Jarhead
By Brett Lawrence, Blockbuster.co.uk

Jarhead, Full Metal Jacket and Aliens all have two things in common. Number one, they feature marines and number two, the Sergeant always gets the best lines.

It's no surprise then that whilst Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, The Day After Tomorrow) gets top billing, its Jamie Foxx's (Ray, Collateral) portrayal of Staff Sgt. Sykes that is most memorable in this tale of US Marine Anthony Swofford as he is sent to battle in the Gulf in 1990. Jarhead (the movie) is based on Swofford’s already popular autobiography of the same name, although the screenplay itself has been adapted by William Broyles (The Polar Express, Apollo 13).

Part of an elite sniper team, Swofford and his fellow Jarheads sit out the war waiting to get their piece of the action. However, in today's high-tech 'finger on the button' warfare, the need for a skilled soldier is becoming less and less essential , and as time passes by it seems the only action they'll end up seeing is by watching 'Apocalypse Now' in the camp cinema tent.

Sam Mendes, once again shows that his skills as a director are superb. Whilst war has never looked so dull from the point of view of the average marine, from the safety of our sofas it has seldom looked so real. And when the action comes, it’s delivered with a sense of humour as dry as the sand that surrounds them.

Visually spectacular it may be, but the message of the original material gets somewhat lost on screen. Whilst the original book told of a young soldier hungry for excitement, its on-screen sibling merely skims his desires and rarely attempts to provoke any thought from its audience. Even with a run time of over two hours, fans of the book will spot various notable cuts which perhaps should have been kept in to give the story more substance.

However, for those of us who’ve spent their time reading the ‘Da Vinci Code’ instead (and therefore aren’t comparing to the original source), Jarhead is entertaining for the most part. Strong performances from Foxx and Peter Sarsgaard (Flightplan, The Skeleton Key) in particular keep the mind from dwelling on the relevance of lesser characters. Stunning visuals and some desert-dry wit will keep your spirits up whilst the ‘best-of-the-best’ sit in the sand and wait for their orders.

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