What else to do on a lazy Saturday night but go hit the movies by yourself? Ever since reading Black Hawk Down and watching Three Kings on cable, I've become really enchanted with (desert themed) war movies. The Hurt Locker is a top contender. The film follows three members of a bomb disposal squad in Baghdad as their rotation winds down. It's powerful, tense, and not a typical war movie at all. Everything you'd expect to see in a war movie is here, but done in a way that is always unexpected. On top of that, the movie has a surprisingly amount of depth and focus on the characters, so it's not really about the action at all.
Director Kathryn Bigelow's name is new to me but her movies are not (Point Break, Strange Days). She was married to James Cameron once upon a time and it's hard to say that she isn't just as talented. I wouldn't recommend the movie for everyone but it's really hard to think any part of it that I didn't enjoy. Was it worth a nine dollar admission fee and seven dollar (!) popcorn? I think so.
