Visceral explosions

These days I am much more selective with my movie-going dollar. Tough economic times and all that mean that if a picture doesn't get above 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, I'm waiting for the DVD. But if a film does catch my eye, I will go to great lengths, traveling as long as two hours by bus to see it at one of the Ritz theaters in Philadelphia. A example of this was The Wrestler, which I saw the day after I got mugged. Going to see it with a broken nose is also an example of a participatory viewing experience, somewhat like wearing a gorilla suit to the remake of Planet of The Apes.

The nut is that I saw The Hurt Locker over the weekend. It was the most intense thrill-ride of the weekend until getting caught in some sort of thunder-typhoon on my bike yesterday. It was avoidable when I checked the radar before leaving for the supermarket and the enormous purple blotches seemed to be a safe distance away. I realized my "highly scientific" calculations may have been wrong when I exited the store with my cargo of blueberries and lunchmeat and there were pitch-dark clouds nearly overhead. So I just cold started hauling ass on the single speed. About a half-mile from home it opened up, Cats and Dogs living together, the whole bit. I imagine that some porch monkeys probably got a kick out of the dude going full tilt on a bicycle screaming FUUUUCK with a huge backpack on. But the cursing kept the lightning bolts away.

Jesus, completely off track. This was supposed to be about The Hurt Locker, best movie you've seen this year. Focus on that you jackass. It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who previously helmed Point Break. Surprising or not, The Hurt Locker is way better. It is about a bomb disposal unit in Iraq in 2004. The story unfolds through a series of set pieces, where they try to diffuse improvised bombs that look like trash, or bodies. Some work out better than others. There's also a sniper shootout involving Ralph Fiennes and a kind of weird segment where the main character goes out into the city to track down some kid and the guy he finds starts babbling about the CIA.

Most of the conflict, besides the obvious Man v. Bomb and Soldier v. Iraqi, is between the by-the-book Sergeant Sanborne (played by Anthony Mackie, who you may remember as Papa Doc, Eminem's rival in 8 mile) and his adrenaline junkie, fly by the seat of his pants commanding officer, Staff Sergeant William James (played by Jeremy Renner). James is a bit of an echo of Patrick Swayze's character from Point Break, minus the surfing and mysticism. He is addicted to war, and is the most obvious target of the opening card which states "war is a drug." Although you could argue that the other characters just react to the "war as drug" theme differently, i.e. not embracing it, or freaking the fuck out.

edit: This isn't over?