The Hurt Locker (2008)

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow

Stars: Jeremy Renner, Guy Pearce, Liam Neeson

Summary: 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.

trailer imdb

VERDICT

This is one of my favorites that I’ve watched so far. And the reason is simple: Jeremy. Renner. He certainly has a knack for playing broken/wounded characters. The backdrop almost doesn’t matter, because his performance and his character is so strong that it’d be worth watching in anything. 

What I really loved about this film is the simplicity of it. It relies on the characters, and they are so good, therefore the film is good. I find it impressive how drawn you are to William James and the rest of the men out there. Even though he arrives on screen as a reckless idiot, you can’t help but stay on his side through it all. His arrival is also worth mentioning as, to me, one of the coolest introductions of a character (rivalled by one which I will discuss later). 

I also loved the fact that even though both Pearce and Neeson get top credits they are only on screen for about ten minutes put together. I also have to commend Bigelow for the sharp and intriguing contrast between Thompson and James’ methods. It locks you in. 

It surprised me positively by how quick it felt even though the run time is over 2 hours. 

It definitely became one of those films that I don’t understand how I didn’t see sooner (while I saw Avatar on it’s opening weekend… oh, the shame).

I highly recommend it.