Jarhead 2: Field of Fire (2014)

Sorry, this movie sucks

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Blistering performances.

If Jarhead was a subtle, slow-burning study of the Middle Eastern occupation through the eyes of a grunt, Jarhead 2 is the complete opposite. It's an entertaining if dumb action flick but has very little in common with reality or common sense.Ambushed on a supply run, a team of marines switches their mission object to keep an Afghan woman out of the hands of Taliban with the help of Cole Hauser's NAVY Seal.The acting is fine and the action is well shot, if totally preposterous with overkill.I can't claim to have served in conflict, but I'm pretty certain soldiers on both sides wouldn't frequently waste RPG's just to blow up one person armed only with a gun, instead of disabling vehicles and such, for which these weapons are designed. A lot of the action pieces seemed designed for cinema gore effects only and pretty much took me out of the reality that the rest of the film worked hard to achieve. As did a point after a gun fight where the soldiers opt to walk to their destination through hostile territory, instead of commandeering the Taliban cars.It wasn't the worse movie, and for the most part was exciting enough to hold my attention, but it could have been a lot better had it not been for nonsensical movie tropes that burst the bubble.

If you are just seeking Hollywood action this is right up your ally. If your'e like me and wanted something realistic and a true military movie then move on. This movie has so many military errors it aggravated me more than entertained me. There were scenes where Marines ranks were not on their uniform. A corporal was called sir constantly throughout the film. They fired an M203 grenade at a taliban member no more than 20m away and it exploded when it hit the man. These grenades are made to not detonate that close. Also the fact that they wasted the 40mm grenade on a single man instead of blowing up the truck with a machine gunner in it was far from realistic. Also an RPG was fired and supposedly exploded the entire building they were in and set it on fire and only the one man that the grenade hit directly died, not the Marine three feet from him. Lastly, the weapons the Marines had were fully automatic M4 and M16 platforms and while they do exist they are not used by US Military. This movie was made for people that just wanted action without any realistic backing. It isn't a bad story it just was not done with the accuracy that should be expected. I didn't have too high of expectations but I was still let down.

I enjoyed the first 'Jarhead' film and was curious as to what any 'sequel' would be like. However, at least I kept my expectations low as I knew this was not produced by the same cast or crew as the first, plus part II was released straight-to-DVD, so, how good could it be? The answer... quite good actually, but only as a generic war film, rather than a sequel.Okay, so occasionally the film mimics the original in style (think captions, mainly near the beginning) and it uses the term 'jarhead' a couple of times, but that's about it. In fact... I'm running out of other things that link the two films.So, the best thing to do is basically just ignore everything you know about the first movie and go with what's on offer. And, what's on offer is a war movie set in modern Afghanistan. A small team of marines (or 'jarheads' to be precise) are on a routine mission, only to find themselves forced to protect an important female local as she travels across arguably one of the most dangerous regions in the world.Bottom line: if you like war films, you'll probably enjoy this. It's actually got a half reasonable budget and doesn't feel too much like a straight-to-DVD movie.

Jarhead 1 was excellent, this one is way too patriotic, with the Americans on the good side, despite most of the war, occident is going now, is just for resources and lobbies interests, I found it a bit hard, to promote such a propaganda, behind such a cheap scenario. It's about American soldier always doing the right thing, because they fight for America, saving lives, and fighting for freedom, but this does not happen in real life.Nowadays, Marines serve for their presidents, who themselves serve the ones that finance their campaigns. Where jarhead 1 was sticking to a more real feel , here not at all. It could have been a good scenario back in a days' when commando was out, but would not be compared to a big title like apocalypse now , full metal jacket, saint soldiers or jarhead 1.