Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Eric Bana

Directed by: Peter Berg

Today, I just saw the film, “Lone Survivor” and here is my review…

Plot/synopsis: This film tells the real life story of a failed mission called, “Operation Red Wings”, in which four Seal Team 10 members are ordered to kill the Taliban leader, Ahmad Shahd in Afghanistan. It also tells the real life story of  Seal member, Marcus Luttrell (who also helped wrote the book).

Peter Berg who is famous for creating “Friday Night Lights” may have been making bad movies lately but I think he redeemed himself, this time. I was totally blown away with, “Lone Survivor”. Most new war movies are silly and not very good but finally Peter Berg makes an excellent one! This have got to be the best war film since, “Saving Private Ryan” (sorry about that, Kathryn Bigelow).

This film gives you a realistic look on what Navy Seal battles are all about. The director may have done his homework before making this film and did lots of research. The battles in this film were graphic, intense and terrifying. It wants to give you a better look on what Seals go through during war. To give you an idea of what war is like today in Afghanistan. War today is pretty much the same as all other wars in the past. Peter Berg did a great job on staying accurate and faithful to Navy Seals.

The performances of everybody in the cast was amazing. They all did a good job but I was most impressed with Mark Wahlberg and I think he may finally get his Oscar for this role. Everything else about the film was just perfect too: the script, camera work, musical score/soundtrack, etc. Warning though, the film can get quite graphic and very intense. It’s also a very sad film so be sure to have something to wipe your eyes with when you go to the theater to see this.

The action scenes may have been well done and may have been fun to watch but I believe this movie wasn’t made to entertain you. Like I said, it wants to give a realistic look of what it’s like fighting in a war today. War is unpredictable. You’ll never know what will happen. There maybe good guys vs. badguys but you’ll never know who’ll win, who will get injured or even killed. A soldier can fight even when going through the worse injuries you’ve ever seen… it doesn’t matter if they have a missing leg or missing fingers. You’ll see all that stuff in this film. So you WILL see some major gross-outs that will make you wanna look away from the screen.

There are mixed emotions however… some of this film can be enjoyable, heartfelt, sad, scary, and even funny (yes, there’s a little bit of comedy in this film). This film already has Oscar written all over it. It maybe too late for this film to make this year’s Oscars but definitely next year in 2015. If this film doesn’t win, “BEST PICTURE” for 2015 or even a nomination, then I won’t support the Oscars anymore.

Every American needs to see this important film… doesn’t matter if you’re liberal, conservative, libertarian or whatever party you are.

Two thumbs up for, “Lone Survivor”.

Kev