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April 03, 2009

BLACK HAWK DOWN

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ColeSmithey.comSet during a 1993 Mogadishu capture mission of Somalia's Mohamed Farrah Aidid by an elite group of US soldiers, "Black Hawk Down" is a precise vision of how little war has changed in spite of America's high-tech equipment and extensive vocabulary of modern tactics.

For all of its gritty super-war-action, the film's characters remain flat, and its narcissistic patriotic ending fails to mitigate the military incompetence on display.

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Director Ridley Scott ("Gladiator") teams up with blockbuster producer Jerry Bruckheimer ("Armageddon") to adapt Mark Bowden's novel of the same name into a volatile mix of blood, adrenaline, and testosterone. 

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We hear the soldiers in "Black Hawk Down" using a private lingo to rev up their gung-ho attitude to go kill or be killed. It's an abbreviation of the "HooHa" that Pacino's character used in "Sea of Love."

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But here it sounds more like something Stiv Bators ("Lords of the New Church" singer) would have yelled out in the middle of a song that went, "Video games train kids for war," "open your eyes, see the lies right in front of ya."

Rated R. 144 mins.

3 Stars

Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

 

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