The Hurt Locker (2008)
Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 217
Fresh: 211 | Rotten: 6
A well-acted, intensely shot, action filled war epic, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is thus far the best of the recent dramatizations of the Iraq War.
Average Rating: 8.3/10
Critic Reviews: 44
Fresh: 43 | Rotten: 1
A well-acted, intensely shot, action filled war epic, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is thus far the best of the recent dramatizations of the Iraq War.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 70,842
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Movie Info
Based on the personal wartime experiences of journalist Mark Boal (who adapted his experiences with a bomb squad into a fact-based, yet fictional story), director Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq War-set action thriller The Hurt Locker presents the conflict in the Middle East from the perspective of those who witnessed the fighting firsthand -- the soldiers. As an elite Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team tactfully navigates the streets of present-day Iraq, they face the constant threat of death from
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Cast
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Jeremy Renner
Staff Sgt. William Jame... -
Anthony Mackie
Sgt J.T. Sanborn -
Brian Geraghty
Specialist Owen Eldridg... -
Guy Pearce
Sgt. Matt Thompson -
Ralph Fiennes
Contractor Team Leader -
David Morse
Col. Reed -
Evangeline Lilly
Connie James -
Christian Camargo
Col. John Cambridge -
Christopher Sayegh
Beckham -
Suhail Aldabbach
Black Suit Man -
Sam Spruell
Contractor Charlie -
Erin Gann
Mortuary Affairs Office... -
Justin Campbell
Sgt. Carter -
Malcolm Barrett
Sgt. Foster -
Ryan Tramont
Guard at Liberty Gate
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The Hurt Locker Trailer & Photos
All Critics (217) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (215) | Rotten (7) | DVD (17)
Bigelow's film combines an expert management of tension with a sensitive and journalistic attention to detail: she has one eye on the truth and the other on the multiplex.
One of the best movies of the year, with a star-making performance from Jeremy Renner.
Like every war before it, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has generated its share of movies. But The Hurt Locker is the first of them that can properly be called a masterpiece.
The question isn't how do you live with the buzz of looming death; it's how do you live without it? No answers are offered, or even suggested.
Like her protagonist, Bigelow is both a meticulous technician and a ballsy showoff. And, like him, she has ice water in her veins.
This beyond-the-headlines war movie, a 'ticking clock' thriller from journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal, is the first Iraq War movie to qualify as more first-rate entertainment than sermon.
When the picture isn't ramping up your heart rate, it switches gears and becomes an intimate character study in what war does to humankind.
Though the slow-building occasionally drags, for the most part The Hurt Locker is a masterclass in how to build tension.
It's in refusing to plant a flag on one side or the other over the Iraq war debacle that Bigelow may just have made the conflict's defining film: words are cheap, but it's action that matters.
I wasn't exactly blown away by it (no pun intended here at all), but it remains an engaging film. There's certainly a great story to be told in here somewhere, it's just not the great film I've been hearing about.
It's not delicate by any means, and it gives an intense look into the lives of the American soldiers in Iraq.
The suspense may just kill you.
Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is one of the most thrilling action films I've seen in the past few years. It features set piece after pulse-quickening set piece.
The decade's best fictional film about its real war, it's a unique perspective on the workplace high of delivering containment from chaos. Some people kick PowerPoint's ass. Sgt. 1st Class William James saves his by defusing bombs.
Jeremy Renner as the unhinged James is a revelation.
There is something original and distinctive about the film's willingness to admit that for some men (and many moviegoers) war carries an intrinsic dramatic charge.
Equal parts bravado-fueled action and pointed political statement. The best film yet made about the Iraq War, and the best American film about war since Platoon.
One of the few must watches of the year so far, and certainly one of the most intelligent offerings, The Hurt Locker would likely already be boasting a masterpiece label had it been from a high profile director or studio.
The opening scene alone may well be the most insanely gripping and amazingly constructed cinematic moment you'll see all year.
Combines white- knuckle tension, sizzling dialogue and poignant insight into the lives of the bravest guys in Baghdad.
A tense, occasionally meandering story about bomb defusers in Iraq.
May be to the War on Terror what Apocalypse Now is to Vietnam, and it's almost as hallucinatory a vision.
While Kathryn Bigelow's taut direction is Academy Award-worthy, Mark Boal's script doesn't get far enough beneath the characters' skin.
Succeeds where so many others have failed, by crafting a compelling Iraq war film.
Audience Reviews for The Hurt Locker
Super Reviewer
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- Staff Sgt. William James: And the older you get, the fewer things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things.
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- Sgt J.T. Sanborn: I'm ready to die, James.
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- Staff Sgt. William James: You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your Mommy, your Daddy. You love your pajamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yeah. But you know what, buddy? As you get older... some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore. Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you'll realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. And the older you get, the fewer things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me, I think it's one.
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- Beckham: That's gangster.
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- Sgt J.T. Sanborn: But you realize every time you suit up, every time we go out, it's life or death.
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- Staff Sgt. William James: [Speaking to his son] You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your Mommy, your Daddy. You love your pajamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yea. But you know what, buddy? As you get older... some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore. Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you'll realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. And the older you get, the fewer things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me, I think it's one.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Sargent James | 9 days ago | 0 |
Latest News on The Hurt Locker
October 27, 2011:
Gerard Butler, Sam Worthington, and Matthew McConaughey Go On a Thunder RunThey'll star in an Iraq war film that will be made using 3D motion-capture technology.
May 6, 2011:
Weekly Ketchup: Kathryn Bigelow Takes On A Bin Laden MovieAs the film industry prepares for the start of the Cannes Film Festival on May 11, enough...
February 1, 2011:
A Year Later, Still Waiting for "The Bigelow Effect"A year after Kathryn Bigelow made history by winning her Best Director Oscar, a new study shows that...
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Foreign Titles
- Tödliches Kommando - The Hurt Locker (DE)
- Démineurs (FR)










Top Critic
Full review at themoviefreakblog.com