Yeah, ASM should have been drama although I understand WHY it's in comedy. Oh yeah, and it should have won. Best picture of the year I have seen (I haven't seen The Hurt Locker yet, I hear that might change my mind).
Just bought The Hurt Locker on Bluray and watched it last night. If it's the Best Picture of the Year, this year was really shitty for movies.
It's good, but it also slides into retarded territory on occasion. It's one of the best Iraq movies. And it's definitely engrossing/gripping. But Best Picture it is not.[/QUOTE]
Interesting. I've heard nothing but glowing praise for it. Well, I guess we will see if it can knock ASM off the top of my list.[/QUOTE]
It suffers from Jack Bauer Syndrome, where they try to make a character an extreme bad ass to the point where it tosses realism out the window.
For example: Instead of using a robot to deactivate a bomb, the bomb disposal EXTREME BAD ASS character goes in and does it manually. Repeatedly. Throughout the movie. Just to show how EXTREME he is. Even the other characters in the movie talk about how EXTREME he is. (I thought they were making fun of him at one point, but no, they were talking seriously about how bad ass he is)
Once you take the EXTREME BAD ASS meme out, the rest of the movie kinda falls apart. Fortunately, the dude plays an EXTREME BAD ASS really well. In fact, the whole point of the movie is "War is a Drug" and that this dude is addicted to how EXTREME it is.
I think the reason it's getting good word of mouth is because it plays against the typical expectations for a 'war movie'. There's not a lot of explosions, there's not a lot of gore. There is a 15 minute scene of two guys staring through a sniper rifle though. Riveting!