We just got done watching The Hurt Locker and I must say that it was better than I though it was going to be.  Before seeing it I had already labeled it as a typical action war in Iraq deal, at least The Hurt Locker was a little different.

The Hurt Locker the Acceptable:

Film had very little music giving it a documentary feel.
Depiction of American soldiers seemed bona fide.
Film didn’t need to have (and didn’t have) a lot of traditional action scenes.
Kathryn Bigelow goes quite a ways to redeeming herself after K-19 Widow Maker (the poor man’s Hunt for Red October which was crap).

The Hurt Locker the Crap:

The story line was thin—not quite as thin as a porno—but still thin.
The ending was completely cliché — a little too pat, like an O. Henry short story.

Unfortunately, when a movie’s crap is its story line and ending it will never get past the “not crap” plane of film.   You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to watch this one.  It is a good movie if you want some mind candy or to set your brain on auto pilot, I might watch it a second time with someone who had not seen it before but that is about it.