The Hurt Locker

Rating: 7.4/10
Genre: Suspense Drama
Overall value for money and time: 7.5/10

An elite US bomb squad stationed at Iraq has only 39 days to their next rotation. The recent death of their squad leader is replaced by the seemingly reckeless Staff Sergeant Will James. Can they survive the mahem?

The movie holds a good amount of suspense, as each bomb uncovered could potentially result in a major disaster. The opening and ending scenes were strong in enhancing the characters developments and hence the overall rating of the movie. There were a handful of scenes which would not please the tight scrutiny of some, but in terms of buildup, plot, casting and suspense, this movie would certainly satisfiy most.

Initially, I didn't see where the movie was heading towards as it reached a plateau somewhere in the middle, but the ending did provide a good closure. I liked how the protagonist returns to his mandane daily life where he's just an ordinary guy living in an ordinary world and becomes a "hero" again when his next shift starts. Though superb in most senses, there was something unexplainable about the movie which was unable to blow me away.

Until the very end, I was still puzzled about the rationale of the title as it was not discussed or even mentioned throughout the movie. I could only assume that the protagonist and his squad members had to "lock the hurt" inside when they returned to their daily lives, for the stuff they do, the dangers involved, where life is cheap, the possibilty of being blown up anytime is neglected and left unappreciated by most of the US citizens...