The Hurt Locker

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Plot:
Three soldiers in a bomb squad are in Baghdad in 2004 during the war. The squad leader is Sgt William James (Jeremy Renner) who is aggressive and a little crazy. Sgt JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) is careful and by-the-book, and and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) is afraid of getting killed. [MILD SPOILERS] They defuse a network of IED's, defuse a booby-trapped car, get caught in a skirmish, defuse a body bomb, and deal with a suicide bomber in a bomb belt.

Review: Hurt Locker is constant suspenseful action -- moving from one explosive situation to another one. The aggressive and a death-defying Sgt James puts the other soldiers into stressful situations, and there is constant tension between them. The non-battle scenes are also fast-moving and interesting.

Karen Bigelow's directing is the biggest star -- every scene is gripping. The whole movie is one climax after the next.

All the acting is very good, but especially Anthony Mackie --their fear makes us all more tense.

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Owen Eldridge

Crew: directed by Karen Bigelow; written by Mark Boal -- who was embedded with a bomb squad in Iraq

Rating: 4.0 flasks!

More: As good a war movie as Black Hawk Down.