The Holllywood-Goes-to-Iraq movie has turned into something of a box office ghetto, but Stop-Loss may be able to break out.
Comment
03/28/08
Stop-Loss (2008)
64
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:138
Fresh:89
Rotten:49
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Stop-Loss is sincere and complex, and features strong performances, even if it tries to cover too much ground.
Theatrical Release:25-04-2008
Synopsis: Director Kimberly Peirce (BOYS DON'T CRY) tackles another controversial topic with STOP-LOSS, the story of a U.S. soldier forced back into battle. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) has just returned to... [More]
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Director: Kimberly Peirce
Reviews for Stop-Loss
While it would be premature to decorate it as the Best Years of Our Lives or Coming Home of the Surge, Stop-Loss carries the emotional force and propulsive drama of the quintessential soldier's story.
03/28/08
Alternates moments of real power with confused and lifeless sequences.
03/28/08
There are good and confident choices here, particularly in the direction, and the way it integrates the soldiers' own war movies.
03/28/08
After five years of news footage and documentaries coming from the war in Iraq, Stop-Loss is as phony as a re-enactment with finger pup pets.
03/28/08
Viewers of any age are bound to be moved by [director Peirce's] primary theme: that there is no easy cure for these damaged young veterans, whether they return to war or fight their demons at home.
03/28/08
The story steers away from clichés and political polemics, maintaining a tone of unflinching emotional realism.
03/28/08
While its slick battlefield-and-barracks footage is YouTube- and cell phone video-contemporary, its dramatization of events feels well-worn.
03/28/08
Stop-Loss is a film that does it right.
03/28/08
Top CriticThis is an OK tale about guys who don't have that much going on in their civilian lives, but it's not the movie it ought to be.
03/28/08
Movies have rarely depicted brothers in arms with as much accuracy and compassion as Stop-Loss.
03/28/08
After 20 minutes, you're welded to the characters emotionally. Their loss is your loss.
03/28/08
It's more a sweaty assemblage of dramatic high-points than a coherent, persuasive story of wounded warriors trying to make it.
03/28/08
Writer/director Kimberly Peirce has clearly done her homework. What she hasn't done, at least not here, is develop any strong point of view about the war.
03/28/08
About as unpopular as the war in Iraq are movies about the war in Iraq, but no matter: Director Kimberly Peirce emerges victorious with a brave, probing look at the inner lives of soldiers.
03/28/08
There's a keen and ugly sense of anguish to Stop-Loss, a caged sense of powerlessness beyond political outrage that makes this film far and away the most effective effort yet at capturing the frustration of the war in Iraq.
03/28/08
Anchored by deft performances from a sturdy ensemble, Stop-Loss provides proof of Peirce's sensitivity with actors as well as her interest in stories of American folk who don't often get the close-ups they should.
03/28/08
Stop-Loss tries to be about so many things that it addresses none of them adequately.
03/28/08
Though its intentions are noble, it's hampered by a stock romantic subplot, a familiar structure, and a lack of symmetry.
03/28/08
[Director] Peirce wants to leave us with something heavy to ponder, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what that is.
03/28/08
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