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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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52 [Rec] 2
xx 12th & Delaware
xx 180° South
90 45365
55 8: The Mormon Proposition
xx Accidents Happen
62 After the Cup: The Sons of Sakhnin United
36 After.Life
73 Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, The
55 Agora
82 Ajami
77 Alamar
78 Anton Chekhov's The Duel
63 Around a Small Mountain
57 Audrey the Trainwreck
xx Badmaash Company
xx Barking Water
75 Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
62 Behind the Burly Q
63 Best Worst Movie
31 Black Waters of Echo's Pond, The
35 Boogie Woogie
64 Breath Made Visible: Anna Halprin
xx Brotherhood
24 Burzynski
51 Butcher's Son, The
xx Ca$h
67 Cairo Time
59 Cartel, The
68 Casino Jack and the United States of Money
37 Charlie St. Cloud
xx Cheech & Chong's Hey Watch This
48 Chloe
66 City Island
52 City of Your Final Destination, The
56 Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
58 Concert, The
xx Contenders, The
xx Convention
71 Countdown to Zero
83 Crazy Heart
51 Creation
xx Cremaster Cycle, The
73 Cropsey
73 Cyrus
74 Daddy Longlegs
64 Disappearance of Alice Creed, The
73 Dogtooth
50 Don McKay
66 Double Take
47 Dry Land, The
67 Eclipse, The
85 Exit Through the Gift Shop
56 Extra Man, The
75 Farewell
76 Father of My Children, The
30 Finding Bliss
38 Flipped
52 Formosa Betrayed
60 Fresh
xx Fruit Fly
53 Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema
43 George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead
76 Get Low
68 Ghost Bird
77 Ghost Writer, The
68 Girl on the Train, The
66 Girl Who Played with Fire, The
xx Gone with the Pope
40 Good Heart, The
69 Good, The Bad, The Weird, The
49 Great Directors
45 Greatest, The
76 Greenberg
59 Handsome Harry
24 Happiness Runs
73 Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
55 Harry Brown
80 Have You Heard From Johannesburg?: Apartheid and the Club of the West
57 Here and There
xx Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger
51 Holy Rollers
54 Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
32 Human Centipede (First Sequence), The
79 I Am Love
91 I Was Born, But...
33 In My Sleep
60 Infidel, The
67 It Came From Kuchar
74 Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
79 Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
57 John Rabe
55 Joneses, The
55 Juche Idea, The
65 Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D
86 Kids Are All Right, The
53 Killer Inside Me, The
53 Killing Kasztner
44 Kimjongilia
xx Kings of the Evening
68 Kisses
62 Kites: The Remix
47 La Mission
xx Last Letters from Monte Rosa
xx Law, The
63 Lbs.
xx Le amiche
58 Leaves of Grass
87 Lebanon
72 Let It Rain
70 Life During Wartime
41 Lightkeepers, The
76 Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
37 Living Wake, The
66 Looking for Eric
72 Lottery, The
37 Love Ranch
86 Mademoiselle Chambon
xx Malice in Wonderland
46 Mercy
78 Messenger, The
47 Metropia
62 Micmacs
75 Mid-August Lunch
60 Middle Men
54 Misfortunates, The
64 Mother and Child
75 Mugabe and the White African
35 Multiple Sarcasms
65 Mundo Alas
xx My Girlfriend's Boyfriend
50 My Name is Khan
41 Nature of Existence, The
71 Neshoba: The Price of Freedom
xx Nightfall
71 No One Knows About Persian Cats
59 Nobody’s Perfect
72 Oath, The
xx Ocean of Pearls
65 Ondine
59 Only When I Dance
58 OSS 117: Lost in Rio
xx Oxford Murders, The
37 Paper Man
63 Parking Lot Movie, The
68 Patrik Age 1.5
40 People I've Slept With, The
42 Perfect Game, The
47 Perrier's Bounty
48 Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies
78 Please Give
31 Pornography: A Thriller
41 Princess Kaiulani
90 Prophet, A
xx Raajneeti
67 Raavan
78 Racing Dreams
xx Ramchand Pakistani
xx Red Birds
63 Reel Injun
85 Restrepo
xx Road, Movie
45 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
xx Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
43 Salt of This Sea
81 Secret in Their Eyes, The
81 Secret of Kells, The
73 See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary
57 Severe Clear
57 Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
52 Shine of Rainbows, A
48 Sicilian Girl, The
77 Single Man, A
68 Smash His Camera
69 Solitary Man
45 South of the Border
56 Spoken Word
47 Spring Fever
75 Square, The
22 Standing Ovation
75 Stonewall Uprising
53 Tales from the Script
74 Terribly Happy
78 Teza
75 That Evening Sun
xx They Came to Play
49 Thorn in the Heart, The
xx Thru the Moebius Strip
60 TiMER
64 Tirador
15 To Age or Not to Age
52 Touching Home
33 Trash Humpers
59 Trotsky, The
xx Trust Us, This Is All Made Up
24 Twelve
56 Two in the Wave
62 Valhalla Rising
85 Vincere
xx Visionaries
54 Wah Do Dem
70 Warlords, The
56 What's the Matter with Kansas?
55 When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors
68 Whiz Kids
52 Who Do You Love
35 Who Killed Nancy
64 Wild Grass
xx Wild Hunt, The
56 Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest, The
69 Winnebago Man
90 Winter's Bone
68 Women Without Men
xx World on a Wire

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Hurt Locker, The

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Hurt Locker, The reviews
94
6.9 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 6.9 (out of 10) based on 633 User Votes

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

alan o. gave it a7:
This got so much critical acclaim that made me see it for myself. It turns out this film was excellent in the war category. It was also Oscar-worthy, just not Best Picture-worthy.

R Gozinya gave it a0:
Drivel. Self serving and boring. Save your money.

John S. gave it a4:
This movie was reasonable for a war movie, but it shamefully pushed the director's media based view any chance it got.

eric m gave it a0:
Horrible movie, not remotely realistic.

Matthew S. gave it a0:
I stopped watching when they got drunk and started wrestling each other half naked in the barracks. Oh, sorry ... SPOILER ALERT!

Bobby T. gave it a0:
Inaccurate, poor acting, slow, boring, poorly written nonsense.

Brett F. gave it a0:
The director's crusade against net neutrality is intolerable.

Read more user comments >

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