Friday night we finally got to see The Hurt Locker on the big screen — well, it’s bigger than our old TV. LOL
I really wanted to see this film at the theatre, but we haven’t been good at getting out as much as we’d like. (Well, it’s actually been me who too often, when the time came (the weekend), didn’t feel up to it.) (sigh)
Anyway, without time to write much at the moment — want to rent online/watch Inglorious Basterds* before going to bed and before tomorrow night’s Oscars — I’ll just paste some of my comments from Facebook, and add some bits as well. Sorry, in advance, for any redundancies.
(*I’d watch another Oscar contender we really wanted to see, District 9, but I wouldn’t watch it without Mariette.)
The Hurt Locker
Finally got to see The Hurt Locker on the big screen — well, it’s bigger than our old TV. LOL Powerful movie making. Emotionally stunning. Intense AND entertaining. The kind of film that stays with you and keeps you thinking and feeling about it for days after.
Best picture? Avatar — visually stunning. The Hurt Locker — emotionally stunning. I think despite its triteness of storyline, Avatar will win for providing Hollywood, and the movie-going public, the super box office smash that was much needed. But IF The Hurt Locker wins, you won’t see me complaining. (smile)
Best director? Technically, and for getting great performances out of his motion-caption actors, Avatar’s James Cameron was more like a superb, multi-tasking conductor. His ex-wife, Kathrine Bigelow, however, put together a powerhouse movie in The Hurt Locker, which is seemingly perfect in every nuance.
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker
This film had me on the edge of my seat from the opening moment. Movies ask viewers to suspend disbelief. I HAD to “re-pend” it. It felt like the only way I could survive the opening scenes was to keep reminding myself, “It’s only a movie. It’s only a movie.”
For those who don’t know, The Hurt Locker is about American soldiers who work as a three-man bomb disposable team risking life and limb to disarm bombs — IEDs, car bombs and those strapped to suicide bombers — in Iraq. It is not only timely, but puts the viewer right there on the debris-filled streets carefully watched by poker-faced locals. Friend or foe? Are these bystanders innocent? Or are they ready to trigger the very bomb the “invaders” are trying to defuse on the behalf of local citizens, as well as fellow soldiers?
Ultimately it’s the story of one man and why he does what he does and what I feel very few, if any of us, would have the ba . . . err . . . nerves to do. He’s played to perfection by little known Jeremy Renner. I haven’t seen enough other movies to award him a Best Actor Oscar, but if this long-shot wins, he deserves it.
(Some may remember Renner on TV as Sgt. Jason Walsh, the diner-owning policeman in last seasons much underrated The Unusuals. Walsh was the quirky veteran cop training his new partner, a refusing-to-be-spoiled rich girl played by Amber Tamblyn, previously seen as Joan in Joan of Arcadia. We loved both shows and miss them both.)
In was wondering if The Hurt Locker, currently playing in Ottawa only at Rainbow Cinemas, might be re-released in major theatres if it wins an Oscar. IF so, despite having already seen it, I’d probably like to finally see it on a true big screen.
And even if I know everything that happens, it would probably still scare the heck out of me and keep me on a mental and emotional edge all the way through.
It’s THAT powerful. It’s THAT well done.