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There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) and his men get caught in an ambush in Tikrit, Iraq. Several are killed in the incident. King returns home to Texas as a hero. Senator Orton Worrell promises to care for his injured comrade Rodriguez. His friend Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum) shows signs of PTSD scaring his fiancée Michelle (Abbie Cornish). Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is drunk and gets thrown out by his wife. Brandon, Tommy and Steve report back to the military. Brandon is surprised to be stop-loss. He is ordered back to Iraq despite expecting to be discharged. He goes AWOL. Along with Michelle, he heads for D.C. to get help from Senator Worrell.There are a few interesting performances but the movie takes on too much. It needs more scenes of quiet character development and concentrate on fewer people. Not everything has to be issues about being a soldier. It pushes a little too hard when King goes super-soldier on those thieves. There's probably a better and simpler movie in here.

Objectively as a person who reviews thousands of films, I have to say this was a terrible movie.On the one hand, while I knew about stop loss already as everyone who signs the dotted line does, I found it to be unconstitutional as a concept.On the other hand, this movie was pure propaganda from bleeding hearts. It has the clichés running straight through it from start to finish, and it wouldn't have been so bad if the directing, script, dialog were any good.I think the actors did a decent job with what they had to work with, and there were some intriguing ideas, but they weren't new ones and they weren't done skillfully.In the end we wonder what he learned if anything from his actions. It seems it was all full of sound and fury signifying nothing.If you want to see my favorite movie about war, watch The Deer Hunter. Now that's a movie that will change your life.

Stop Loss is unique. Almost surprisingly given the content of the film. We have had a plethora of anti-Iraq films the most recent of course being The Hurt Locker which gained critical acclaim including Best Picture at the Academy Awards. So how is this film different? First of all I believe that Stop Loss was made with the intent of appealing to a young demographic. I think they are trying to show young impressionable people how this affects people who are in their own age demo, and also what it is like for these soldiers. They due this by bringing in a cast of well known hot young up and comers, a simplistic story, and a strong lead character. The film is more entertaining than educational but does both easily. There is nothing wrong with any of this and its also refreshing to have a film about the current war from the perspective of stateside and a soldier wrestling with emotions and guilt to return to the war. The film has very little scenes of the actual war and instead is really showing us the soldiers who are affected afterword and their lives as they try to piece it together. It is certainly well worth seeing but unfortunately isn't as intense or effective as it tries to be.Ryan Phillippe headlines the cast as a brave solider tormented with visions of the things they've done. Phillippe is good, he's as good as he always is and that is good but never truly great. He shows a lot of emotion and holds the film well and fits the bill for the aforementioned attempt at bringing in a younger demographic. Another young up and coming star is Channing Tatum who gets some really meaty emotions as he displays PTSD. Tatum gets the most as far as emotions but really doesn't get a lot of depth beyond that to his character. I'm quite convinced having seen him in a few things as of late that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is just a skip away from an Academy Award nomination. I don't mean to say his performance in this film is necessarily worthy of that but he always does an incredible job and really grabs on to a character. As Tommy Burgess he's an alcoholic, torn apart by memories of the war, and losing his wife. Lovely actor Abbie Cornish plays Tatum's wife, Michelle. She also does a good job of playing the girl next door, nice southern belle wife and has good chemistry with Phillippe. She never gets much character development however despite her involvement in the story.Heavily acclaimed director Kimberly Peirce who gained awards and notoriety for the 'just okay' film (in my opinion) Boys Don't Cry is still very new to directing. I think she is the type of director who gets her hands on a cause and wants to show it off using her talents. She also co-wrote the film with Mark Richard and neither of them really have a lot of big screen credits to their name. I only point this out because Stop Loss in the hands of a more experienced director and writer could have really been something to take notice of. Unfortunately whether you chalk it up to inexperience with the film makers or an attempt at mainstreaming a serious message the film is good but never great and unfortunately will most likely be forgotten in a sea of Iraq based war films. I honestly didn't feel that something so acclaimed like The Hurt Locker was that far ahead of Stop Loss but opinions only mean so much. 7.5/10

Recap: After two tours in Iraq Staff Sergeant Brandon King is finally coming home and is leaving the army. With he has his friends that he served with, men that became as close as brothers, equally eager to quit fighting, equally happy to finally be close to dear ones. But the boys may be home, but they certainly haven't left the war behind. It is with them constantly, and each of them struggles with in their own way. They abuse drugs and alcohol and get into fights. It tear every relationship apart. Their wives and girlfriends can't handle them, the brotherhood between them comes under extreme pressure. So when King finds out that the army is about to Stop-Loss him, which means it won't let him quit and forcefully send him back to Iraq, Brandon feels betrayed. The army and government that he fought for, risked his life for, broke their deal. And he can't handle anymore death, more friends dying. He goes AWOL in a race for Washington, to speak with a senator, but he soon finds out that as fugitive, the list of friends quickly grows thin.Comments: A strong movie about courage and duty, and doing the honorable thing. About how a government that has sent thousands of soldiers to fight a war on foreign soil, can turn their back on the same men once they returned home. How deals are broken, trust betrayed and the despair these men that is forced to rejoin can feel.It is a strong movie about how it feels to return home with these horrible memories (at best) and not being able to handle them, the strain it puts on these individuals and their relationships.Well, I have not been in any war, neither am I American, so the real issues might not be mine to debate, even if I do have a clear opinion about it. However, so does it seem this movie has. And it is very good at relaying it.Ryan Philippe, Channing Tatum and Abbie Cornish gives very strong performances along with the rest of a strong cast. Their acting is reason enough to watch this movie, a real impressive effort.It might be so that some of the events is not entirely realistic, however to dismiss the movie or the emotions that are portrayed in them because of that is foolish. It portrays a part of a war that both individuals and governments that send their soldiers to war need to handle. Therefore I think this movie gives an important statement in that debate.In the end, just focusing on the movie, it was a really good movie. Well acted with a real good story that kept my interest without problem. A drama with some real emotion and close to the thriller genre. Well worth watching! 7+/10