This was very cute. And pretty damn funny too. The supporting cast is what really sold this one. TJ Miller, the guy from Worst Week, Big Red, Get Smart Guy, Breaking Bad Death By Puke Girl, they were all awesome. Not to say that the leads were bad, but it’s like they were doing a straight up romantic comedy but they were surrounded by funny people who elevated this movie into something memorable, instead of the normal crap you just forget after a couple days.
She wasn’t as hot as they made her out to be. I guess it would have been impossible to cast a girl who fit the description, so that’s fine. The Disney references were awesome and funny. Slapshot Regatta. Ball shaving. He’s drunk and he shit his pants.
Maybe everyone felt a little fake, but whatever, it worked well enough and it was entertaining and Jar Baruchel is charming and the entire supporting cast was funny, it was a solid 90 minutes of entertainment.
This was an extremely well done and very entertaining miniseries. It is sometimes “boring” in that there is not much going on in the war, but that’s all part of it. You immediately like all the characters you’re supposed to, and so you’re involved, and care about what happens to them. In particular Ziggy and Iceman (Well he’s Ziggy in The Wire. I am terrible with remembering names). Speaking of The Wire, this series felt like a spiritual successor to that series. A lot about the institution of the military and how so much of it is just outdated and broken, but the soldiers make due, “do more with less”.
I’ve heard that this series is a fairly accurate depiction of what it’s like for marines in Iraq. I can never know for sure, but after watching a roundtable discussion with all the actual marines depicted in this series, it seems like an accurate statement. Long stretches of boredom and bullshit punctuated with moments of craziness. Except most of the marines here stay calm and focused. Mortars are going off 100 feet in front of them, bullets are whizzing past them, but they stay frosty to get the job done. Gotta give them some respect for that.
This blu-ray featured an onscreen glossary and character charts that could be accessed during viewing. THIS WAS AWESOME. I wish The Wire were on blu-ray for this reason alone. It’s a really great way to utilize the pop-up menu abilities of blu-ray, and in a series where the characters have their own internal language and can only sometimes get away with explaining it (to the reporter, which is really just a way of letting the audience in on what they don’t understand).
