American Sniper

Biography of the sniper from Texas, Chris Kyle, who had about 150 kills scratched into his rifle stock. Eastwood has become a hitmaker in his latter years (90 million views over one weekend!) and a very moderate war movie director. Not so many kills as such, they are restrained, realistic and not even Kyle is counting (he’s so cool). Probably because we all know what a farce Iraq was, there’s no delving into politics. Simply a classic pursuit movie with ragheads with a polite duel going on in the background. The picture pretends that sniping itself isn’t playing the main role, but in fact it’s a conflict with Mustafa and the hunt for Butcher that help the viewer differentiate between the separate tours. The classic development of the Navy Seals and is all too familiar, thank you very much Eastwood for presenting it in more entertaining form. Cooper is very convincing in his transformation from man to robot and back again, at crucial moments he doesn’t act like a hero, but like a psychopath. His dead soul is visible in his cold blue eyes (that’s why Kyle wears sunglasses almost all the time). Movies like Hurt Locker don’t have this, that’s probably why this movie works much better. Emotions come across artificial, but on the other hand the finale works well, sad, even though the main message becomes a little blurred. P.S.: I’m a great fan of the Punisher, so I seriously enjoyed the scene about the “graphic novel". The armor and magazines with the skull stencil looked damn good. Hooyah! (19/01/2015)

A brutal, action-packed, powerful, emotional, properly American patriotic and simply beautifully retold story of a legendary sniper in an actual war. The film is very action packed, there is frequent gunfire, the pacing is decent, the dialogue is classy, the cinematography is slick, Bradley Cooper is perfect, Mustafa the sneaky Arab sniper and Cooper’s biggest rival is also brilliant, he gives a flashback to Enemy at the Gates. Perhaps the only representative of this year's Oscars that really deserves it. I liked Lone Survivor a bit more, but this is also a very solid and engaging affair 80% (21/01/2015)

Patriotism is boring. The psychological portrayal of the main character is average. It is neither a high-octane war action like Black Hawk Down, nor a minimalist, intimate piece like Zero Dark Thirty. American Sniper doesn't impress you with anything, except maybe how flat and predictable it ultimately is. It's as if Clint Eastwood had no room for any of his trademarks. You won't feel or resonate with the shots, nor with the dialogues spoken by characters with whom you don't empathise or bear their "burden" on the screen – except perhaps the leading duo. Thumbs up for not being afraid to depict child violence and a few solid action scenes that intertwine with the boring ones that lack dramatic dynamism and better structure – Ridley Scott could give a few lessons – the hell in Mogadishu was much more tangible. (06/03/2015)

I was expecting the film to be about something else, mainly because I didn't want to see anything about it beforehand. It intrigued me how it turned out to be perhaps even surprising in the end, but on the other hand, Clint can't be faulted for mostly avoiding pathos - except for the shots of the real people that follow before the credits and during them. Otherwise, it's a well-directed film, where especially the war scenes are incredible. (20/01/2015)

The film is divided into two parts. One takes place in Iraq and the other in the homeland. Leaving aside the fact that Bradley Cooper plays his role with absolute precision, I must add that everything else is just plain wrong. There is very little going on in Iraq. There are a few key scenes here, but that’s definitely not enough for a good film. Take the first scene, for example. It is a masterpiece in and of itself. However, the two parts intersect in the most suspenseful moment and suddenly Clint makes a cutto the protagonist’s past life in the States. The tension rapidly drops and we’re left with no choice but to watch why Chris left for Iraq to begin with. After a while, the pace picks up and you suddenly realize this movie has zero emotion. Chris is in America, then in Iraq, then returns to America and ends up in Iraq again. All of this with no emotions, unlike in Hurt Locker which worked pretty well in this respect. Here I had a problem watching it to the end. Simply put, I was disappointed. I expected American Sniper to be something in the vein of contemporary war films such as Hurt Locker or Jarhead, but what I got was a completely routine job, which engages neither with its story nor with the locations. (06/02/2015)