Sorry folks. Iraq was not Vietnam. A jungle in Southeast Asia is very different from an open desert in the middle east. That's not to belittle what our soldiers went through, but I think Vietnam was a bit more unpredictable and freaky, given the terrain.We have deserts in America. We don't have jungles.Why not include at least one veteran who adjusts well to life back home? I'm sure there are plenty. It would provide balance.Other than the one substantial event at the end of their tour, was the rest of their experience over there so terrible? Some reviewers have said that this is not an anti-war movie, but I think it is. You hear so many characters questioning our motives, but not many, if any, effectively defending them.All the characters do is feel sorry for themselves. It gets tiresome. Why didn't the Director and Writer notice this? Where's the gratitude? For their health, their lovely town and families, and their employment?Bush laid out at least 17 concrete reasons to go in there, and it all fit the concept of the War on Terror, with or without WMDs. What character says that? Why the hell did you volunteer, if you didn't believe in the cause?Why do a movie, unless you can offer something unique? A different take on things, a different performance, a different style? Melodramatic music, flashbacks, heaviness, mediocre acting. It's all been done before. Stay away from this one.

Not being a veteran myself I can only guess at the supposed events in this film, but from the awful opening scenes where the soldiers seem to put themselves in harms way I knew this film had major problems.Everything is so completely by the numbers and clichéd it's quite sickening, even before watching, it's patently obvious what issues the characters are meant to be having ingratiating themselves back into society. Some very bad script writing and unbelievably cheesy dialogue doesn't help, there's even "THE" most obvious Vietnam vet thrown in there for some extra cheese. I must point out that the acting in this film is also way below par, especially by the more established actors. Biel and Jackson don't seem to have the capacity for this at all, in fact Biel is thoroughly annoying throughout and that 50 Cent guy is atrocious.The motives of this film also seem a little skewed as it tries to preach to you some garbled anti-war message. Thank you but I can make up my own mind!If this was the first film ever made about soldiers returning home from a war and their struggle to fit back into society then it would still be awful, the fact that it's been done countless times before but with much more success makes this a complete stinker and probably a little insulting."I was there....." Yeah it's that bad!

I picked this one out of the bargain bin and had no great expectations at all, thinking the only good thing about it may be the price. I was pleasantly surprised. This certainly isn't great by any stretch, but it's not that bad. For the military aficionado it might be disappointing and I'd certainly suspect, as a lot of people have mentioned, that the military adviser on this film (if there was one) didn't really have any leverage in terms of being able to bring any credibility to the Iraq scenes.How they let themselves get set up for the ambush in the first place and both why they pursued the insurgents so far and why they went right through the middle of the cemetery not knowing where the bad guys were amongst the headstones spoke volumes about this aspect of the movie very early in the piece. That's not what the film was about however and I don't think the director was either trying to make an accurate military actioner or make any statement about the rights or wrongs of the conflict in Iraq at all.What it was about and what it acknowledged was that being at the coal face of such a situation and what is experienced has a profound impact on the person involved, regardless of whether the individual returns physically unscathed or not. In this regard I thought this film did pretty well. I suspect that it was likely pretty accurate in its portrayal of how things are different for veterans when they return, regardless of the particular conflict, how they struggle to relate to people who can never understand their experiences and how those at home struggle to relate to them.I was previously no fan at all of Jessica Biel as an actress and assumed both her and 50 Cent had been cast purely to get bums on seats. While 50 Cent didn't disappoint in that regard, he was passable, though a bit too stereotyped as an angry black guy with a big mouth. Alba along with Samuel L. Jackson both turned in what I thought were fairly powerful and credible performances. There were some rather powerful and emotional scenes regardless of any cliché and without any first hand knowledge, I found them to be pretty credible as returned war vets struggling to fit in and relate to those around them.That said, some of the situations seemed a little bit forced and the resolutions for each of the four main characters followed were disappointing, all except 50 Cent's character being shown on the road to redemption and/or recovery. I don't believe for a second that such problems could begin to be ironed out so quickly and the 'happy' endings of the film for me undermined much of what I thought was some credibility established earlier.I thought it rather apolitical, but a huge number of 'critics' I would suggest possibly dismiss it on the basis of not being far enough to their respective viewpoints, regardless of which side of the fence they're on. This is no masterpiece but I would suggest worth a look for a couple of very good performances, certainly better then it's IMDb rating would suggest.

Direction, acting, production values... everything here is decent. Yet, this movie is as stale as can be. The primary fault lies on an unoriginal story that refrains from controversy. But there are so many clichés and following of conventions here, that it becomes extremely difficult to care or to enjoy plot developments that are heavy-handed and telegraphed to the audience.And as much as the dramatic scenes at home lack punch, I must say the scenes back on the battlefield felt totally uninspired. Like something you would tack on a b-movie.Some tremendous performances, or a last script brush might have saved the film from being a forgettable one but alas, everybody here seems content to go through the motions. In the end, the fault lies primarily on poor writing and unengaged direction.I applaud Irwin Winkler for attempting to tell a story without relying on Hollywood action and by concentrating on the drama surrounding the characters. Unfortunately, the drama here is not really good and even though movies like Stop-Loss and Lions for Lambs have more distracting plot treads, they nonetheless nail better dramatic moments and have us care about the characters a little more.