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Reviews Counted:179
Fresh:174
Rotten:5
Average Rating:8.4/10
Consensus: A well-acted, intensely shot, action filled war epic, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is thus far the best of the recent dramatizations of the Iraq War.
Runtime: 2 hrs 11 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
US Box Office: $12,402,612
Synopsis: The Hurt Locker is a riveting, suspenseful portrait of the courage under fire of the military’s most unrecognized heroes: the technicians of the bomb squad, who volunteer to challenge the odds and... [More]
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Bryan Geraghty, Evangeline Lilly
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Instead of setting out to prove a point, it seeks to immerse us in an environment -- something Bigelow does with a conceptual rigor usually associated with those directors whose work is confined to film societies and art houses.
Its insights and reach extend far beyond what's happened there over the past several years.
A brilliantly realized character-driven thriller likely to leave a lasting impression and make you completely forget everything you thought you knew about the day-to-day lives of soldiers in Iraq.
The Hurt Locker is a small classic of tension, bravery, and fear, which will be studied twenty years from now when people want to understand something of what happened to American soldiers in Iraq.
Top CriticThe Hurt Locker might be the first Iraq-set film to break through to a mass audience because it doesn’t lead with the paralysis of the guilt-ridden Yank. The horror is there, but under the rush.
A coolly elegant kineticist, Kathryn Bigelow specializes in impressionistic phallus jostles.
Harrowing and horrifying, The Hurt Locker delivers the visceral, heart-in-throat action goods, and in doing so, gets at more truths about Iraq than its preachy ... brethren.
There's more tension in this gripping tale than in the waistband of Oprah's skinny jeans ... which is pretty freakin' tense.
The film supports the idea that extended exposure to certain kinds of experiences have the effect of either galvanizing a participant or breaking them, if they are fortunate enough to survive. In WWII, war was hell, in Viet Nam it was numbed by drugs, but
An intense, action-driven war pic, a muscular, efficient standout that simultaneously conveys the feeling of combat from within as well as what it looks like on the ground.
After some disappointing films, the gifted Bigelow puts to excellent use her strongest skills in this thrillingly kinetic, tightly-focused, utterly compelling portrait of one bomb squad, a highlight of a weak cycle thus far of Iraq war movies.
A wrenching rush of adrenaline set in a never-ending cycle of occupation and struggle and ever-increasing tension.
The Hurt Locker is a near-perfect movie about men in war, men at work. Through sturdy imagery and violent action, it says that even Hell needs heroes.
I'm not sure this is a film that will be easy to sell to the general public, but anyone who is willing to test themselves will find that it's a dynamic and memorable experience.
The Hurt Locker probably isn't the 'great' Iraq film which will finally move audiences into theatres but it does play out like fragments of one.
Bigelow and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd crank up the tension to nail-biting, gut-churning extremes and the mayhem is powerfully visceral.
The Hurt Locker looks and feels like a terrific action film, but there's a piece of art ticking away within it that goes off inside your head and your heart while you're watching.
...uncommonly taut and uniformly well acted...
Tensely action-packed and muscularly directed by Kathryn Bigelow, this tale of an elite U.S. army bomb disposal unit in Baghdad is a familiar story in new clothes, targeted at the young male demographic.
Often gripping at a straight thriller level, but increasingly weakened by its fuzzy psychology, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker doesn't bring anything new to the table of grunts-in-the-firing-line movies.
Top Critic
January 03, 2010:
Awards Tour: The Hurt Locker Wins Big At National Society of Film Critics Awards
Find out who the National Society of Film Critics thought was best in 2009! More...
December 29, 2009:
Critics Choose Must-Sees and Worsts of 2009
RT is a great place to connect with other movie lovers, read up on the latest industry news, and stay updated on the hottest upcoming releases, but at the core of it all, what... More...
December 23, 2009:
Hurt Locker Audio Commentary: War porn at the movies. 
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December 23, 2009:
Hurt Locker Audio Commentary: War porn at the movies.
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