Film: American Sniper

GENRE: Action/Drama

RATING: R for war violence and language
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 12 minutes

STARRING: Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook; Limitless)

Sienna Miller (Foxcatcher, Stardust), Kyle Gallner (Veronica Mars)

DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood (Flags of Our Fathers; Million Dollar Baby)

WRITER: Jason Hall (Paranoia)

PLOT: A biography of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL sniper who made countless kills and saved many lives.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 While watching this film, I was reminded of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. This one is kind of a mash-up of those. Not bad company but we’ve also seen it all before; nothing really new has been brought to the table. It also contains some of the same war film cliches.

2 Cooper does a great job, even when he is at home being despondent and trying to deny his PTSD.  

3 There are some very well done, intense scenes throughout the movie. They will definitely keep your attention.

4 They are trying to hunt down an awesome sniper named Mustafa. Even though it sounds a bit different, I kept thinking of Mufasa from The Lion King. Especially when the hyenas are trying to scare each other with the name.

5 There’s a really cool aerial zoom of Iraq near the end of the film. Drones used for filming are awesome.

RECOMMENDATION: Just wait to rent it
UPCOMING REVIEWS: The Theory of Everything