CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Lucia Ayala
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Married Baby
Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
Darin
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
ryanwmullally
Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam war epic Full Metel Jacket is a outstanding movie even visionary. I provably consider it to be the second greatest war film. No only be it's so powerful and disturbing, but also because it explores things that many war films usually don't. What it takes to be a soldier to fight in war and what does it do to the human brain? The question is "not good". It shows the dehumanizing of war in a way nothing could top it. It kinda fellas like two movies. "The bootcamp and the actual war" as James Rolfe said. The Story is basically through the eyes of a soldier nicknamed Private Joker while in bootcamp he witnesses his drill instructor Gunner Sergeant Hartman (R Le Erney) scream and abuse an overweight soldier nickedbamed Private Pyle. It starts off comediac and funny when Hartman pushes him to the limits and yells at him with his unbelievably hilarious rapid fires, but it soon gets dark and very horrific when Hartman turns his fellow soldier against for stealing a donut. They all have to do extra work because he can't do it. So one night they beat him up in his sleep in a gut-wrenching and powerful moment. This drives Private Pyle insane and he kills Hartman in revenge, and then kills himself.
The second part is when Joker finally joins the war in Vietnam where we see what America has done to the country. And the soldiers Joker comes across are sick psychopaths, especially Animal Mother, because the training they had to go through before becoming soldiers.It's a brilliant movie, and R Le Erney gives a phenomenal performance that should have won him an Oscar. So, another brilliant film by Stanley Kubrick.
shulthise
Kept hearing about this movie, people said I should watch it. I can say I am fairly disappointed.
The obvious comparison is to Platoon, which was a lot better at the time in every aspect, and years after still holds better against this pretentious movie.I felt the same disappointment watching The Thin Red Line and Dunkirk - both were overly praised but empty - no narrative, no tension, and almost no character to empathize with.
AndrewHeaney1
A hard movie to watch, of course, given the first 45 minutes alone makes 2014's Whiplash look like Barney the Dinosaur. But there is more to this movie than just a hard-to-stomach war film, I assure you. Believe me, this film is fantastic.The film is based on a Novel called The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford, which unfortunately I have not read. The first 45 minutes follows a few Marines in training for the Vietnam War under the guise of the extremely hard Senior Drill Instructor Hartmann, played by the late R. Lee Ermey (may he rest in peace). This performance from this character alone makes the first 45 minutes of the movie the best first act of any film that I never want to see again. After this hard-to-stomach first act, we transition to Matthew Modine's character, nicknamed "Joker," and his team going through the hardships of war. As simple as this plot is, the execution is beyond brilliant.The only problem I have with the film is that the second and third act, while very well done, did not keep my attention as much as the phenomenal first act.The characters are all memorable, for better or for worse, even if you know they are gonna bite the dust. Stanley Kubrick really knows how to direct actors and characters, and he knows how to get even the most squeamish of people emotionally invested.Just about everything else in terms of the aspects of filmmaking is done from good to exceptionally.I cannot say for sure this is one of Kubrick's best films, or even in the top five. However, I definitely think everyone should see this movie at least once in their lives.RATING:9/10
Matt Greene
A film in two halves, the training segment is a perfect balance of dark humor & dramatic insanity, & the Vietnam segment is depressingly violent & visually impeccable. Though they are disparate, they work together to show the dehumanizing nature of all aspects of war: the ugliness, the complication, the lack of cinematic heroism. One of Kubrick's quickest paced, least opaque & most accessible films...& yet another directing masterpiece.
