LONE SURVIVOR

Cole's Rating: ★★★

Jesse's Rating: ★★★ ½

Director: Peter Berg
Year: 2013
Cast: Mark Wahlberg
Genre: Action/Biography/Drama/War
MPAA Rating: R

        Lone Survivor goes like this: talk-talk-bang-bang-bang-bang-boom-bang-boom-bang-boom-bang-bang-bang-bang-end. In short, if violence—and I mean intense violence—is up your moviegoing alley, then this is a must-see because Lone Survivor is all about the action. It daringly sheds its ability to be a character study and, in turn, becomes a violent, heavy-handed war film. I dug it, even though I grew tired of it after awhile.

        Wahlberg and company star in this exceptionally well shot movie about a group of special force marines who set out to capture, or even kill, Taliban figure Ahmad Shah. Little do they know that their intentions are about to be compromised by roaming members of the community whose lives lie in the hands of said marines. By choosing to spare their lives and let them go, they put themselves in a extremely vulnerable situation in the mountains of Afghanistan.

         First off, it's important to make note of the fact that Lone Survivor is not a movie that is powered by its performances. In fact, I'd say that, for a war film, its performances are just decent. The acting feels routine, and if anyone in this movie was even remotely attempting for an Academy Award nomination, that notion wasn't delivered in the slightest bit.

        But the thing about Lone Survivor is that it didn't feel like a movie that absolutely needed strong performances (though it, obviously, would've been nice to have them), and that's what gives the visceral scenes of war violence a sense of empowerment. The authority to go forward with such a confident style of filmmaking was also brought to life by the skillful camerawork, a craft of director Peter Berg.

        And what made up for the acting, emotionally, were the well-sewn-in minutes of real-life material that concerned not only pictures and videos of the actual people who are portrayed in the film, but also footage from the marines' training. These pivotal portions of the movie were completely effective, and didn't feel contrived whatsoever.

        Conclusively, Lone Survivor is a nicely edited, action packed war movie that, while it doesn't really feel like Academy Award worthy material, is still a legitimate, worthwhile movie to watch on a Saturday night with some pals. And on the big screen, the experience that this movie can provide is even better—and even more frighteningly realistic.

-Written by Cole Pollyea

THE HURT LOCKER

Cole's Rating: ★★★★

Jesse's Rating: ★★★ ½

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Year: 2009
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty
Genre: Drama/Thriller/War
MPAA Rating: R

        Director Kathryn Bigelow has never reached the level of film quality that she did with The Hurt Locker, and I can’t say that I’ll be too shocked if she does again. It’s clear that she’s very capable of producing quality pictures, and over the course of her career, she’s racked up quite the résumé. Though it’s not as impressive as other directors that produce Best Picture winners—take Francis Ford Coppola for example—Kathryn Bigelow is unpredictable. Look at films like Blue Steel and K-19: The Widowmaker next to each other, and it’s not expected that the same person did it. But for me, she managed to do the following things: she made surfing bank robbers’ lives exhilarating; she made the hunt for Osama Bin Laden seem sporadically exciting; and she made bomb-hunting appeal to an incredible extent. The Hurt Locker is a relentless character study, which is maybe why Zero Dark Thirty fell short. But if you ask me, I would’ve liked to see Oliver Stone take the wheel on that one. Either way, I didn’t love it; as a result, I can boldly say that The Hurt Locker is Kathryn Bigelow’s best and most involving—both emotionally and thoughtfully—film.

        Jeremy Renner gives a passionately convincing performance as the cocky, determined, addicted-to-war Staff Sergeant James, an expert bomb disarmer. He leads a crew consisting of people who are terrified of dying, and people who are there to get things done. He, for one, wants to be there. Perhaps one of my favorite things about the picture is how it’s backboned with a evocative quotation: “War is a drug.” And when you watch The Hurt Locker, you learn that war can qualify as such. It can be lethal. It’s not for everyone. It can be addictive. My favorite scene lies within the last few minutes of the entire film, and I can’t in good conscious reveal anything about it because of how haunting it is, but it really justifies the quotation and leaves the viewer with a powerful feeling of fulfillment. 

        Some complaints that arise (from other viewers) with The Hurt Locker is that the scenes get repetitive, or that it’s just bomb after bomb after bomb, and a true plot is never really established. I couldn’t disagree more, because some of my favorite films such as Goodfellas and The Color of Money never quite establish a plot, and one could describe some scenes as repetitive. Here’s how I see it, if a director is talented enough to make a movie with no clear plot, fascinate me with the characters, and with each “repetitive” scene develop the characters and their relationships further, then what I’m watching is a potential masterpiece. That’s exactly the word I would use to describe The Hurt Locker, a winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture.

        Alongside Platoon, this is one of my favorite all-time war movies. It’s an incredible film on all levels, and as I watched it, I felt passion dripping off the screen. The Hurt Locker feels as if it were cradled as a young child, and raised and nurtured to be excellent. Everything on screen derives from emotions, and each emotion is powerful. I, and the 2010's Academy Awards applaud Kathryn Bigelow and the people involved in the making of the picture to a great extent; I will from now on go into her films expecting the best, even if it hasn’t been delivered consistently in the past.

-Written by Cole Pollyea

Jesse's Thoughts: The Hurt Locker is a harrowing, edge of your seat war thriller that, in 2009, caused people to stand up and say Kathryn Bigelow (director), "where have you been?" This is an intelligent film with tension so thick, you need a ginsu blade just to cut through it. Jeremy Renner (star and reluctant hero) is so darn natural on screen, you can't even tell he's acting. Overall, The Hurt Locker takes plenty of risks that most movies wouldn't dare touch. It's easily one of the best vehicles of the aforementioned year, and its Best Picture Oscar was well deserved. As a flick about soldiers looking for bombs, this is a must see. Look for a fantastic opening scene with Aussie actor Guy Pierce. It's a powerful sequence setting a tone that never looks back. 

BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

Cole's Rating: ★★★ ½

Jesse's Rating: ★★★ ½

Director: Oliver Stone
Year: 1989
Cast: Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava
Genre: Biography/Drama/War
MPAA Rating: R

  Before Oblivion and Jack Reacher, Tom Cruise didn’t just pay someone to act for him, or “phone it in”, a phrase we fellow movie critics use for weak performances from a good actor. That statement is evident in his best performance by far, Born on the Fourth of July (I haven’t yet seen Cocktail or Risky Business, but then, I don’t believe I stand corrected). Here he plays the most difficult type of character that film has ever created: a confused man that possesses both internal and external conflicts, and executes it flawlessly.

  Cruise stars here as a boy (not adult) who chooses to enlist in the Vietnam war, in attempt to “serve like our fathers” and stop the spread of communism, or so he thought at the time. When he returns, he eats his words per se, because he is paralyzed from the chest down and passionately believes that the United States government lied to him, and wrongly persuaded him to help in the war effort, thus transforming the once all-star wrestler and innocent kid into an angry anti-war activist. When you watch a movie that is sad, the most harrowing and sorrowful moments are usually at the end; that’s not the case here. The movie is shot in such a raw manner, that you feel as if you really are witnessing life’s most gruesome moments and the truth of reality. It’s almost too much to ask for nowadays, and maybe that’s why I enjoyed Robert Zemeckis’ Flight more than most viewers of the film because it's so shockingly realistic. In reality, there are unhappy times all throughout the course of one’s life, not just at end’s meet; that is shown displayed relentlessly in Born on the Fourth of July.

  In many sports, there is the term “triple-threat”, which means that the person identified as such can pose a risk to the other team with three different actions. I think it’s safe to say that Oliver Stone is at least a triple-threat player in the finest sport of all, cinema. His film’s excel in most areas: cast, story, material, enjoyability, memorability, and emotion (from the characters and the audience)—yet he, or a lot of his movies make one significant flaw in their outcome, and that is the ending. Stone seems to speed up the process of closing out his movies by rushing the characters into getting along, or in most cases, just creating an accepting tone for the characters, thus changing the atmosphere that the rest of the movie tried so hard to create. As an audience member, I was put off entirely by the abrupt change.  That’s what keeps Born on the Fourth of July from being a better movie—and Oliver Stone, a better director—and that’s a shame.

        But overall, the movie's the far from a letdown. In fact, I'd place it generously in my top 50 films of all time. I'd say that it is among Tom Cruise's best films of all time, it's in Oliver Stone's top five films of all time, and among some of the best war films of all time. After seeing this, it's safe to say that I'm a proud admirer of Oliver Stone's work (if I wasn't already before), and I only hope that he can learn to shape his closure better in future movies to come.

-Written by Cole Pollyea

Jesse's Thoughts: Oliver Stone was the perfect director to helm a film about the horrors and brutality of the Vietnam War. Being a Vietnam vet himself, he was able to bring exquisite period detail to every frame thus garnering a well deserved Oscar for best director at the 1990 Academy Awards. With all that being said, Born On The Fourth Of July is one of Stone's best films, but everything in it takes a back seat to Tom Cruise's powerful, blistering performance as Ron Kovic, a soldier who was wounded in a dogfight and lost all feeling from the mid-chest down. Based on a true story, Cruise commands the screen and has never been this good in a film since. He hits a home run, better yet, a total grand slam. 

ZERO DARK THIRTY

Cole's Rating: ★★★

Jesse's Rating: ★★★ ½

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Year: 2012

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt

Genre: Drama/History/Thriller/War

MPAA Rating: R

        Zero Dark Thirty tells the story of the greatest manhunt in history: the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. The movie goes into thorough detail on the specific events that took place in the process of locating who may be considered the greatest terrorist of all time.  And it's good; but I didn’t find it to be great. While I was watching it, and when I was finished, I had that “been there, done that” type feel. And that’s because although this exact story has never been told, there are only few scenes and elements that have anything unique to offer.

        Nonetheless, it’s a movie that I’m glad I saw, as it does pay tribute to the brilliant and determined soldiers and theorizers (I say theorizers because the hunt was based off of a hunch) that served and protected our country; it’s your duty to see this film. Luckily, Hollywood is blessed enough to have access to actors/actresses so incredibly talented to portray the necessary characters. It’s no wonder Jessica Chastain won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar, as her strong heroine-type presence accented the film very well; she was around the more masculine characters quite often. 

        However, the film became slightly difficult to follow about halfway through the film when they were locating Bin Laden’s courier; and it went on much too long (I also believed that some of its time was spent in the wrong places). Those were Zero Dark Thirty’s greatest flaws. But then again, I would’ve preferred it to be longer than shorter... It’s too bad that it couldn’t find a happy medium, like another one of Kathryn Bigelow’s triumphant films, Point Break. 

        A factor of the movie that fascinated and impressed me was the incredibly well done camerawork, especially during the invasion scene; it was shot in partial night vision, and regular, mostly from first person perspective. Think “Call of Duty”, with realistic graphics and higher quality. And I wasn’t given a headache either... Cough, cough, Bourne Ultimatum, cough, cough.

        Overall, Zero Dark Thirty has great qualities: prominent acting, significant storytelling, and potent scenes. It’s just a shame that its excessive length dulls its impact. I recommend it; but I could name other 2012 films worthy of Best Picture consideration over this. 

-Written by Cole Pollyea

Jesse's Thoughts: With The Hurt Locker (2009) and this searing drama about the relentless pursuit of terrorist Osama Bin Laden, director Kathryn Bigelow has officially entered Steven Soderbergh/Paul Greengrass territory. This is not a bad thing because she is probably the most powerful voice in American filmmaking today anyway. When it comes to casting, you have a calculating and confident movie that hinges on Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain's ferocious performance. She barrels her way through Zero Dark Thirty with an attitude and something to prove.

THE THIN RED LINE

Jesse's Rating: ★★★ ½

Year: 1998

Cast: Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte

Genre: Drama/War

MPAA Rating: R

        Director Terrence Malick came out of sort of a mini retirement (his previous films were Badlands in 1973 and Days of Heaven in 1978) to make this original and genuinely cerebral World War II film based on the infamous battle of Guadalcanal. A lot of big name actors with small parts contribute to his alley like return to the film making ring. The result is a powerful movie that stimulates the brain and pulls at the heart.The unique aspect of The Thin Red Line is the form of narration that goes with almost every character's thought. Add Hans Zimmer's legendary musical score and Malick's keen eye for camera movement and you get something special. It's a film with images that stay with you long after it's over. Next to Apocalypse Now (1979) and Platoon (1986), it's tops on my list of great war films.

Written by Jesse Burleson