This Weekend's Movie Theme: The Military

We started the day at the local multiplex intending to see The Hurt Locker. But it wasn't on the board. The theater employee told us that there was a "projection problem" and it wasn't showing. Look, kid, I grew up in The Business, OK? Nice try. I know that what you really needed was another theater to show G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra in because dumb, trashy American idiots can't get enough of that movie, so might as well kick out the good indie film in favor of some retarded movie. Why yes, thank you, I'll take 2 for G.I. Joe.

We were going to see it later in the day anyway. I went in with low expectations, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I wasn't. It sucked.

Let me start at the end: a Black Eyed Peas song plays over the closing credits. Is that enough for you? No? OK, how about bad acting, bad special effects, a really bad script, purposeless flashbacks that I suppose are meant to provide "character development" but instead only provide "obvious foreshadowing", and a trailer that gave away every single action sequence in the movie. Awesome. Channing Tatum is a horrific actor, and he didn't take his shirt off enough to warrant him being in this movie. He needs to be in the next Fast & Furious movie - he'd fit right in there. And I'd watch it.

After that abomination, we headed downtown to watch The Hurt Locker, at long last. And it was amazing. I don't usually even like war movies, but this was different. There was this crazy tension throughout - you really feel the tension that these soldiers have to feel at all times. They're always on alert and can't relax until they've made it back to base camp. The story centers around a bomb squad unit, but these guys don't just disarm bombs. They do sniper stuff, clear buildings - they do it all. And it really is amazing. I'm a big Jeremy Renner fan. I really loved him in 28 Weeks Later and he's the reason I watched (and miss) The Unusuals on TV. Anthony Mackie is great in it too - totally reminds me of Chiwetel Ejiofor.

There was definitely some of the clichéd war-movie stuff, but the movie was done so well. It really felt like you were in on the action, as if it was a documentary at times. See it!