I watched it last night and agree with your assessment although I thought they went on one mission too many making it just a bit too long of a movie. The acting, the look and the script were excellent. As far as as James was concerned, they highlighted his attitude in the very beginning of the the film:
War Is A Drug and he was an addict. It was perfectly illustrated in the scene where he was cleaning the gutters; going from defusing 15 bombs a day to scooping out muddy crap would an adjustment that many can't make. I think Sig can attest to this, at least to a degree. I'm not saying it is a bad thing, but it is a reality for many soldiers who fought.
And the kid was not his buddy, we see him a little later.
ccosborne3 Wrote:I saw this when it first came out. I can't remember a film that has been able to ratchet up the tension like this one did. Everything was tense and intense. It wasn't predictable.
SPOILERS BELOW!
Guy Pearce's character was killed off ten minutes into the movie. Perfect casting if you're trying to make a point with an unexpected death scene. He's not a big star but he can certainly carry a film and I went into the film not knowing anything about it and firgured he was the main dude. What's more, how he died was a total surprise. He was outside the blast radius, after the explosion I figured he'd pop up shaken but a little wiser for the experience. Nope, he died. From that point on you knew anything could happen.
What I liked best about the film was that that Renner had a super hot wife and a cool little baby that really meant nothing to him. He was just killing time until he could step back into his real life. Not that that's a cool way to be but it was a hell of a realization for a viewer.
I'l probably rewatch this later this week, I never did figure out if the kid that died was actually his buddy or just a kid that looked like him.