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Adjustment Bureau, The
53
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47
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84
Avatar![]()
63
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34
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53
Book of Eli, The
22
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30
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
xx
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39
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31
Cop Out
55
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56
Date Night
51
Death at a Funeral
72
Despicable Me
56
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56
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51
Eat Pray Love
45
Expendables, The
23
Furry Vengeance
65
Get Him to the Greek
61
Green Zone
30
Grown Ups
63
Hot Tub Time Machine
74
How to Train Your Dragon
79
IMAX: Hubble 3D
74
Inception
57
Iron Man 2
33
Jonah Hex
52
Just Wright
61
Karate Kid, The
66
Kick-Ass
21
Killers
46
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20
Last Airbender, The
xx
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33
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31
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50
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43
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30
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35
Nightmare on Elm Street, A
75
Oceans
64
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38
Our Family Wedding
47
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
xx
Piranha 3-D
51
Predators
50
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56
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40
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53
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65
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67
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
27
Sex and the City 2
46
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58
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63
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46
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66
Splice
45
Step Up 3D
xx
Takers
92
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58
Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
43
Why Did I Get Married Too
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52
[Rec] 2
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180° South
90
45365![]()
55
8: The Mormon Proposition
xx
Accidents Happen
62
After the Cup: The Sons of Sakhnin United
36
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73
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55
Agora
82
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77
Alamar
78
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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
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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

Universal acclaim
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 633 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
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)
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
The best nondocumentary American feature made yet about the war in Iraq.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
This one enters the pantheon of great American war films.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >St. Louis Post-Dispatch Calvin Wilson
At once an unforgettable war film and a brilliant character study.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Nick Antosca
Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is a grinding, nightmarish machine.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Fused with paranoia and almost unbearable suspense, The Hurt Locker is powerful stuff.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Here's the Iraq War movie for those who don't like Iraq War movies.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Both a psychological portrait and an exciting action film.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
