Stop Loss [Blu-ray] |  | Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
This item is no longer available
Rating:  46 reviews
Media: Blu-ray
Region: 1
ASIN: B00168IWUK
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Kimberly Peirce's long-hatching follow-up to Boys Don't Cry is another issue-driven look at its era: Stop-Loss hinges on U.S. military policy allowing Iraq War soldiers to be returned to combat even after their official hitches are up. In this case, a band of brothers return to home turf in Brazos, Texas, only to discover that team leader Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) has gotten a Stop-Loss order to head back to the Middle East. After some flavorful sketches of small-town Texas life and the awkwardness of re-adjustment, the movie somewhat clumsily hits the road, where there's more wheel-spinning than deep insight. Peirce and co. seem to want to hit all the Iraq War bases, which may be one reason the film lacks a strong focus. Supporting soldiers Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are rather more interesting than Phillippe's brooding hero, and Abbie Cornish is stuck in a thankless town-between-two-lovers storyline. It's sincere as all get-out, but Stop-Loss feels like a project that began with an issue and a cause, rather than compelling characters. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
 Worth Watching -- and Remembering July 3, 2009
Richard G. Hine (amazon.com/dp/B001UG3BJK)
Even though The New Yorker called it "forceful, effective, and alive, with the raw mixed up emotions produced by an endless war," the movie "Stop-Loss" only made about $11 million at the box office (or about what Transformers eat for breakfast). Tens of thousands of servicemen and women had their service in Iraq and Afghanistan involuntarily extended because of the stop-loss fineprint in their enlistment contracts. "Stop-Loss" puts a human face on this bait-and-switch policy -- and dramatically illuminates the ongoing costs of the war that play out when the troops come home.
 Lame. Pathetic. Sad. June 14, 2009
The Judge
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A movie about complainers and quiters, written by clowns that don't have a clue, acted by kids that should appear on *insert random MTV show here*.
Do people think this is a representation of reality? I hope not. If you do... you exist in a sad place.
If this punk was a leader he wouldn't quit until the job is done. He wouldn't be able to stomach the thought of fellow soldiers fighting while he enjoys being at home. The Army Value I speak of is: Selfless Service. So I guess this movie is REALLY about the army retaining people it's better off without...?
I'm glad I borrowed a copy of this. At least I didn't contribute any money to this travisty. It's depressing to me that my friend spent $17.99 on this pile of crap. That's $17.99 towards fools that preach what they have NO CLUE about.
I'll skip my traditional "punch myself in the nuts" comment that I reserve for awful movies I wish I had never seen. Instead, I'm going to the DFAC where I'll dine with REAL Soldiers and continue the REAL fight against some really, REALLY bad guys. 99.9% of us aren't belly aching quiters.
Flag of Our Fathers for the Iraq generation May 7, 2009
Bradley F. Smith (Miami Beach, FL)
Though it feels, at times, like an MTV video, this seems like a sincere attempt to show what some of today's soldiers go through when they are forced to return to Iraq after one, or sometimes, two tours, against their wills. Graphic violence in the beginning, and it pervades the middle sections when it seems like violence will erupt any minute as the boys take a little time off in Brazos, Tx. Good looking cast. Nothing wrong with this one as entertainment.
Mixed emotions April 16, 2009
H. Schneider (window seat)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A story of soldiers returning from the Iraq war, coming back into a more uncertain world than they thought. One of them, Ryan Phillippe's character, gets stop-lossed, ie forced to extend his time in Iraq after the end of his contract term. He reacts 'badly' and explores desertion.
As expected the movie received very different evaluations, and my own reaction to it was also mixed. There is an overdose of patriotism in the beginning, when our Texas small town boys are returning from the Iraq war to an exuberant welcome. One knows right away that this serves as contrast with the later despair of broken social relations, disturbed minds of young men returned from horror (as in every other previous war), and the extreme unfairness, to the victim, of the stop-loss rule.
The evaluation of the movie is much influenced by reviewers' view on the Iraq war as such, but I think one ought to separate those two questions. For the people involved here, right or wrong of the invasion and occupation is not really the issue, but survival and re-integration are.
The rightfulness of the war is beyond doubt for the protagonists, which is probably very realistic.
Has the movie handled the subject well? All in all I am not fully satisfied with it, though there are strong episodes. The whole is somewhat too much of a message carrier. More about issues than about real people, as somebody observed with truth.
Better than people say it is! March 20, 2009
ladybee
I thought this was a great film with a great cast. I heard alot of people didn't like it, and I can't understand why. It's very moving, and keeps you involved from beginning to end. Definitly worth seeing.
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