In The Valley of Elah (2007)

157 out of 172 people found the following review helpful:

UTTER TRIPE

A Customer from London, 4th April, 2008

Don't lose two hours watching this complete boring rubbish movie. Go out and wash you car as you will get more satisfaction.

Read all highest rated reviews

89 out of 97 people found the following review helpful:

In The Valley of Elah - UTTER RUBBISH and Tediously SLOW - AVOID!!

A Customer from Wales, 3rd June, 2008

Is this a “damning indictment of the Iraq war”, or does it raise questions of morality, or even, because it is said to be based on a true story, does it tell us anything about Iraq veterans - NO NO NO! This is tripe, masquerading as an expose of “what terrible secrets the soldiers saw and endured in Iraq”. Selling films in an attempt to extract sympathy for Iraq veterans is shameful; and even worse, is expecting us to pay for the incompetent execution of that task, directed with not an ounce of military precision or emotional drama, both of which would be essential - if justice had truly been meant to have been done to the subject matter, and commercialisation not the raison d’être. Why do they make such utter rubbish? A murder mystery or CSI it is NOT - pretentious, resoundingly yes! Tommy Lee Jones must have been desperate to even consider making this film - however, money talks and is a good persuader (sorry about the split infinitive for the purists). The disjointed storyline, which can be condensed into 2 minutes, is about Jones’ son returning from Iraq, goes AWOL, is found dead; and Jones, an ex-MP, uncovers the truth behind his son’s murder - despite lazy and politically motivated Police (military and civilian). The pauses are deafening, and the grindingly slow pace of the film nothing but tedious. You need perseverance, if, after 10/20 minutes, you can be bothered who did what to whom or, even why!! The dialogue is turgid and often pointless - but some may like the 5 minutes taken to watch Jones shave, and cut himself then put tissue on the wrong spot; and even the relentless wastage of superfluous footage (driving, coffee/bar, and office scenes) - more to pad out the film than ever enhance or aid it?

Read all highest rated reviews

62 out of 63 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent film

A Customer from Darlington, 1st February, 2008

Holds the attention well for two hours - a story of a former army man who has already lost one son and now loses another, and seeks to uncover the truth while the army tries to stop him. Tommy Lee Jones very good in the role, and Charlize Theron plays the police officer with great restraint. Also notable for showing a slice of real America, not glamorised at all. Film strikes a good balance between mysetery and anti-war, not too obviously polemical but makes audience questioning what Iraq is doing to ordinary soldiers. I enoyed it a lot, and a shame there were 95% empty seats in the cinema

Read all highest rated reviews

45 out of 48 people found the following review helpful:

Drags I'm afraid.....

PaulaWestwood from , 28th January, 2008

Performances fine, but the whole story at over two hours long, could have been shortened to an hour and missed out oin nothing. You will see there are a whole screenload of pauses on the phone, pauses in conversations etc etc, which are I suppposed meant to heighten the stotry, but they just pad out a reasonable telling of a worthwhile true to life story. Could definately have been better but it is still worth a watch.

Read all highest rated reviews

boring

A Customer from cambridge england, 28th February, 2010

very slow i thought it would have been more action packed i would not recommend to anyboby

Read all recent reviews

Slow, methodical study of humanity in wartime

Tachikoma from , 24th February, 2010

Some reviews of this film have described it as 'tripe', 'slow', and 'dull'. To a certain extent I agree; if you are expecting an all-action investigative thriller (Die Hard style), look elsewhere. At the helm of the film is a study of, as the director puts, 'the first victim of war; our humanity'. The story revolves around PTSD resulting from war, the difficulty soldiers of all nations have reintegrating into 'normal' society, and the problems war-atrocities create. My one criticism of the film is that it does perhaps take on too many central themes, attempting to look at issues surrounding the afore-mentioned war ideas, parental problems, the 'right' to kill, de-humanisation etc etc... A lot of thinking is required. But, this said, it does most of this competently and transparently. If you are interested in any of the above, and especially if you liked Waltz With Bashir (covers a lot of the same themes - although Waltz is probably better), definitely worth a watch. Enjoy!

Read all recent reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Nice one Tommy

mosaic from , 21st February, 2010

Tommy Lee Jones did well in this fairly slow film. I was entertained but felt it could have been stronger.

Read all recent reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

son of rainbow

tjlongy from , 17th February, 2010

realy funny good kids /family film

Read all recent reviews