zkonedog A few weeks prior to watching "Jarhead" in its entirety, I saw some clips of it on television and thought that perhaps it would be the "Rambo" of our generation. Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed.Basically (Spoiler Alert), the plot of Jarhead follows a Marine Unit (focusing on one solider played by Jake Gyllenhaal) that is called into active duty during Operation Desert Storm. However, "action" is the furthest thing from the minds of the Marines, as they (in the words of their commanding officer) do nothing but "train, hydrate, train, hydrate some more, and maintain a constant state of suspicious alertness". Even when the unit does get the opportunity to carry out a designated mission, they are quickly and easily booted aside by the ever-popular air attacks. As the Gulf War ends, the entire unit has not fired a single shot in aggression throughout the entire campaign.This film did one major thing right, but also seemed to generalize about a number of things that I did not appreciate:What works is the focus on Gyllenhaal's character and the mind-set the he embodies through the entire process. He is pretty much lost when he enters the Marines, but then goes (in stages) from being utterly confused, to angry for enlisting, to ready to fight, to confused once again about his role in the entire process. Though uncomfortable at times (as we prefer to think of our returning soldiers as no less than out and out heroes), it was interesting to see a sampling of the emotions that likely beset our young men and women serving abroad.The main reason the film turned me off a bit, though, is the generalization it made about the U.S. military. Sure, I understand that the ground troops may not have been as effective in a war fought out in the desert, but I cannot bring myself to believe that all military life (while not bombing the crap out of something from above) is boring and pointless. The Marines are still an elite combat unit that serves their country to the utmost, and I don't believe for a second that they find their task to be as boring or inane as director Sam Mendes portrays it. It almost seems as if Mendes (although not overly preachy about it, which was good) was using the example of the Gulf War to cast a pall over the entire current military structure/usefulness.Thus, while Jarhead is a decent film that touches on some uncomfortable social/personal issues surrounding enlistment in the U.S. military, it ultimately fails to live up to my "next Rambo" tag due to a few over-generalizations that could very easily be used to unfairly steer audiences into an anti-military frame of mind.

Tom The best scenes are the opening 30 minutes or so at a Marine boot camp. They're very similar to many other such scenes over the years but most likely with a greater abundance of colorful words and expressions, most of which probably aren't permitted to be printed here. Once we leave training and head to what's supposed to eventually be war the film has a rapid descent downhill.Pulling an audience in with the promise of a Marine sniper in action and then never even having him fire his weapon really sucks. There's an old adage in writing that if a weapon is shown on a fireplace mantle in act one it better damn well be used by act three. Otherwise, why show the damn thing at all? The life of an average Marine may be boring as hell, but showing that boredom for an entire movie gets a big thumbs down from this reviewer.

msvalkyrie A lot of people don't like this film because it holds no message or anything other than the story line itself. But it is worth a watch if you like this sort of war humour film. I was laughing all the way through it. But aside from all the funny stuff, it also shows the emotion and torture of war. This guy as to go 175 days away from home, he starts getting worrying letters from his girlfriend and he thinks she's cheating on him while he's at war. On top of that he's going 175 days with nothing to do but sitting around with the other bored soldiers. There are some beautiful dessert shots in this film. Considering it is based in the dessert and there really isn't much to see, they actually did quote a good job of it. The acting is okay, especially as you see Jake's character slowly break down as the days in the dessert carry on. When you take away all the hilarious humour, this is actually quite an emotional film. You see the happy and carefree side of him but then you also see the darker and more emotionally tortured side of him when he finally begins to loose it. The only bad thing about this film is its slowness. Not a lot happens but I guess that is the reality of the film since not a lot is meant to happen. You see Jake mess up, get punished, threaten his friend and loose his mind. But not much else. I guess the humour really makes up for that though because it's a really funny film. So there we go, a tragic and also a very funny film. Worth a watch but don't watch it with your parents around!

Red_Identity In terms of entertainment, I can't give this anything less than an 8. It gets the job done well. It also has very good acting. Saarsgard is very effective as the main supporting character, and Jake Gyllenhaal gives another very good turn in a career already full of them, although he would prove to be able to give even better turns in meatier material later on in his career (like in 2014's Nightcrawler). The film's technical aspects are very good. When it comes to the themes and what it's trying to say, that's when it gets to be a little too murky, and whereas it's pretty much flawed. But considering the reviews, I had low expectations and so maybe that's why I was as pleasantly surprised as I was.