glopezruelas

This episode is emblematic of the show as a whole. They are making up stuff left and right, throwing everything at the wall, with little consistency following the characters or the world that the writers themselves created. In other words, the writing is lazy, but everything else in the show - acting, cinematography, costume and set design, etc. - is top notch. It will be entertaining, but you'll be rolling your eyes so often, your retinas will feel like they're on a ferris wheel.

To me, it's similar to what happens in many horror and science fiction movies and shows: a fantastic world is set up, but when the story goes into intricate situations, suddenly there's an easy way out, a simple explanation. Why do the creators do that? Because they can, that's it. Never mind that it tosses away the personalities and story lines that had been built to that point.

It had been quite a while since I last encountered a movie with such a great discrepancy between the critics' reviews and my own. I saw this movie last night at the theatre, and I still cannot believe the generosity of some of the grades/reviews this movie's received.

The best way to put it, simply, is that this is just another war movie. It falls flat, it bores, it is about 25 minutes too long, and, to top it off, it is completely unrealistic. (yes, movies in general are fiction, but this one being a war movie, and being so wildly unrealistic, it very much spoils what is supposed to be the effect of the film). It provides next to nothing new that you haven't already seen in other war movies. The scene juxtaposition (not necessarily the editing in general) feels extremely unnatural, even annoying to an aficionado. And, unlike good war movies, it completely fails to move you.

And it is not that I don't like war movies. In fact, I only recently watched Flags Of Our Fathers, as well as Letters From Iwo Jima, and both are excellent war movies (though of very different kind). Not to mention the half-dozen or so war classics that I love.

Actually, if you want to watch an effective version of The Hurt Lucker, watch Metallica's The Day That Never Comes music video - and you'll save about 2 hours and 15 minutes of your time. I'm only half-kidding about the music video.

This is simply not a good movie, for basically the same reasons bad movies are bad (inferior script, implausibility, trying-too-hard, mediocre acting, etc.), and at times it is pretty hard to watch because of how low it sinks.

However, I gave it a 5 (and not lower) for a couple of reasons. This movie does NOT bail itself out of situations with cheap scares (e.g. bursting a loud noise out of nowhere; do an extreme close-up so you can't see the surroundings). Also, while a lot of scenes, situations, and decisions by characters in the movie are highly implausible, the overall concept, and even a few of the scenes are more believable than most of your contemporary thrillers and "digital sci- fis".

Definitely not worth $10. A rental AT BEST.