Jarhead (2005)

Director: Sam Mendes

Writers: William Broyles Jr., Anthony Swofford

Composer: Thomas Newman

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Scott MacDonald, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx, Ming Lo, Lucas Black, Kevin Foster, Brian Geraghty, Damion Poitier

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Every man fights his own war.

Plot: A psychological study of operations desert shield and desert storm during the gulf war; through the eyes of a U.S marine sniper who struggles to cope with the possibility his girlfriend may be cheating on him back home.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah.

I've never really cared for watching movies about the Gulf Wars, that is until I see them.  A good movie is a good movie regardless of the subject and this is no different.  There's humor, action (well, a little), tension, drama.  The scene where the guys are watching the movie that cuts into one a homemade porn with the wife of one of the men cheating on him was great in a fucked up way.  There's a lot going on there.  Great scene.  One thing I liked about this picture is how compelling it was.  I had no idea where this was going and that was a large part of the fun.  It's a downer of a film but it also feels like it's trying to be nothing more than honest.and I believe that.  Great performances all around.  It was nice seeing Jamie Foxx doing some acting instead of the usual Jamie Foxx thing.  I really liked him for a change.  I've been watching a lot of Jake Gyllenhaal's movies lately.  It's purely coincidental but I'm liking this cat more and more.  The Universal DVD has a great looking anamorphic widescreen print and the extras include a commentary with Mendes and editor Walter Murch, another one with just Mendes, a third commentary with screenwriter Broyles and author Swofford, and 10 deleted scenes with optional commentary from Mendes and Murch.