The Hurt Locker
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: June 26, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
95
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The result is an intense, action-driven war pic, a muscular, efficient standout that simultaneously conveys the feeling of combat from within as well as what it looks like on the ground. Read full review
100
TimeRichard Corliss
A near-perfect movie about men in war, men at work. Through sturdy imagery and violent action, it says that even Hell needs heroes. Read full review
100
The New YorkerDavid Denby
A small classic of tension, bravery, and fear, which will be studied twenty years from now when people want to understand something of what happened to American soldiers in Iraq. If there are moviegoers who are exhausted by the current fashion for relentless fantasy violence, this is the convincingly blunt and forceful movie for them. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
There's something about this story, and this war, that brings out the stripped-down conceptual artist in her (Bigelow): Against blank canvases of desert sand and rubble, explosive wires are linked to nerve ends, and everything that matters depends on the twitch of a muscle or a finger on a button. Read full review
100
Village VoiceScott Foundas
A full-throttle body shock of a movie. It gets inside you like a virus, puts your nerves in a blender, and twists your guts into a Gordian knot. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The best nondocumentary American feature made yet about the war in Iraq. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
For my money, Bigelow says more about the agony and tragedy of war than all those earnest, well-meaning movies that sound as if they've been co-scripted by Josh and Toby from The West Wing. Read full review
100
SlateDana Stevens
After The Hurt Locker (which is without question the most exciting and least ideological movie yet made about the war in Iraq), everyone will remember Renner's name. Read full review
100
The PlaylistGabe Toro
It shows a concern for spatial discrepancies, between characters, between action and intention, between life and death. It’s one of many reasons why The Hurt Locker is one of the most exciting movies you’ll see this year. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A first-rate action thriller, a vivid evocation of urban warfare in Iraq, a penetrating study of heroism and a showcase for austere technique, terse writing and a trio of brilliant performances. Most of all, though, it’s an instant classic that demonstrates, in a brutally hot and dusty laboratory setting, how the drug of war hooks its victims and why they can’t kick the habit. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Overwhelmingly tense, overflowing with crackling verisimilitude, it's both the film about the war in Iraq that we've been waiting for and the kind of unqualified triumph that's been long expected from director Kathryn Bigelow. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsStaff (Not credited)
What you'll remember most will be Renner's remarkably complex commander. By the time we finally figure him out, it's become clear we've witnessed a star-making performance, in a movie that deserves to stand as one of the defining films of the decade. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A great film, an intelligent film, a film shot clearly so that we know exactly who everybody is and where they are and what they’re doing and why. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
This one enters the pantheon of great American war films. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
When viewers are ultimately released from The Hurt Locker's exhilarating vice grip, they'll find themselves shaken, energized and, more than likely, eager to see it again. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Such is the extraordinary achievement of The Hurt Locker: it has the perspective of years when those years have yet to pass. Read full review
100
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Like every war before it, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has generated its share of movies. But The Hurt Locker is the first of them that can properly be called a masterpiece. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The Hurt Locker redefines war-film electricity. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin Wilson
At once an unforgettable war film and a brilliant character study. Read full review
100
EmpireIan Nathan
The most literally exciting film you will see this year. Forget the off-putting banner of another Iraq movie -- go, watch, marvel, endure and book in the palliative of a stiff drink afterwards. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
For the first hour or more, The Hurt Locker boldly forsakes any conventional narrative hook beyond the ongoing tensions between these men and the terrifying grind of defusing bombs day after day. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Renner gives a full-bore performance of great individuality and industriousness, but essentially his character is as glamorized as any classic Westerner. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The Hurt Locker might be the first Iraq-set film to break through to a mass audience because it doesn't lead with the paralysis of the guilt-ridden Yank. The horror is there, but under the rush. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah Young
Tensely action-packed and muscularly directed by Kathryn Bigelow, this tale of an elite U.S. army bomb disposal unit in Baghdad is a familiar story in new clothes, targeted at the young male demographic. Read full review
90
NPRBob Mondello
The adrenaline rush of war has been largely missing from Hollywood's Iraq, but it's certainly front and center in The Hurt Locker, the first war movie in a while that feels as if it could have starred John Wayne. Read full review
90
Film ThreatNick Antosca
Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is a grinding, nightmarish machine. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
The tension is enough to make you slightly sick, and the overall mood of the thing is deeply dispiriting, but then, nobody ever said that war isn't hell. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is a tense, well-crafted motion picture that keeps viewers on edge. It's an exhausting 130 minutes; many viewers will leave the theater feeling drained. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Here's the Iraq War movie for those who don't like Iraq War movies. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Both a psychological portrait and an exciting action film. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Vivid, assured and extremely suspenseful. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
In The Hurt Locker, the thrill is unexpectedly contagious. You don't realize how riveted you are until you're back on American soil observing James in civilian life. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Fused with paranoia and almost unbearable suspense, The Hurt Locker is powerful stuff. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Episodic and, at times, overwrought. And occasionally its deliberate opacity becomes too cloudy. But the things that shine through are remarkable. War is indeed Hell, it tells us, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing if you're filled with demons. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The drawback is that even though The Hurt Locker is extremely effective in places, it ultimately feels unformed and somewhat unfinished. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
Stretched both timewise and for plausibility. Read full review
60
VarietyDerek Elley
Boal's script stirs a little of everything into the pot, which boils down into seven setpieces divided by brief intervals of camaraderie/conflict among the three protags. Read full review
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