Wow I really liked this movie, I'm surprised by all the mediocre reviews actually. I enjoyed getting an insight into the overlooked side of war, which would be trying to re-assimilate back home and the struggles faced there.The story is emotional, unflinching and neither for or against the war, this is without political agenda. The opening battle scenes are well done and super suspenseful. And I liked how it connected everyone for the remainder of the movie, which follows 4 separate veterans and their very different stories as they struggle to readjust to life after returning home from a lengthy tour in Iraq.I was impressed with Jessica Biel here for the first time ever and Samuel L Jackson, damn I had forgotten that the man can actually act, its been so long since I've seen him be anything other than Samuel Mother F'n Jackson, he did a great job. 02/13

I don't like being so negative, but my God, this was bad. I should have researched this before I bought it. It started good. Some nice action and good stuff going on. Then it turned into Lifetime's Movie of the Week. I wanted to see Samuel Jackson kicking ass and taking names. But instead all I got was him drinking and kicking his annoying teenager son in the ass which as annoying as he was, it was nice. Then the other 3 soldiers were boring too. All this was, was a "remembering" the war and how screwed up life is now for them. It reminded me of Dead Presidents in a remote way. But Dead Prsidents was way better. Curtis Jackson is as annoynig as an actor as he is a rapper. This is good if you want film to watch and think "wow, those guys have it really bad". Certainly not for action fans.

Are you kidding? How can you NOT give this movie less than a 9? I think that this movies deals with a lot of truths to the aftermath of war. If you were expecting to see a "war movie" sorry to disappoint, this deals with the most important part of war: the soldiers who fight in it every day and what happens when they come home. As a Iraqi veteran, I could relate to what these people went through, all 4 of them. The guy who can't get the images out of head of the people he couldn't save, and tries to drown it out with alcohol; The guy who just wants to go back to normal life after killing an innocent person in a war where all the enemies look like innocent people; the guy who loses his best friend but still wants to go back and finish what he started in a country where not everyone wants us there; and the single mother who comes home to a son she doesn't know anymore and back to a life which has obviously continued on without her. It's hard on a soldier coming back after something like that and I think that any family who has a soldier should see this movie. As far as the acting, I think it was right on. The music was OK and the dialog was pretty true to that kind of situation. There are a lot of movies out there that try to depict the Iraqi war, but this one is right on. SEE IT IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!!!

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.