The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
Features  |  Reviews
Best2012Vote-1000x50

Stop-loss

Predictable, pointless, and sad
By PETER KEOUGH  |  March 25, 2008
2.0 2.0 Stars
STOP-LOSSinside
Stop-loss

It took a war to bring Kimberly Peirce back to the screen after her impressive 1999 debut, Boys Don’t Cry. But like everything associated with the Iraq debacle, her new film is a disappointment. The title refers to the military’s Catch-22 bending of the rules by which troops who have served out their assigned time in Iraq return home only to learn they’re being sent back. That’s what happens to Texas hero Sergeant Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe), who’s fresh from a Baghdad ambush (the most cinematically successful part of the film) in which he lost men and accidentally killed civilians. Back home, after fumbling through a speech to the clueless civilians welcoming him, he tries to restore his civilian life while keeping his knuckleheaded buddies from going off the deep end. This part combines The Deer Hunter with The Dukes of Hazzard. Later, when he gets his marching papers, Stop-Loss serves as a what-not-to-do guide for those in that situation. Predictable, pointless, and sad. 112 minutes | Kendall Square
Related: Spring brakes, Primary concerns, Fractured fairy tales, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Kimberly Peirce, Ryan Phillippe
| More

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/16 ]   3rd Annual Boston Chili Cup  @ Ned Devine's
[ 02/16 ]   Boston Conservatory Dance Division  @ Boston Conservatory Theater
[ 02/16 ]   Jim Gaffigan  @ Wilbur Theatre
ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: CORIOLANUS  |  February 16, 2012
    In a line of fascist-style stagings of the Bard from Orson Welles's 1937 black-shirted Julius Caesar to Richard Loncraine's brown-shirted Richard III (1998), Ralph Fiennes sets his lean and hungry take on Shakespeare's tragedy in a mo dern-day war zone, paring the play to a brisk two hours.
  •   REVIEW: SAFE HOUSE  |  February 15, 2012
    Daniel Espinosa's over-edited but engaging spy thriller delves into edgy territory untouched by any of the numerous movies it imitates: it has Brendan Gleeson do an American accent.
  •   REVIEW: THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY  |  February 15, 2012
    The most touching love story and best children's movie in a long time, Hiromasa Yonebayashi's adaptation of Mary Norton's book The Borrowers employs old-fashioned animation techniques to create a world that is familiar, uncanny, and luminous.
  •   REVIEW: RAMPART  |  February 15, 2012
    The rotten cop flick has become a mini-genre of sorts, a subset of noir, going back at least to Orson Welles's Touch of Evil .
  •   REVIEW: THE OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS 2012: DOCUMENTARY  |  February 10, 2012
    The films in this program contain some of the most powerful images to be seen on the screen this year.

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed