THE DARK KNIGHT Has Been Immortalized by the Library of Congress...

Congratulations to director Christopher Nolan and his cast and crew on The Dark Knight for cementing a place in the National Film Registry today! The Dark Knight joins 24 others films—including The Hurt Locker, Shrek, The Joy Luck Club, Grease and A Clockwork Orange—as the newest cinematic inductees in the Library of Congress this year. There are now 800 movies whose legacies have been preserved by the largest library in the world...which is also America's oldest federal cultural institution. Well-done.

THE POST: "The Press Was to Serve the Governed, Not the Governors."

So I finally watched Steven Spielberg's newest film The Post yesterday, and needless to say, it was very eye-opening. This movie deserves to win the Best Picture trophy at the Oscars next month for the sole fact it'll bring attention to the unfortunate reality that history is repeating itself again. But instead of a president trying to bar the media from reporting on a war in Southeast Asia that should never have taken place (and lying to the public about not being a crook, but this was never alluded to in Spielberg's film), we have a so-called leader in the White House who keeps attacking the American press for reporting on the fact that he's a traitor to our country by colluding with the Russians to win the election almost two years ago. And thinks that he's a "very stable genius."

And in case you're about to say that the Academy Awards don't bestow trophies on films for political reasons (and not just because they're well-made movies), look no further than to past Best Picture winners like Spotlight (sexual abuse in the Catholic Church) and The Hurt Locker (the Iraq War). Carry on.

Iron Man 3: Movie Review... So I saw the third installment (fourth if you count The Avengers) in the Tony Stark saga today, and needless to say, it was cool. The film had a nice twist (involving the main villain) towards the end of the second act of the story, and seeing as how they worked together on the 2005 flick Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, director Shane Black gave Robert Downey Jr. much more to act with (humor-wise, that is) than Jon Favreau did in Iron Man 2. Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts definitely saw more action than she did in the first two Iron Man installments, while Don Cheadle's Colonel James Rhodes got to have some awesome fight scenes with and without the Iron Patriot (formerly known as War Machine) armor on. Rebecca Hall (from 2010's The Town) played a neurobiologist who made the unfortunate mistake of being in cahoots with the Mandarin. Speaking of the Mandarin, Ben Kingsley did a great job conveying the true nature of this bad guy...which involved being a buffoon who enjoyed drinking beer and watching a soccer game on TV while two hot scantily-clad chicks were spooning in his bed. If you're a die-hard Marvel Comics fan who think that this description of the Mandarin is extremely blasphemous, then watch the movie right away. Trust me— You'll be pleasantly surprised.



Not to be trifled with in Iron Man 3 is Guy Pearce...who apparently got tired of being in such Oscar-winning dramas as The Hurt Locker and The King's Speech and decided to star in a major Hollywood summer blockbuster this time around. Pearce plays Aldrich Killian, the mastermind behind a gene-altering virus known as Extremis, who along with the Mandarin (cough-cough) decides to use this creation to get revenge on Tony Stark for shunning Killian at a party in Switzerland 13 years earlier. In case you're wondering what Extremis does, it allows folks with missing limbs (specifically injured war veterans) to grow these body parts back...plus increases their physical strength twofold. Oh, and the virus also causes an unstable chemical reaction within the subject's body to make them prone to self-combustion, and even leading them to explode. Injected into the wrong person, and you literally have a walking time-bomb; injected into the right person, and you have an antagonist who can breathe out fire like a dragon and use the heat generated by the chemical reaction to dismantle just about anything...including the armor on a certain billionaire philanthropist's robotic suit.



All-in-all, Iron Man 3 was an exceptional addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film, of course, had some minor issues...namely the fact that all of the Iron Man suits exploded like they were home-made pipe bombs or something (yes, I know— They were made in Tony Stark's house). Plus, Stark must have multiple bank accounts around the globe if he's going to nonchalantly destroy billions of dollars worth of robotic armor (every single one of them...except the suit worn by Colonel Rhodes) just to make things right with Ms. Potts at the end. To think that the Hulkbuster armor won't ever be used against you know, the Hulk, is unfortunate. But then again, if the end credits are any indication, it's that Tony Stark will return...and bring Iron Man back to life even if Stark no longer has that electromagnetic device implanted on his chest to power the suit. Oh, and who else is going to annoy Bruce Banner when The Avengers 2 comes along? Agent Coulson? He's too busy returning from the dead to star in his own TV show this fall (which would be Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). That is all.

Pain & Gain... So I saw the new flick at the theater on Sunday (yes, I'm still out of town), and needless to say, it's what you would expect from the mind of Michael Bay. Pain & Gain was an interesting film...and a good indicator of how well Mark Wahlberg will get along with Bay once they begin filming Transformers 4 in about a month or two. However, with Pain & Gain being based on a true story and all, it's clearly obvious that unlike Ben Affleck on Argo, Bay doesn't really care for historical accuracy in this crime caper. Wahlberg looks nothing like the real Daniel Lugo, Anthony Mackie (of The Hurt Locker and Gangster Squad) bears little resemblance to Adrian Doorbal (I'll have to check online again...but I don't think Doorbal was even African American), and Paul Doyle isn't a gigantic Samoan dude like Dwayne Johnson. Oh, and in another trademark by Bay, Pain & Gain opted for humor where there probably shouldn't be any. Wahlberg, Mackie and Johnson treat their characters like they're the criminal equivalent of Harry and Lloyd from Dumb & Dumber—which kinda feels out-of-place considering that two of the three kidnappers/extortionists were sentenced to death at the end of the movie. But that's just me. Pain & Gain is a dark comedy...so either go to the cinema hoping to be entertained by the true-life buffoonery of these hooligans, or be annoyed that substantial liberty was taken to depicting this crime story—just like what was done with the exploits of Mickey Cohen in Gangster Squad. Carry on.

Zero Dark Thirty: Movie Review... First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! Just thought I'd finally post my review of Kathryn Bigelow's latest action thriller...which I watched at ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood last Friday. Just as a recap that I'm sure 99% of you don't need (otherwise you wouldn't have visited my webpage in the first place), Zero Dark Thirty revolves around the decade-long manhunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that culminated in his death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs more than a year ago. Controversy has recently arisen around the torture scenes that are prominently featured in Bigelow's new flick, voiced primarily by folks in Washington and those who actually work in Langley, Virginia (at CIA Headquarters). Hubbub aside, Zero Dark Thirty is an intense film—showing the frustration and ultimately vindication that folks looking for bin Laden felt when the code word for his death was finally radioed from bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan on the night of May 1, 2011: "Geronimo."



Zero Dark Thirty revolves around a real-life CIA operative who in this film goes by the name of Maya. Determinedly portrayed by Jessica Chastain (who I last saw in this September's gangster drama, Lawless), Maya originally begins this flick standing on the sideline as Dan, another operative played by Jason Clarke, is the one responsible for "questioning" detainees held at a CIA black site in Pakistan. Maya apparently has no qualms about the use of waterboarding, dog leashes and other methods that Dan utilizes to get information about bin Laden from this detainee...whose name in this movie is Ammar (played by Reda Kateb). Despite all the brutal and degrading situations that Dan puts him through, Ammar is resilient in not divulging any crucial info about bin Laden or even the next terrorist attack being planned. In fact, the attack goes as expected; with dozens of people killed in a housing complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia in May of 2004. It is after this massacre that Maya devises a scheme: to lie to Ammar and let him know that the names that he revealed (which he didn't actually do) during his interrogation resulted in numerous lives being saved at Khobar. Ammar had been sleep-deprived for 96 hours, and adding in the fact that he had no contact with the outside world whatsoever allowed Maya and Dan to fool Ammar into thinking that he began to cooperate with them over the course of his captivity. It was through Maya's tactic that the name of the courier, Abu Ahmed—who would ultimately lead to bin Laden's location—was revealed.



The remainder of the film before SEAL Team 6's raid in Abbottabad is about Maya and her CIA team pursuing every lead for the courier's whereabouts in Pakistan. Their investigation takes Maya to a CIA black site in Poland, with Dan visiting a contact (and even buying a Lamborghini for the guy to get his cooperation) in Kuwait who knows Abu Ahmed's mother. (The courier was Kuwaiti.) The search for Ahmed is not without its casualties though, with Maya's close friend Jessica (Jennifer Ehle) being one of the victims of a suicide bombing at Camp Chapman in Afghanistan on December 30, 2009. With other CIA colleagues having to withdraw from Pakistan due to outrage over civilian deaths caused by unmanned drone strikes (one colleague who was expelled being Joseph Bradley, played by Kyle Chandler), Maya slowly realizes that she is the only one left to continue the search for the courier and ultimately, his boss who was the mastermind for the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.



Zero Dark Thirty starts to get really intense once Maya and her colleagues finally locate the courier and his/bin Laden's home in Pakistan. The set crew who built a replica of bin Laden's compound (in the country of Jordan, where much of the flick was shot) for the film did a tremendous job making the fortress-like lair look exactly like the one that was featured on almost every newspaper and news website in the days following May 1, 2011. What makes Zero Dark Thirty really interesting is how Kathryn Bigelow and her crew visualize how the lair would look on the inside, and ultimately, how SEAL Team 6 would penetrate the fortress to get to the room bin Laden was hiding in. In terms of SEAL Team 6, I find it interesting that Zero Dark Thirty purports that the stealth helicopters the DEVGRU (United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group...another name for SEAL Team 6) operators flew to Abbottabad in were secretly stored at Area 51 in Nevada. Hey, Bigelow had to find some kind of explanation about where these choppers were before coming into use for the bin Laden raid. Speaking of the bin Laden raid...



For me, the highlight of Zero Dark Thirty is when Maya finally meets the Navy SEALs who would complete the job that Maya had feverishly been working on since 2003. We get to know two of the DEVGRU operators (even though everything about them in this film is fictional), Patrick (Joel Edgerton) and Justin (Chris Pratt). Since we know that SEAL Team 6 didn't incur any casualties during the raid on bin Laden's compound, we shouldn't be surprised that Bigelow portrayed these soldiers as extremely confident and efficient (which I'm sure they are in real-life) on the big screen. When these SEALs finally don their armor and strap on their weapons, and lift off in the two stealth choppers with Maya watching from the ground, that's when we finally prepare to see bin Laden's fate conveyed on screen.



I don't know about the rest of the audience whom I saw the movie with last Friday, but I felt chills as the two choppers carrying SEAL Team 6 quietly made their way through mountainous terrain as they headed to bin Laden's compound. To watch as the choppers arrive at the lair, with the DEVGRU operators lowering their night vision goggles before extracting from the helicopters, was awesome. For folks who enjoy war movies, it is never too tiring to see soldiers head off into combat...whether it is in Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, Bigelow's previous film The Hurt Locker, or this one. Knowing what transpired in the bin Laden raid from reading dozens of articles in newspapers and online, I couldn't help but be transfixed by how Bigelow dramatized the major events of 5/1/11 on the big screen...from one of the stealth choppers making a hard landing near the compound (due to rotor wash caused by flying too close to a wall), to how the DEVGRU operators eliminate the courier and then locating a vast cache of computer hard drives, CDs and other valuable sources of intel inside the main home. But ultimately, the biggest moment that brought chills down my spine (I'm exaggerating—kinda) is when SEAL Team 6 finally confronts "the third floor guy" and finishes him off.



A very nice touch in Zero Dark Thirty is the fact that we never fully see bin Laden's face before or after he meets his fate at the hands of U.S. special ops soldiers. Bin Laden was a phantom when Dan and Maya interrogated Ammar for his whereabouts at the beginning of the film, and bin Laden is still a phantom even as Maya stares down at his lifeless body when SEAL Team 6 returned to Afghanistan with it. In the final shot of Zero Dark Thirty, Maya expresses an emotion that she had no doubt been suppressing since 2003...and most likely before that. Two years before that, to be exact. Even if the majority of scenes in Zero Dark Thirty—especially the ones featuring so-called enhanced interrogation techniques—are exaggerated or flat-out fictional, the movie is still true in that the search for the man who caused the deaths of almost 3,000 Americans more than eleven years ago was a long and painful one. And seeing it come to an end finally allowed the people responsible for conducting this dogged but ultimately fruitful investigation to release their emotions. One word for why Kathryn Bigelow and other storytellers continue to deal with the topic of 9/11: catharsis. That is all.

Zero Dark Thirty... Check out the final theatrical trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming film about the successful manhunt that led to Osama bin Laden's death last year. Zero Dark Thirty will be released in limited engagement on December 19, and come out in theaters nationwide this January 11. Considering the fact that I rooted for The Hurt Locker to win the Academy Award for Best Picture back in 2010, I'm totally looking forward to seeing Bigelow's new flick over the holidays.

Prometheus... I saw Ridley Scott's latest sci-fi thriller earlier today, and for those of you still wondering, yes— It is indeed a prequel to Scott's 1979 classic, Alien. Obviously, there are a ton of signs during Prometheus to show you that it's the latest installment in the space monster movie franchise, but it isn't towards the end of the new flick where you officially get the payoff to confirm the tie-in. Though in hindsight, that money shot may have seemed contrived and tacked on...as if it just occurred to Scott late in the film's production process, Oh snap, I just realized that moviegoers are gonna watch this movie primarily to see an alien from Alien, and not because a hot, Oscar-winning babe like Charlize Theron is in it. I know I was waiting throughout the flick to see the iconic creature make its appearance onscreen. And yes, I also watched Prometheus because the lovely actress from South Africa is in it.



As for the rest of Prometheus, it was entertaining. The ship itself is pretty cool. I like its design, though it's too bad Prometheus doesn't last long enough to get off the mysterious world Theron, Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba and company land on to investigate. In terms of the cast itself, they did a good job. Ridley Scott made the right choice in selecting Rapace (whose last major Hollywood film was 2011's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) to have the lead role as Elizabeth Shaw (who would have originally been played by Theron if she didn't have scheduling conflicts). Guy Pearce—who was in Academy Award winners like The Hurt Locker and The King's Speech, as well as this year's sci-fi flop Lockout—donned prosthetic makeup to play Peter Weyland, a decrepit man whose corporation was alluded to in past Alien films. Not to spoil the ending (other than what I've already mentioned in the previous paragraph), but the conclusion of Prometheus lends the movie to a potential sequel. Then again, maybe not; I think audiences won't be as excited to follow the exploits of a spiritual, knowledge-seeking protagonist like Elizabeth Shaw as they would be seeing Sigourney Weaver's heroic antihero Ellen Ripley kick some major extraterrestrial ass.



Prometheus, being a prequel, is obviously an origins story—just like the 2005 film Batman Begins (which, like Prometheus, also had several scenes shot in Iceland). In terms of horror, I personally thought Prometheus is relatively tame compared to Alien. It may possibly be due to the fact the extraterrestrial beings we see in Prometheus are human-like creatures (called Engineers) who seemed benevolent for most of the flick. By Alien, however, danger is in full swing...with Ripley fighting for survival against the familiar black xenomorph with sharp teeth, acid blood and an elongated skull. Not that this is a criticism of Prometheus. The mystery aspect of its storyline is well-done. To quote David, the android played by Michael Fassbender: "Big things have small beginnings."



All-in-all, Prometheus is a good flick. It didn't blow me away the same way other Ridley Scott films like Gladiator and Black Hawk Down did when I first watched them at the theater, but this new movie got the job done. It's a nice addition to the Alien franchise—which is more than you can say for the cheesy Alien vs. Predator films. Prometheus was shot in 3-D; my viewing experience of this flick probably would've been more enjoyable if I watched it in this format. But it is what it is...and I say that it's cool that Scott returned to his sci-fi roots with Prometheus. Now bring on Blade Runner 2! That is all.

The Avengers: Movie Review... So I saw the much-anticipated comic book ensemble film on IMAX 3-D last Friday, and needless to say, it was friggin' awesome! From Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) opening scene where he demonstrates that mere bullets can't hurt a sinister god like him to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) showing that he's more than a "billionaire playboy philanthropist" in the movie's climax, The Avengers was a nice blend of action, drama and humor all rolled into one.



Director Joss Whedon did a terrific job with the way Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) interacted in his latest cinematic hit...as well as bringing new life to the Hulk with a talented actor like Mark Ruffalo portraying the mild-mannered Bruce Banner and "the other guy". And it doesn't hurt that Scarlett Johannson returned as the ass-kicking Black Widow, Jeremy Renner [who must be really grateful that he's on a roll in Hollywood right now, what with him being in a Best Picture winner (The Hurt Locker), a well-made bank robbery flick (The Town) and then matching wits with Tom Cruise in a hit action film (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and all] got to play with arrows as Hawkeye, and Samuel L. Jackson was the usual badass motherf**ker playing Nick Fury.



In terms of my favorite moments in the movie, most of them involved Iron Man and the Hulk. Let's face it— Marvel's plans to bring The Avengers to the big screen probably would've hit a snag if Robert Downey Jr. didn't nail it with his portrayal of Tony Stark and Iron Man in the hit 2008 film. Iron Man is just totally awesome in The Avengers...and when Stark ditches the Mach 6 suit (which he used in the finale of Iron Man 2) to don the Mach 7 armor (which Stark put on in one of the coolest sequences in the movie) as he confronted Loki, I couldn't resist the urge to shout out "F**K YEA" in the theater. (Which I didn't do, just to be polite). And when Loki is about to admonish the Hulk about who's the more powerful being between the two, only for the Hulk to quickly grab Loki by the legs and swat him back and forth against the ground like a bullwhip (can’t think up of a better analogy), the rest of the audience couldn't help but shout out "F**K YEEAAA" in the theater. (Which they didn’t do. The audience just cheered.)



As for other aspects of The Avengers that were awesome, the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier looked really cool. And Iron Man firing those micro-missiles against those alien invaders in the climax was badass. (BTW— When is a Robotech movie gonna be made, damn it?) If there are nitpicks that I have about the flick, it's that the story of The Avengers was reminiscent to that of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Much like in TF3, The Avengers had to deal with an alien army who used a portal to get to Earth and start an invasion. And whereas Michael Bay avoided the cliché of destroying New York City by having Chicago be the victimized metropolis in Dark of the Moon instead, Joss Whedon decided to have the Big Apple be the place where the alien army causes major chaos and destruction. But overall, the fact that The Avengers is a well-made film makes up for the somewhat derivative plotline. Oh, and Transformers had a better music score. You da man, Steve Jablonsky.



All-in-all, The Avengers was an enjoyable flick. Having a current worldwide gross of $702.2 million (with $226.4 million of that coming from us Yanks and the Canadians), Marvel's latest hit definitely started the 2012 summer blockbuster season with a bang. Would I watch the movie again, you ask? Of course! But for personal reasons, not at the theater. I'll just wait till the DVD is released...as originally expected. That is all.

4 out of 5 stars. ****

84th Annual Academy Award Nominations... Not surprisingly, Jonah Hill got a Best Supporting Actor nod for his role as an Oakland Athletics numbers-cruncher in Moneyball. Former co-stars Michael Cera and Seth Rogen are either happy for him or fuming right now. As for Moneyball (which landed Brad Pitt another Best Actor nomination), it turns out this baseball biopic is the only film out of the nine Best Picture nominees that I saw at the theater. I'll possibly watch War Horse, The Descendants and/or Hugo at the cineplex before the Oscars air on TV next month. Other highlights from today's announcement include Rooney Mara getting a Best Actress nomination for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (which was as disturbing as The Social Network was insightful about Facebook's creation... Kudos, David Fincher) and Gary Oldman a Best Actor nod for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. If Gary Oldman ends up winning the gold, this would be the second time in two years a major cast member from Christopher Nolan's Batman films takes home the statue from the Academy Awards. Christian Bale was recognized as Best Supporting Actor last year for his role in 2010's The Fighter.



In terms of the technical categories, Transformers: Dark of the Moon earned the same amount of nominations that the first Transformers film received in 2008, and two more than what Revenge of the Fallen received in 2010. Like TF1, Dark of the Moon earned nods in Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects. (Revenge of the Fallen was only recognized for Visual Effects, which was eventually awarded to James Cameron's Avatar.) Of course, if it's anything like TF1 at the 2008 Oscars, Dark of the Moon will lose out in all three categories...most likely to Hugo or War Horse for Sound Editing and Design, and maybe Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2 or Hugo for Visual Effects. Since Hugo is leading all 2012 contenders with 11 nominations, I say that this Martin Scorsese flick will be the one that usurps Dark of the Moon at the Kodak Theatre on February 26...thus completing the trifecta of disappointment for the Transformers movie franchise at the Academy Awards, and becoming the second 3-D film since Avatar to dominate the Oscars (despite the fact The Hurt Locker won Best Picture instead of James Cameron's sci-fi epic in 2010). For those of you who'd wish this 3-D fad would just go away, Hugo probably made that even unlikelier. Carry on.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL... Check out the trailer for the upcoming fourth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which once again stars Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames, as well as features Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Simon Pegg (2009’s Star Trek), Paula Patton (Deja Vu), Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins) and Léa Seydoux (2010’s Robin Hood). Ghost Protocol (which sounds like the title for a Metal Gear Solid video game or a Call of Duty-type shooter for Playstation 3... That’s a compliment) will be released in theaters on December 16 of this year.

On a side note, I had the pleasure of watching Mission: Impossible 3 film a few times at Paramount Pictures when I worked there in 2005-‘06. Didn’t see Tom Cruise or any other M:I:3 cast member in person, but it was awesome. I hope Ghost Protocol will be as action-packed as the previous film.

83rd ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS... It was worth watching the Oscar telecast in its entirety this year—obviously for the fact that all the movies and actors/actresses I rooted for won in their respective categories tonight. I rooted for Christian Bale to win Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter (this oughta’ earn The Dark Knight Rises an extra $75 million at the box office next year...for a total domestic gross of $675 million), hoped that Natalie Portman took home the Best Actress trophy for Black Swan (no, I never saw that movie. All hail Queen Amidala though), was expecting Inception to win for Best Visual FX (though it would’ve been a good consolation prize if Iron Man 2 won instead) and wasn’t surprised that The King’s Speech became the Best Picture of 2010. That was a great flick... Very inspirational.



I’m still annoyed that Revenge of the Sith wasn’t nominated for Best Visual FX in 2006, Transformers wasn’t nominated for the same award in 2008 and The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated for Best Picture in 2009, but at least the Academy got it right this time around... (Along with handing the late Heath Ledger the Best Supporting Actor trophy in 2009 for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight, and crowning The Hurt Locker as Best Picture last year.)



By the way, I didn’t know Jeremy Renner got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for last year's bank heist movie, The Town. That movie was awesome. That is all.

82nd ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS... Congrats to Kathryn Bigelow and the rest of the crew behind The Hurt Locker for tonight’s 6 Oscar wins, including one for Best Picture (duh)! Pretty much the only Academy Award that Avatar truly deserved was for Best Visual FX...which it received. And props to Christoph Waltz on winning the Best Supporting Actor award for Inglourious Basterds, and Sandra Bullock on winning an Oscar for The Blind Side. She won a Razzie Award (for All About Steve) AND an Academy Award on the same weekend. Good for her.



Did District 9 win anything tonight? No? Oh well. It’s still kewl in my book.

82nd ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS... Avatar, The Hurt Locker (both unsurprisingly) and District 9 all received Oscar nominations for Best Picture this morning. Nice. Good to see that the Academy didn't drop the ball this time around. Actually, I take that back. Star Trek should've gotten a nom as well. Sorry Trekkies.

And glad to see that Hans Zimmer got a Best Original Score nomination for Sherlock Holmes. I was surprised to see that it was Zimmer who did the fantastic music (since the score sounded very un-Zimmerish) for the Robert Downey Jr. film when I watched the end credits. Word.

THE HURT LOCKER... I saw the film yesterday, and I must say, it really is the best movie I’ve seen all summer. Actually, make that all year. The Hurt Locker reminded me of Black Hawk Down (yes, I know... DUUUH. They’re both, um, war flicks?) in that it conveyed nonstop suspense and intensity whenever we followed our three main protagonists (two infantrymen and a reckless bomb tech they have to protect) through the streets and desert of Iraq. In Black Hawk Down, of course, the film was one long street battle (I mean that in a good way) as special forces battled their way through the city of Mogadishu in Somalia to rescue fellow troops from a downed military chopper.



I’ve seen other Iraq-themed movies like Jarhead, Courage Under Fire and Three Kings, but The Hurt Locker feels the most realistic of them all. Of course, in Jarhead, we spend much of the movie watching Jake Gyllenhaal waiting around to see actual combat during Operation Desert Storm (which his character never did...since the 1991 war was already won through U.S. and allied air power by the time ground forces rolled into Iraq). In Three Kings, the story is obviously a lot more fictional as George Clooney, Ice Cube and company are too busy throwing around a football and going through the Iraqi desert searching for gold. Still... That was an interesting movie. I don’t remember much from Courage Under Fire since I saw that flick waaay long time ago. Did Meg Ryan get nude in that movie? No? Well okay, The Hurt Locker is a better film.



What makes The Hurt Locker even more exceptional is the fact it was helmed by Kathryn Bigelow. You heard right. Kathryn Bigelow. As in, a female director. Call me sexist all you want, but the fact a woman conveyed the most interesting and realistic action of all the military-themed flicks released this summer (Um, G.I. Joe and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?) speaks volumes. I mean, sure, G.I. Joke and Revenge of the Fallen are escapist flicks...but what does it tell you when Bigelow (who also directed Patrick Swayze’s Point Break and Liam Neeson’s K-19: The Widowmaker) pulled off a much better portrayal of the U.S. military than Stephen Sommers and Michael Bay did? Michael Bay had F-22 Raptors, B-1 bombers, Predator unmanned aerial vehicles, C-17 cargo jets and M-1A1 Abrams tanks to play with in Transformers 2. Bigelow merely had Humvees and a couple of armored personnel carriers at her disposal, and despite the fact we see U.S. soldiers constantly getting preyed upon by Iraqi insurgents in Locker, I would still find this movie interesting enough to get me to join the military. Which I wouldn’t. Just sayin'.



All-in-all, The Hurt Locker was great. This film better get some Oscar recognition next February...seeing as how it’s one of the best reviewed flicks this year (98% Fresh at RottenTomatoes.com). Would I say that Locker is even Best Picture material? ABSOLUTELY! Especially considering the fact the Academy is planning to nominate up to 10 films for the top trophy next year. Anyways... I actually got to see one of the bomb suits used in the movie at ArcLight Cinemas more than a month ago. Here’s a photo I took of it. That is all.