Sheds light on a shabby military policy that treats vets of the Iraq war disgracefully.
Comment
03/27/08
Stop-Loss (2008)
64
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:138
Fresh:89
Rotten:49
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Stop-Loss is sincere and complex, and features strong performances, even if it tries to cover too much ground.
Theatrical Release:Mar 28, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $10,796,776
Synopsis: Director Kimberly Peirce (BOYS DON'T CRY) tackles another controversial topic with STOP-LOSS, the story of a U.S. soldier forced back into battle. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) has just returned to... [More]
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Director: Kimberly Peirce
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Reviews for Stop-Loss
Stop-Loss features cartoonish lessons on disillusionment and irksome actors trying to blue-steel the crap out of each other.
03/27/08
While Stop-Loss is more ambitious and well-crafted than the paint-by-numbers Varsity Blues, these two coming-of-age stories still belong in a similar film category: melodrama
03/27/08
The Iraq war drama has its share of very effective, subtle moments but then follows them up with some crushingly heavy-handed commentary.
03/27/08
While there are good things about it, Stop-Loss is nothing spectacular.
03/27/08
..."Stop Loss" not only has something new to say, it is in many ways a smaller, modern day "Deer Hunter."
03/27/08
As in her superlative debut feature Boys Don't Cry, [director] Peirce explores politically incendiary subject matter with empathy, sensitivity, and a particularly sharp sense of place, in this case, a lovingly depicted Texas.
03/27/08
That Stop-Loss wears its generally good intentions on its camo sleeve doesn't keep it from being consigned to the missed-opportunity file.
03/27/08
In some ways, there is a grim, accidental timeliness in the release of Stop-Loss, which focuses on the ordeal of American soldiers in and out of combat.
03/27/08
Top CriticActed with aplomb and occasionally compelling, Stop-Loss nevertheless fails to impress.
03/27/08
Plays like a homage to '70s and '80s-era Vietnam films, which only underlines how depressing it is that the same kind of human tragedy is still being explored today.
03/27/08
It's a remarkably entertaining movie, thanks in part to a first-rate cast and a director who knows you can't make a point without calling everyone to attention.
03/27/08
Top CriticPeirce's obvious respect for the returned soldiers should prevent Stop-Loss from being dismissed as a Hollywood anti-war screed. It's more accurately described as an anti-war movie with a resolutely pro-troop message.
03/27/08
It's one long, angry howl with nary a pause for breath.
03/27/08
Someone watching Stop-Loss with younger eyes might feel the heat of the main soldier's dilemma more than I did, but I couldn't help thinking director Kimberly Peirce was presenting us with abstract ideas in the forms of half-realized characters.
03/27/08
Stop-loss is a policy dripping with controversy that deserves a complete examination, but Stop-Loss just provides a one-sided account covered with an MTV-style coating.
03/27/08
Stop-Loss builds a cumulative power and sense of urgency that can't be denied.
03/27/08
Top CriticPeirce (with co-writer Mark Richard) also vacillates between earnestness and superficiality, making Stop-Loss too often feel like eye candy with a message.
03/27/08
Top CriticSincere without being especially memorable.
03/27/08
Makes you see the humanity and vulnerability of quick-fisted, gun-loving, jingoistic guys[...]a testament to the filmmakers' own expansive sense of humanity.
03/27/08
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July 03, 2008:
A compelling postwar saga which compassionately establishes that veterans of the Iraq conflict shouldn't have to be wounded physically to be considered damaged goods.
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