24/50: Hurt Locker

This film hit the Oscar's pretty hard last year with director Kathryn Bigelow taking home Best Director.

Anyway, Hurt Locker takes place in Iraq and we follow a trio of bomb diffusers, that basically have to go out whenever something seems suspicious and try and take care of it.

William James (Jeremy Renner) takes over as the diffuser in the group after the former diffuser Matt Thompson (Guy Pearce) is killed. James does things a little differently than most, and is pretty much reckless in his tactics.

The rest of the crew is JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). The film flows through their days left during this assignment - and how they just want to make it to the end without getting killed.

James, however, goes at things completely reckless. Not really listening to his crew and sometimes taking his vest off while dismantling a bomb. Sanborn and Eldridge begin to think that he has a death wish and could be what gets them killed.

The film was well shot and pretty entertaining, not as amazing as I thought it might be, but probably deserving of the accolades that it received a couple of years ago. Renner had an amazing performance and Mackie continues to impress me of late.

Grade:

Eagle Eye

Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) has just lost his twin brother, Ethan, in Eagle Eye. Jerry is the black sheep of the family - Ethan has always been the go-getter, including being part of the military.

As Jerry tries to return to his normal life of evading his landlord and the Copy Cabana, he enters his apartment to find a ton of military weaponry and secrets.

Jerry's phone rings and a voice on the other end tries to get him out of the situation before the FBI arrives to arrest him. Jerry refuses and is taken into custody and questioned by Agent Thomas Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton).

Allowed one phone call, Jerry tries to call his parents when the same voice as before tells him to duck as a crane smacks open the windows of the room he is in and he is told to jump out of the building.

In another part of town, Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) has just dropped her son off at the train station for a trip to D.C. to play a concert. Rachel also receives a call from the same voice, and is told to wait in a car or her son's train will derail.

This is where both Jerry and Rachel meet up and a wild chase ensues for the rest of the film, until its climax.

The movie is action packed and very well done. Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Anthony Mackie and Ethan Embry also star in the film.

There was one thing that bothered me throughout the film, however, and that was the inclusion of Rachel. It was very obvious the reasoning behind Jerry's involvement - he looked and sounded exactly like his twin brother. But Rachel only seemed to picked at random - because her son was going to be on that train.

But, that was basically it. I know a lot of things went on in the film that seem a little crazy, but those things don't bother me that much - I know it's a film.

I, again, continue to be very impressed with LaBeouf. He has certainly come a long way and continues to climb up the A-list charts. I had only seen Monaghan a few times before this - but she also stood out in the film as the conflicted mother.

I have never been a Dawson fan, but I was not annoyed with her performance in this film. Thornton was very entertaining in his role as well.

If you are looking for pretty much non-stop action sequences then this is your film - and the ending was pretty well done, annd actually rather touching as you get to know the characters.

Grade: