60-second cinema

6 out of 10 I really don’t have much time for Russell Crowe. And Renée Zellweger constantly looks like she’s sucking a lemon. Despite these prejudices, this was actually quite good. Crowe didn’t annoy me at all and even played his rôle well. Oh, and the boxing looked surprisingly real too—ouch!

6 out of 10 I’m not 100% sure of the angle this film was trying to take. At face value, it’s a story of one man’s (or a group of men’s) somewhat-empty experience of the first Gulf War. If you need to look deeper, I’m sure Mark Kermode would be more than willing to oblige by mentioning the irony of soldiers getting pepped up by watching an anti-war film ( Apocalypse Now ). Overall though, Jarhead was a resigned, dispassionate look at the modern marine’s tour of duty that left me pretty dispassionate in my review. Jake Gyllenhaal was good, though.