The Hurt Locker |  | Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Actors: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $26.99
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Rating:  226 reviews
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 131 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: 025192048555
UPC: 025192048555
EAN: 0025192048555
Theatrical Release Date: June 26, 2009
Release Date: January 12, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Iraq. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war an elite army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (summit) Release Date: 01/12/2010 Starring: Jeremy Renner Run time: 131 minutes Rating: R
The making of honest action movies has become so rare that Kathryn Bigelow's magnificent The Hurt Locker was shown mostly in art cinemas rather than multiplexes. That's fine; the picture is a work of art. But it also delivers more kinetic excitement, more breath-bating suspense, more putting-you-right-there in the danger zone than all the brain-dead, visually incoherent wrecking derbies hogging mall screens. Partly it's a matter of subject. The movie focuses on an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, the guys whose more or less daily job is to disarm the homemade bombs that have accounted for most U.S. casualties in Iraq. But even more, the film's extraordinary tension derives from the precision and intelligence of Bigelow's direction. She gets every sweaty detail and tactical nuance in the close-up confrontation of man and bomb, while keeping us alert to the volatile wraparound reality of an ineluctably foreign environment--hot streets and blank-walled buildings full of onlookers, some merely curious and some hostile, perhaps thumbing a cellphone that could become a trigger. This is exemplary moviemaking. You don't need CGI, just a human eye, and the imagination to realize that, say, the sight of dust and scale popped off a derelict car by an explosion half a block away delivers more shock value than a pixelated fireball. The setting may be Iraq in 2004, but it could just as well be Thermopylae; The Hurt Locker is no "Iraq War movie." Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal--who did time as a journalist embed with an EOD unit--align themselves with neither supporters nor opponents of the U.S. involvement. There's no politics here. War is just the job the characters in the movie do. One in particular, the supremely resourceful staff sergeant played by Jeremy Renner, is addicted to the almost nonstop adrenaline rush and the opportunity to express his esoteric, life-on-the-edge genius. The hurt locker of the title is a box he keeps under his bunk, filled with bomb parts and other signatory memorabilia of "things that could have killed me." That none of it has killed him so far is no real consolation. In this movie, you never know who's going to go and when; even high-profile talent (we won't name names here) is no guarantee. But one thing can be guaranteed, and that is that almost every sequence in the movie becomes a riveting, often fiercely enigmatic set piece. This is Kathryn Bigelow's best film since 1987's Near Dark. It could also be the best film of 2009. --Richard T. Jameson
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 100
The Hurt Locker March 11, 2010
Arnita D. Brown (USA)
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 incoming bombs and sharp-shooting snipers. In Baghdad, roadside bombs are a common danger. I have a friend that is EOD, and he and I watched this movie, he said that while this movie is a bit of a far cry as to how they really operate, it's still a really entertaining movie. He said military guys know, you can't exactly go rogue too many times, because the hammer of authority will come down upon you. The constant threat of dying, hot and heavy bomb suits, the robots, the tempermental personalities in conflict with one another, strained lives back home, and silly officers who filter into a situation with the idea of taking charge yet have no idea what's going on, now that is entirely true to life. But it makes for a good story. The acting is really quite good and the directing is awesome. For those who like military movies or just action movies, this one is a good.
 The Hurt Locker March 11, 2010
Edward C. Steinhaus
Not only one of the best movies ever made in the War genre, but simply one of the best movies ever made. The desert devistatingly hot conditions always present in Iraq while difussing I.E.D.'s and wearing a defensive heavey suit of materials designed to protect the difusser, portray a mood which adds to the already cliff hanging danger surrounding each mission. There are times when I found myself actually holding my breath as the difusser held wires in his gloved hand, looking throuh the viser of a cumbersome all enclosing helmet, and trying to determine just where to cut the wires without exploding the I.E.D.s were pathos beyond belief. This movie hit the theaters with little response when it first came out, similar to the movie Jerimiah Johnson. Both were brought back when it became clear that these movies were indeed something special, and like Jerimiah Johnson, 'The Hurt Locker' will become a classic for the ages. Better even than Stanley Kubrik's, Heavy Metal Jacket.
 Snoozefest March 11, 2010
Maclen
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Hurt Locker is one of the most tedious films I've seen in quite a while. It was simply a series of vignettes of a bomb disposal unit in "action", except there is no action, no tension just mind-numbing repetition with rote dialog to match. The absence of character development did not bode well for the film as I didn't care about any of them. There was a blurb on the screen in the beginning to apparently explain "War is a Drug" or some such nonsense, then to connect the dots to that statement, near the end of the film there is a very small scene of Jeremy Renner's main character at home bored out his mind (he had apparently been forced to watch the days rushes for "The Hurt Locker"). This is what passes for entertainment these days. Absolutely worthless. The whole wretched affair gets one star for its director Kathryn Bigelow looking so fetching at age 58.
The Oscars breaks 'new ground', Again... March 10, 2010
Denton (UK)
8 out of 16 found this review helpful
It has been said that this film presents viewers with a fresh approach to war movies. I agree, unfortunately it's akin to munching down on your own excrement as a fresh approach to eating.
The film has no plot and doesn't take the viewer on any sort of journey whatsoever. It's not tense in the slightest. The main character has no back story, you're just expected to care about him and be on his side. I wasn't. His character goes absolutely nowhere too. There's no development or moments of piogniancy. Perhaps it's an attempt to portrey the drudge of war and the psychological drain. But who cares about that in a medium of entertainment. I'm aware war sucks. Most of us were mature enough to have grasped that concept when we were 5. This film is simply abysmally tedious and dull.
I'm happy for Bigalow that she won an Oscar, why wouldn't I be, it must have been amazing for her. Do I think this film deserved Oscars? Absolutely, infinitely, categorically, without a shadow of a doubt - NO
A film without a plot is like a song without a melody or tune. The Hurt locker is like listening to a monotone singular note for two hours. It's very borning and a complete waste of time as art or entertainment.
It's commonly known, and admitted, that the Oscars use their forum for political and business purposes. This film being awarded best picture strips the Oscar Judges of any and all credibility they had left. I feel a bit sorry for Bigalow as it seems this was a 'Token' winner, an insulting pat on the bum to all women directors.
I watch hundreds of films a year and have done for over 25 years. I am very well versed in what constitutes good film. I haven't always agreed with previous best picture winners, but have remarked points of merit in the films awarded the accalade.
The Hurt locker has no place in the 'great film' cannon. Not even the 'great war movie cannon' - I would even go as far as to say not even in the 'great TV movie' cannon. It's pointless and dull and I get the feeling you'd need to be as shallow as a teaspoon to find any depth in it.
At least 'The Cove' won best documentary. That was a seriously deserving winner and a story that needed to be told. Given the choices in the best picture category, I would have chosen 'Up' or 'Up in the air'
Winner of 6 Oscars Incl. BEST PICTURE March 10, 2010
D. Hutton (sydney, N.S.W. Australia)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Terrific and compelling film and deserving of its 6 oscars. Readers would be advised to read more of the older reviews, though. The page will inevitabley now be flooded with crazed Avatar fanbois trashing the film even though they've never seen it or pretend they have. They are in meltdown mode at the moment.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 100
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