BLL

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk_360P

This is yet another tremendous work by Ang Lee. Movie showcases post- victory celebration of war heroes, opinions and responses of people in the nation, inability of people to perceive their sacrifice of personal life and struggle between life and death. The psychological state of nineteen year old young war hero is sketched very effectively. Innocence, teenage infatuation, parting, and vanity of war are well communicated through dialogues and expressions. Director has nicely showcased high end display technology used in current day's sports and media. Script juggles between war scenes and post war recognition as gone through sensitive minds of young soldier. Movie has acknowledged rule of detachment from Hindu epic philosophy of Bhagavad-Gita. Also I am glad to see Lord Ganesha worshiped by a crew member.

Suffering through to the end of this film has driven me to write this review (my first on IMDb} Probably the worst acting, dialogue and story I have seen for many years. The few flashbacks to the conflict in Iraq was so badly done with no intensity to convey the real stressful emotions a soldier encounters. The rest of the film is just ridiculous from the behaviour of the soldiers on tour, falling in love with a cheerleader in 10 minutes, fighting with the stadium security guards - I could go on I then saw there was a $40,000,000 for this awful film ! Please find something better to do or watch at the cinema

First of this is not an action movie. I don't know who the target audience this film was aiming for, males, females, age but they failed miserably on all accounts. This a movie about a soldier coming home and dealing with family, society, etc. while recalling past events. The problem is how poorly it is done. This movie is so bad it looks like it's supposed to be a parody of another movie. Some scenes are so bad i was unsure if they were suppose to be funny or serious. From the filming to the just how bad the dialogue is in this movie just seems so cheep. Majority of the movie consist of pointless conversations that having no relevance to anything. Chris Tucker is in the film but he is on the phone 95% of the time. I would highly recommend everyone missing this pooper. If you do watch this film, when they are marching at halftime look and how funny the guy on the far left is marching, it's comical. Also, I've never seen anyone, EVER, fall in love with each other in a span of one hour.

The moment the audience saw the first shot of Billy Lynn reaching for his phone, the audience gasped. Ang Lee's ambitious choice of filming at a frame rate of 120fps in a 4K and 3D format is beyond words. We become immersed into Billy Lynn's world, seeing the little details that we normally would not see in a film (imagine what Emmanuel Lubezki did in 'The Revenant' and times it by 5). The person I went with to see the film described it best, it was a very sensual experience not just from the cinematography, but also the interesting soundscape and phenomenal editing. There are small moments when what would be a mundane action becomes a trigger for Billy Lynn and his squad. Lee does not hold back in making the audience feel the PTSD of those soldiers which at times is beautiful done as well as a bit too much for those of us who have never experienced it. Now I could go on about how brilliant the film is technically and it's sure to get some Oscar recognition in that aspect, but all films revolve around a story. What could have been an amazing film merely becomes an OK film because of the story's weakness. I read an article where the critic trashed Ang Lee, but to be honest it's not Lee who's to blame but whoever wrote the script. The script is so dull and because of that the audience never got the full immersion we were hoping to get. The only person we connect to by the end of the film is Kristen Stewart's character, yet that isn't even delved into. The relationships between the characters aren't developed very much except for one relationship that is developed WAY too fast and in the most unrealistic way possible. You can get a sense of a strong bond between Lynn and his squad, but just barely. As for the acting, Kristen Stewart was definitely the standout. Joe Alwyn did a great job, too, but not the memorable debut performance I was hoping to see. Vin Diesel and Steve Martin are truly miscast (this may just be me being picky, but every time they came on screen I felt very uncomfortable). To sum this up, I'm giving this movie a 7 out of 10 because of the technical brilliance and the experience of watching a film in this frame rate, though be warned that the story is very weak. Some people are going to find the 120fps very strange, but for the cinephiles who have an open mind, you'll be blown away.

A very well done movie that does a great job putting the viewer into the battle zone, even if you have never been there. If you have been there, you'll find yourself at times on the edge of your seat, holding your breath, a good dose of realism, the type of movie I would not have been able to go to for a couple years myself. A little iffy on some of the casting, and got a little far fetched 3/4 of the way through the movie with some of the relationship issues, so I give it an 8 out of 10. Liberals from NYC won't get this movie, because they have never been there. They refuse to have empathy for those who put the uniform on and protect this country. Unless the movie puts service members in a bad light, those types will always give the movie a bad rating, which is sad. Many of these movies are well scripted, directed, with amazing settings and great acting. None of that matters to the anti-military types, they treat these reviews as an opportunity to put their political viewpoints out there, and ignore the story, or how it is presented. You see it time and time again on thousands of reviews on IMDb. It is almost as though those making the reviews use this as their platform, because bashing troops out in public while protesting is no longer "fashionable" like it was in the 1960's.

These young men come home to be celebrated, but instead find themselves dropped headfirst into America's worst examples of decadence and greed. It is the most accurate representation I've seen yet, of the cancer eating away at our great country. Bravo to Mr. Lee! I have to admit I wasn't expecting a great deal out of this movie's director, what with the failure of 'Hulk', but I walked away from it with a new depth of understanding. It was an astoundingly well portrayed film. I gave the movie 9 out of 10 because of Vin Diesel's lack-luster performance. Else, the movie was excellent!

In terms of visuals Billy Lynn's was very impressive, however I would ask, is this the right genre of film to showcase such technical cinematography? Obviously such stunning shots could only be a plus to the film but for a film that is really more about one's internal struggles rather than exterior conflicts I do find it quite an odd decision to make this film in such a way. I did go in expecting an all out war movie since I have heard of all of these things that Ang Lee is doing in this film, in terms of visuals. Which did leave be surprised but also disappointed at how few those scenes are. Essentially this film takes place within a time span of one day and all takes place at this football game? What? Obviously there were flashback scenes and all but there were quite few and every time we jump back to the present time it just leaves be craving for the next flashback scene. I can understand this message that the film was trying to send about being considered a 'war hero', about all the costs and sacrifices that soldiers are making each day and the way they are treated. How decorated war heroes are just a sort of title, people will show you and tell you how much they appreciate your services and what not but when it comes to actually giving anything we never seem to be so eager to. It is a film that showcases this idea of being crowned a 'hero' and what it really means, and sure that was quite an interesting theme to look at. But perhaps to make this whole story more impactful instead of having flashbacks tell us the story overseas we get a whole first half of the film showing it to us, before all of the victory tour stuff. It just makes it very hard for audiences to understand the implications and the sacrifices that they have made if this sort of flashback storytelling is used. It is often hard to make a good war movie that isn't based on a true story, this is likely because when audiences know that it is fictitious the stakes wouldn't be so high, and it won't really touch people's hearts so to speak. So both these elements combine to create the war's lack of importance which is a very bad thing to have happen. In conclusion, I liked what they were trying to say, the underlying idea and theme of the film came indefinitely of a good place. However poor storytelling and lack of story in general really made this film suffer quite a bit.

This movie is far from anti-war. This movie is full of emotion and thinking of soldier after-war life. They are not understood and being treated with people's arrogance and coldness. People do not really care about them but what can they dig from them. The director again use his way to express the emotion inside the character which he is most good at. the movie is worth seeing and currently is under rated. Besides the clips of the movie is excellent. It is harding to contiune switching between two time and spacing and not make audience feeling wired and confused. But in this movie you can feel that it is natural and your mind will completely goes with Billy. You will feel what he feels and see what he sees. Again Ang Lee made it.