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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Hurt Locker, The

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Hurt Locker, The reviews
94
7.6 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Drama  |  Suspense/Thriller  |  War

Written by: Mark Boal

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 26, 2009
DVD: January 12, 2010

Running Time: 131 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for war violence and language

Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Ralph Fiennes, and Guy Pearce

The Hurt Locker is an intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. James behaves as if he's indifferent to death. As the men struggle to control their wild new leader, the city explodes into chaos, and James' true character reveals itself in a way that will change each man forever. (Summit Entertainment)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The result is 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.

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100

Time Richard Corliss

A near-perfect movie about men in war, men at work. Through sturdy imagery and violent action, it says that even Hell needs heroes.

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100

The New Yorker David Denby

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. If there are moviegoers who are exhausted by the current fashion for relentless fantasy violence, this is the convincingly blunt and forceful movie for them.

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100

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

There's something about this story, and this war, that brings out the stripped-down conceptual artist in her (Bigelow): Against blank canvases of desert sand and rubble, explosive wires are linked to nerve ends, and everything that matters depends on the twitch of a muscle or a finger on a button.

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100

Village Voice Scott Foundas

A full-throttle body shock of a movie. It gets inside you like a virus, puts your nerves in a blender, and twists your guts into a Gordian knot.

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100

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The best nondocumentary American feature made yet about the war in Iraq.

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100

Slate Dana Stevens

After The Hurt Locker (which is without question the most exciting and least ideological movie yet made about the war in Iraq), everyone will remember Renner's name.

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100

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A first-rate action thriller, a vivid evocation of urban warfare in Iraq, a penetrating study of heroism and a showcase for austere technique, terse writing and a trio of brilliant performances. Most of all, though, it’s an instant classic that demonstrates, in a brutally hot and dusty laboratory setting, how the drug of war hooks its victims and why they can’t kick the habit.

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100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Overwhelmingly tense, overflowing with crackling verisimilitude, it's both the film about the war in Iraq that we've been waiting for and the kind of unqualified triumph that's been long expected from director Kathryn Bigelow.

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100

New York Daily News Staff (Not credited)

What you'll remember most will be Renner's remarkably complex commander. By the time we finally figure him out, it's become clear we've witnessed a star-making performance, in a movie that deserves to stand as one of the defining films of the decade.

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100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A great film, an intelligent film, a film shot clearly so that we know exactly who everybody is and where they are and what they’re doing and why.

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100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

This one enters the pantheon of great American war films.

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100

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

When viewers are ultimately released from The Hurt Locker's exhilarating vice grip, they'll find themselves shaken, energized and, more than likely, eager to see it again.

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100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Such is the extraordinary achievement of The Hurt Locker: it has the perspective of years when those years have yet to pass.

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100

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Like every war before it, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has generated its share of movies. But The Hurt Locker is the first of them that can properly be called a masterpiece.

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100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The Hurt Locker redefines war-film electricity.

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100

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Calvin Wilson

At once an unforgettable war film and a brilliant character study.

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100

Empire Ian Nathan

The most literally exciting film you will see this year. Forget the off-putting banner of another Iraq movie -- go, watch, marvel, endure and book in the palliative of a stiff drink afterwards.

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91

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Renner gives a full-bore performance of great individuality and industriousness, but essentially his character is as glamorized as any classic Westerner.

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91

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

For the first hour or more, The Hurt Locker boldly forsakes any conventional narrative hook beyond the ongoing tensions between these men and the terrifying grind of defusing bombs day after day.

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90

NPR Bob Mondello

The adrenaline rush of war has been largely missing from Hollywood's Iraq, but it's certainly front and center in The Hurt Locker, the first war movie in a while that feels as if it could have starred John Wayne.

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90

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The 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.

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90

The Hollywood Reporter Deborah Young

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.

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90

Film Threat Nick Antosca

Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is a grinding, nightmarish machine.

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89

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

The tension is enough to make you slightly sick, and the overall mood of the thing is deeply dispiriting, but then, nobody ever said that war isn't hell.

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88

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

In The Hurt Locker, the thrill is unexpectedly contagious. You don't realize how riveted you are until you're back on American soil observing James in civilian life.

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88

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Fused with paranoia and almost unbearable suspense, The Hurt Locker is powerful stuff.

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88

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Vivid, assured and extremely suspenseful.

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88

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This is a tense, well-crafted motion picture that keeps viewers on edge. It's an exhausting 130 minutes; many viewers will leave the theater feeling drained.

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88

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Here's the Iraq War movie for those who don't like Iraq War movies.

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88

USA Today Claudia Puig

Both a psychological portrait and an exciting action film.

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83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Episodic and, at times, overwrought. And occasionally its deliberate opacity becomes too cloudy. But the things that shine through are remarkable. War is indeed Hell, it tells us, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing if you're filled with demons.

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80

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The drawback is that even though The Hurt Locker is extremely effective in places, it ultimately feels unformed and somewhat unfinished.

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63

New York Post Kyle Smith

Stretched both timewise and for plausibility.

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60

Variety Derek Elley

Boal's script stirs a little of everything into the pot, which boils down into seven setpieces divided by brief intervals of camaraderie/conflict among the three protags.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 513 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ricardo L. gave it a0:
An only-American movie!!!! No one else in the world can understand that patriotic feeling, without it the movie is complete poor.

dave w gave it a1:
An awful movie ! how this is up for 9 oscars ill never know, poor storyline, many errors in the film, such as a guy being able to pick up a barrett 50cal and with less than 5 shot be totally comfortable with a weapon like that!! utter rubbish even fully trained snipers very rarely get there hands on a Barrett and to be able to pick off a moving target with a headshot at what looked to be upwards of 800m is near on impossible for the world best let alone a bomb disposal guy who had just picked it up with no idea how the weapon is zeroed in !!!!! utter rubbish!!!! best War film in Years ??? give me a break!!!

ann gave it a0:
I went to rent this movie at the same time someone else was returning it. I was really exited to get it. The person told me it was something she would not spend money on by I did not believed her since after all it was an Oscar contender. What a disappointment! Lousy acting. Did not look realistic. It was actually stupid and boring. After 30 minutes my husband and I gave up on it and returned it. One of the worst movies I have seen. I do not understand the critics. And now I know why it did not last in the theaters. It will definitely not get the Oscar.

D K gave it a3:
Rather weak movie. I lost interest halfway through and walked out. It wasn't very realistic and lacked cohesion. I still don't know what the plot was about by midway through the story. Mixed with amateurish acting and photography, I'm surprised that there was potential under the surface but not surprised that it didn't break through. Nothing like Generation Kill as someone else mentioned. A lemon. It has it's moments, but they don't make a movie.

ice cream gave it an8:
Its somewhere in the 8 rating and b grade. Not a A movie by any stretch, I just don't get how critics even exist on a professional level. Like a professional gambler there is no such thing.

James H. gave it an8:
An intensely powerful film that relentlessly depicts the horrors the soldiers endure in Iraq. Well acted by everyone, very realistically filmed by director Kathryn Bigelow, it has a grittiness that adds to the tension. Completely believable, with many unforgettable scenes, the scene with the suicide bomber who gave himself up can't easily be forgotten. Disturbing, thought provoking and unforgettable.

Tsar B. gave it a6:
It really doesn't live up to all the hype. Not sure why the critics fell in love with this very average film.

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