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The Hurt Locker ( )

THE HURT LOCKER

Director Kathryn Bigelow is being touted as a strong contender for the first woman to win a best director Oscar this year.

No argument here. Her high-tension film The Hurt Locker differs from most movies about the war in Iraq in that it never bothers to state the obvious. It's a movie that chooses to define the conflict at ground level via its most insidious feature: improvised explosive devices.

Tasked with defusing the hidden bombs littering the Baghdad landscape, Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) comes to Bravo Company with an impressive success rate -- 873 devices defused -- and a reputation as a cowboy.

It turns out the rep is deserved, a fact that causes ripples of tension between James and Sgt. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), the man obliged to prevent James from becoming another casualty. Completing the trio is Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) a soldier carrying the burden of a guilty conscience as a result of his failure to prevent the death of James's predecessor.

The act of defusing a bomb is one of the most hackneyed devices in the suspense film, but Bigelow turns the clichés around in a big way, most significantly by establishing the fact that trust is a rare commodity, whether between soldiers and Iraqi citizens or between the soldiers themselves.

Bigelow (K-19: The Widowmaker) happens to be an astute observer of the dynamics of men working in high-stress situations, and that talent that comes in especially handy during a slow but riveting sequence in which the soldiers come under fire in the middle of the desert and must mount their own sniper assault in response to their all but invisible enemies. (Forget about the suspense of defusing a bomb. In this sequence, the minutes crawl by as the soldiers struggle through a series of small challenges just to return sniper fire.)

The DVD extras include a commentary track by Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, a making-of featurette and an image gallery.

4 stars

HALLOWEEN II (UNRATED DIRECTOR'S CUT)

Musician-turned filmmaker Rob Zombie's band was named White Zombie. But watching Halloween II, it's surprising his band's name wasn't Urge Overkill. Clearly, the guy can't resist the urge to portray the spectacle of a giant supernatural madman stabbing his victims repeatedly. Even the 3D lenticular DVD cover shows Michael Myers engaged in stabby action... like we don't get enough of that in the movie.

This sequel starts off looking like it's going to follow the same plotline as the 1981 sequel, which was largely set in a hospital, but that's just a dream sequence bluff. It yields to a kind of grubby horror melodrama wherein traumatized survivor Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) makes life miserable for her adoptive family, friends and psychotherapist (Margot Kidder) until the hulking Michael shows up to teach everybody the true meaning of misery.

The DVD isn't a total loss. The hellbilly honky-tonk band Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures contribute six makeshift music videos utilizing footage from the film as well as funky old public domain horror movies. 2 stars

MOON

David Bowie's son Duncan Jones offers up a space oddity of his own in this sci-fi entry set on the titular Earth satellite. There, solitary worker Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is finishing off a three-year contract mining a substance called Helium-3 from the dark side of the moon. (What is it about this movie that evokes '70s concept rock?)

The hermit lifestyle is catching up with Sam, who has no direct communication with Earth and must send and receive remote messages between himself and his wife.

But when he is incapacitated following an accident, Sam is obliged to contemplate bigger questions about his existence when he finds himself sharing his abode with a younger, fresher version of Sam Bell (also played by Rockwell).

Has three years of solitary confinement driven Sam mad? Or is he merely the victim of a sinister scheme by a bottom-line-fixated energy company?

Moon is a relatively grounded tale, in the best traditions of science fiction, taking on big questions regarding what it is takes to be human, particularly when the anthropoid in question is dangerously removed from a human environment.

Rockwell, obliged to share screentime with himself, adeptly handles the challenge of portraying either end of a character arc simultaneously. 3-1/2 stars

Top 10 DVD Rentals

1. A Perfect Getaway

2. District 9

3. Inglourious Basterds

4. Paranormal Activity

5. All About Steve

6. The Hangover

7. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

8. The Final Destination

9. Beyond A Reasonable Doubt

10. 9

-- Rogers Video, week ending Jan. 10

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 14, 2010 E4