ViewGuide

Created Jan 15, 2010 10:48PM PST • Edited Jan 15, 2010 10:48PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   This movie is a cure for low blood pressure. From the moment it started, the film delivers stressful episode after stressful episode of life in an Iraqi stationed bomb-diffusion unit. What makes this movie great is it just focuses on the job. No politics, no statement about the rightness or wrongness of war, just showing how day in and day out these guys face death in the form of bombs, unexpected combatants, hidden assailants, and inner demons. And it shows how most guys in the same situation would deal with it: drinking, friendship, and a bit of craziness.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Jeremy Renner is the standout as the calm, cocky, adrenaline-junkie staff sergeant with a death-wish, yet also a natural leader, and a human with feelings like the rest of us. Anthony Mackie is also great as the sergeant with ruffled feathers but eventual loyal sidekick.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    A perfect blend of reality-TV like sequences with the subtle addition of more traditional back-stories and character building. The film starts off as a focus on the events, and then seamlessly transforms into a study of character – all the while enveloping us in constant tension and that “days left in rotation” counter.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Really Great 4.5

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.0

17. Sex Erotic 3.0

18. Violence Brutal 3.0

19. Rudeness Profane 3.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.7

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Glib 1.7

24. Physical Glib 1.7