Once upon a time there was a movie about a sniper in
Operation Desert Storm. It was based on
a best seller memoir entitled “Jarhead”.
The book and movie were noteworthy for depicting the boredom of modern
warfare. Anthony Swofford did not fire a
single shot in the war. Although totally
realistic, the sequels have taken care of that deficiency. No one wants to see a straight to DVD sniper
movie with little sniping. The two
sequels don’t save ammunition. “Jarhead
3: The Siege” keeps the Jarhead name,
but that is it. It was directed by
William Kaufman with a nod towards Hitchcock.
In that they are both directors.
Corporal
Albright (Charlie Weber) arrives at the U.S. embassy in “the Kingdom”. It’s a quiet zone, but don’t turn off the
movie yet. Albright is introduced to his
new mates and the sexy digital security director Olivia (Sasha Jackson). He also meets the peacemonger Ambassador
Cahill (Stephen Hogan). Albright does
not make a good impression when he goes cowboy on a training mission. He gets a moderate ass-chewing and then a
harsher one when he goes over his gunny’s head about a suspected
terrorist. No one believes him until the
embassy comes under extreme attack. The
terrorists are led by a Bin Laden type named Khaled. He is the leader apparently because while
every one of his men is easy to kill, he is very difficult to kill. He is a mastermind which is proven by the
ease with which his men get into the embassy.
Cahill takes refuge in a safe room, but Cahill and the others go out to
rip asses. And there is plenty of ass-ripping. First there is the initial assault, then local government forces arrive as cannon
fodder, then a technical arrives with more jihadis because the movie is running
out of bad guys to kill. (The director
probably sent a truck to the market place to hire more extras midway through
the filming.) When the movie gets tired
of the last stand, it morphs into a chase film, returns to a last stand, and
concludes with the arrival of the cavalry.
Now that I think about it, this movie is a lot like a Western.
If
you have a craving for dead hajjis, this is the movie for you. Once the assault commences, there are only a
few expository breath-catchers.
Otherwise it is nonstop mayhem.
The violence is generic. The good
guys never miss and the ratio of dead to wounded is typical of combat
porn. At least, some of the deaths are
unpredictable. There is not enough
reloading, but there is some. The acting is fine, even though Weber is wooden. His rogue cowboy grows into leadership in the
crucible of combat. Yawn. The other characters are a mix of stereotypes
and relatively originals. Cahill is not
the usual sniffling bureaucrat. Olivia
turns out to be a warrior. If she had
been wearing a bikini during the chase scene, the movie probably would not have
gone straight to DVD. While Khaled is a
stock character, he does get to present his side of the argument. He is shut up by the end of the movie,
however.
GRADE
= C+
It does not seem to be worth watching a movie. By the way good and detailed review you have provided. Your reviews help me to choose a good movie.
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