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 452
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Copyright 2006 - CD Shopper | |
