Woooo! another Desert War movie!! Its only a matter of time before we get the hollywoodised version of Bravo Two Zero:

Instead of;

"I don't know nuffin', I'm only a medic....."

"Why are you doing this to us Andy, I'm trying to help you **THWACK!!** "

It could be safely assumed to become

"I'll never tell you anything, you goddamned person of middle-eastern ethnicity!"

"Ah, but yesss you willll, after we kill your best friend and threaten your famillllly!!"

"Noooooooo!!!" **THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK CRUNCH!!**

But anyway, I digress. Far removed from this stereotype of Hollywood action movies is the entity calling itself `Jarhead`.

Jarhead is not a cool war movie in the vein of all other cool war movies, it is not an action movie, its a "bleeding-heart pinko movie and no amount of sniper rifles is gonna conceal that fact" (reproduced with the kind permission of Mr Jason S. )

The man's got a point, and quite a pointy point it is too as the whole film is a story of one man's harsh journey through trying times facing disappointment after disappointment and the ultimate final realisation that he ain't ever gonna forget it.

Kind of familiar huh? I can't quite place the exact movie at the moment (probably because its not lifted from one, but from many different movie's plotlines) but although I did quite enjoy it on the whole its not much else besides an old tale wearing new boots. Then again there are only 7 stories in the world anyway, apparently

\/ \/ *!Spoiler!* \/ \/

One thing I have to really thank it for though is that the lead character, played by Jake `Donnie Darko` Gyllenhaal, didn't actualy get any kills with his nice, shiny M40A1 sniper rifle anywhen in the whole film, and that fact coupled with my checking out the Sun Project M40 a couple of weeks ago means I am now not in need of that particular gun for The Collection

It looked badass and the partially obscured scope look is very, very cool I think, but without any actual silver-screen battle glory my wallet is safe from further ravishing in that direction, at least. Thanks Jake.

The website at least is excellent, however; one of those really nicely thought out (if slow loading, even on my monstrously powerful home PC) sites that lures you into thinking you know all about the film. I fell into that trap in a couple of respects, largely because it plays on the structure of Full Metal Jacket quite cunningly by leading you to imagine you know how the film is gonna be divided - roughly equally between the boot camp and actual combat like Kubrick's film is.

Nonetheless I had got the pacing about right in my head and the division of segments was predictably `proceeding just as I have forseen it`

Cunning and interesting the website still is though, one of the better film websites I've seen, actually. Check it out here: http://www.jarheadmovie.com/welcometothesuck.html

There ya go for now, its not often I go to the cinema these days but it was necessary given what day it was yesterday. I just hope everyone still remembers next year