Rating: B-
Dir: David O.Russell
Star: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze
Starting off like a typical gung-ho Hollywood war movie i.e. America won the Gulf War all by itself, this warps into something commendably ambivalent. Clooney, Wahlberg and Cube [Ice? Whatever] go into Iraq in search of Kuwaiti gold, and find a simple mission becomes a lot more complicated than they bargained for, as politics and compassion combine to interfere. Initially, it’s startlingly visual, with internal views of bullet damage, and the amusing “cow meets cluster-bomb” sequence.
These tide you past the opening spell of frantic jingoism, when it’s tough to keep track of what’s happening in a melee of characters and events. Settling down to the meat of the story, there are sharply effective moments, such as Wahlberg getting tortured — you almost end up feeling more for the torturer than his victim. The changes in attitude across the characters are generally well-handled, although you feel they’re present largely as vehicles for plot development rather than through any inherent need for them. Still, it’s action with not only a brain, but a heart.