The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is an American war film about the conflict in Iraq released in 2009. It was nominated for nine academy awards and won six including best picture, and best director for Kathryn Bigelow the first woman ever to win this award. The story was filmed in Jordan only miles from the real conflict in Iraq. It follows a small EOD team (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) who's job is to disarm IED's (Improvised Explosive Device) that terrorist have set up. This is an extremely dangerous job because at any time someone watching them trying to disarm the bomb could remote detonate. Leader of this EOD team is William James (Jeremy Renner). Due to his reckless ways of disarming bombs putting his other team members in danger, the tension grows between James and the other two team members. When testing out some confiscated IED's William James remembers he forgot his gloves down at the rigged and ready explosives. While hes down there picking up his gloves the other team members contemplate killing him, and signing papers saying the explosives had a malfunction which is very common with them. They let the thought stay in their minds but never follow through with this. This film is not like other war movies with intense gun battles, its far more different than war movies like Black Hawk Down or Saving Private Ryan. . It is more realistic about showing the everyday struggle and stress of a U.S soldier in Iraq. This movie didn't make nearly as much money as Avatar did but won best picture over it. Personally I like The Hurt Locker more but Avatar was still pretty good.

I Am Legend

I Am Legend is a Sci-Fi film loosely based on a novel I Am Legend released in 1954. However this movie was released in 2007 and is a lot different. The film follows Robert Neville taking place in 2012, (Will Smith) the last man in New York City. Three years earlier in fall of 2009 a scientist developed a new cure for cancer that had a 100% success rate. People believed cancer was officially cured which it was but had no idea what was about to happen. The cure turned into a lethal drug that killed over 5.4 billion people worldwide. The rest 600 million people became infected and turned into pale, bald, aggressive beings that hunt down none infected beings almost like a zombie. These things are called darkseekers due to there skin which cant tolerate the suns UV rays. Robert Neville (the protagonist of the story) desperately works day in, and day out on finding a cure for this virus. In his basement he has a laboratory designed to help him find a cure for the infection. Everyday he broadcast on his radio instructing survivors to meet him at mid day at South Street Seaport. I Am Legend is a excellent film that everyone should see and stands among the top 100 all time highest grossing (gross- revenue is amount of money made) films both domestic and internationally.

Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is a historic World War II movie released in 1998 and directed by the famous well known Steven Spielberg. It starts of at Private Ryan (as an old man)  visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy, France. The scene eventually cuts to June 6, 1944 right before the D-Day invasion. the boats then land on Omaha beach were the soldiers then get of and try to take cover from the German infantry spraying bullets at them. After a while the German forces were defeated and the rest retreated. The movie then vaguely introduces the characters of the Battalion which the movie follows and their leader John Miller (played by Tom Hanks). They are then given there assignment of finding Private Ryan who's other three brothers were killed in the D-day invasion. After given there assignment of locating him so he can go home the Battalion sets of on their journey. Personally, I think that this is the best war movie I have ever seen, even better than Black Hawk down which many people say is amazing. It made a grand total of $481,840,909,and only took 70 million to make. It was nominated for best picture but ddint win, but it did win best director(Steven Spielberg).  Saving Private Ryan has made its mark in history as an amazing war movie and its legacy continues to live on.

District 9

District 9 is a science fiction thriller that was released on August 14, 2009.  It is about an alien species that comes to earth and ends up living on our planet. At first they show up in there mother ship an just stay there for about three months.  But eventually a team enters the ship and gives them refuge on earth in a government camp know as District 9. After about two decades the people of Johannesburg have had enough of the prawns.  So the government highers the Multinational United (MNU) a private military group to relocate the prawns to a new camp known as District 10. Which is expected to be the sequel of District 9.  Neill Blomkamp quoted in an interview with rotten tomatos saying, "I havent thought of a story yet, but if people want to see another one i'd love to do it".  Peter Jackson the producer of this film was originally was going to do a film based on Halo, the popular video game series on the xbox. But once he realized he didnt have a big enough budget for the movie they resorted to making District 9 which was a hit.  The budget of the movie was only 30 million but the total money the film made was around 210 million which is a lot compared to most average movies.  I enjoyed the movie a lot, and I loved the special effects which are amazing, escpecially in HD.  If you havent seen District 9 I strongly suggest you watch it now .