home of the clichés

i saw Home of the Brave at a free preview last night. i make a practice of going into them mostly blind; i like to be surprised. i should have known i was in trouble when the house was only half full. (previews are always overbooked to ensure a full theater.)

this film features wooden dialogue, canned direction, ("okay, this part's important! zooooooom in!") mumbly delivery, (50 Cent is in way over his head) and total lame predictability. i could tell what spoilery bits were used to entice each name to sign on. the whole thing played like improv done after the actors had read some soldiers' testimonies filtered through a magazine article. the attempt at creating a nuanced portrayal of conflicting politics was only successful enough for me to recognize what they imagined they were doing.

i don't know about how well the military world was managed (i'm afraid to know) but a character that we are led to believe is a radical Muslim handles a DEAD DOG.

i would give them kudos for actually filming in Washington state if they hadn't shown someone buying hard liquor 1)on a national holiday and 2) from what looked like a convenience store.

it was fun talking with butterflydrming about how to fix it afterward, so the experience was not a total loss.