The Hurt Locker.
It’s Jarhead meets Clerks. No point. Random scenes of dudes running around like in a Bourne movie for no real cinematic purpose other that “Dude pissed off…dude go solve minor plot point”
No climax to the story, and no central plot to draw it all in together. Just a trio of guys defusing bombs. One is even a trained sniper, it looks like. They spent ten minutes laying in the sand of the desert doing absolutely nothing so one character could have a development, and the other two could be forced to bond. All of which could have been done just as effectively if they had shaved off four or five minutes, which they could have used then to put in a scene that drew the whole movie together.
There is no point to the movie. Other than the character drama (and I’m sorry…the characters were even less likeable than the assholes in Jarhead), which was rather flimsily put into place, there is no uniting factor in the whole movie. You have the reckless white dude that defuses bombs, and gets himself and his team into more trouble than they need to get into. If they were going to make a character that reckless, at least make him better at his job. He has no nemesis, no growth, nothing. He remains the same dumbass thrillseeker throughout the movie.
You have the smart black dude that actually knows what the hell he’s doing. Of the three, he’s the only one that would most likely make it in the Army. He has rules, he follows orders, he does his job, and he’s able to do it all without hesitation. Being the exact opposite of our unlikeable “hero,” however, makes him otherwise just as bland. He does, however, come off more interesting that the lead.
Next you have the psychologically fucked-up one. The dude who gets so nervous, that his own fart would make him jump. He’s the only character with any development in the whole movie, going from being fucked up, to being more fucked up, to being pissed at the “hero.” Wow. Big change there.
There is really no point to it. It’s decent, but by no means the greatest movie. And the documentary style of filmmaking made it really hard to figure out what was going on. If the filmmakers have to specifically state in the DVD commentary what actually happened in a major plot point for a character, because the actual movie was too confusing, then you have a problem.
All in all, I give The Hurt Locker a 6/10. Stunning visuals, great acting, sound effects, and feel, but a plotlessness and little closure or even minor clarification on major plot points leave MUCH to be desired. Documentary-style filming left me confused as to what was going on, and unable to figure out who was where when, or how something was happening and where it was. If it had a central plot structure surrounding the action (Such as all the bombs were placed by one dude, who they ended up catching in the end), even a simple one (Like the one I just described), then the movie would have a point.
Right now, The Hurt Locker is Jarhead meets Clerks. Not a bad movie, but not exactly a great one, either.