Rating: 
Summary: worth owning even if DVD lacks extras.
Review: Yeah, eventually, there will be a special edition DVD release for Black Hawk Down. With such astonishing battle scenes, how could there not be? But for me, this DVD release is just fine, considering the superb quality in picture and sound, making this the perfect film to show off a surround system. But, anyway, as far as the movie itself goes; yes, few war movies will give the feeling that you're actually in the middle of the fighting. That's how realistic this film is.
Rating: 
Summary: No fun
Review: This is probably the most realistic depiction of war I've seen. The explaination of the battle plan was clear enough, but after things start to go wrong, it was easy to lose track of the action. Blood and gore is abundant. There is little character development, hence it is difficult to truly care about any of them. It was not my idea of a fun evening.
Rating:
Summary: Too Real For Me - Ridley Scott - Why?
Review: Blackhawk Down is another war film that graphically depicts the terrors of war. This film was extremely graphic and detailed. After a while it became a little intense for me. It tells the tale of the real mission that was taken upon by the US in the mid 90's. And it failed. The men, the mission and the principals were upheld, but many lives were very brutally lost. The film shows compassion, strength and brotherhood but it also shows the demonic terroristic nature of man. Ridley Scott directed this piece with a lot of care and concern and it shows, but to the general audience it was just too much for me. There are really not even notable performances. The cast was so large not everyone had enough to say to develop anything really interesting for the audience. The action and special effects are large and broad however. From model helicopters to great body part effects - this movie doesn't hide anything. The DVD has a few neat extras. Besides the commentary and the documentary they have some sequences that show you the various angles of the action sequences, that was definitely interesting and educational to watch. Overall its good to rent, but I wouldn't purchase this one.
Rating:
Summary: surprising for an american action-movie!
Review: the camera is great,
colours good and
acting almost real.
more movies like this one!
Rating: 
Summary: A film propelled by adrenaline and not much else
Review: Ladies and gentleman if you're looking for a war movie with actual substance and raw emmotion then this is the film that you should pop into your dvd player sit back and enjoy the sound of popping machine guns. If you're looking for an intricate story then this is not for you.
Simply put this film contains complicated army plans and enough screaming that you do feel like you're there. Unfortunately Josh Hartnett and Ewan Macgregor find themselves shoved out of the spotlight while the special effects and gore takes centerstage.
Rating:
Summary: For you Spanish speakers - Too Bad ! ! !
Review: This is about the DVD. Not the movie which is excellent with sound, despite not being labelled DTS, that is crystal clear. It could have easily been a 3 hour movie. Just what the guys are looking for after a ton of mindless chickflicks. But wait. I'm stumped - again. What is the rationale of including only a French translation with French, Thai and Chinese subtitles, when such a large Hispanic population exists here in the States with American dollars to spend??? Should we assume the Hispanic population in the U.S. doesn't count, but the 2nd. official language of Canada does, coincidentally when many DVD titles are manufactured in Canada??
I'd think the spending power of Hispanics, spending American dollars here, would be greater than that of Canada's French spending Canadian dollars there, simply by dollar conversion. However, the French got the nod, as well as the Thailandese and Chinese. Let's hope if there is to be a 'Director's Cut', that Scott makes the movie a full 3 hour epic and improves on the Languages section to include a Spanish soundtrack and subtitles. Adios!
Rating:
Summary: Black Hawk Awful
Review: What a crummy film. Even the bad reviews this got upon its theater release didn't prepare me for this 2+ hours of patriotic jingoism. The acting? What acting? Posing and screaming are the only emotions I saw. It makes "The Fast & Furious" look like its populated with Academy Award Winners. Hollow. Shallow.
The dialogue? Featherweight. Not a scene goes by that doesn't cause a grimace of embarassment. Compared to Aliens (which was fantastic w. deep character development) this comes off as Ridley Scott's weird orphan flick. Unloved. Gruesome. AWFUL.
Don't wait for the directors cut of this piece of poop. Pass it up altogether.
Rating:
Summary: Black Hawk Down: a wam-bam war movie
Review: Pros: blood, gore, war, and patriotism.
Cons: a half-truth re:'Mog' (Mogadishu)
The Bottom Line: I did like this movie. But it was only focused on the Rangers & Deltas. So I'm reading the book right now. Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot. The situation The over-view on the movie is that it's a modern war movie. I love war movies, and this movie will probably be on my top favorite list. This movie is gory, so if you have a weak stomach at blood and gut scenes, see this movie at your own risk. It's gory in a way that in one incident, there is a dead missile pierced through one of the ranger soldiers (the missile was dead so the body stayed in tact - minus the missile inside him). And I think that it was because of these gory details that made this movie so good. Oh. But the fact that it was so fast paced and confusing, I decided to watch the movie for the second time at the movie theatre. I needed to so that way I'd understand who was fighting whom. I wasn't too curious about the actors, or the character development because that's not what a war movie is about. I just couldn't understand which soldier was where, and what they were supposed to do - other than kill 1000 or so Somalians that fought against them.
Through the book, I learned that the Americans wanted to capture some of Aidid's high commanding officers and friends, and they also suspected that Aidid would be in the same building that they were raiding (the peacekeepers never learned about the raid on 10/3/99 untill after the raid began). Also the amount of Sam's killed that day are based on speculation as is all wars. The author of the book, Mark Bowden (who also assisted with the research for the movie) had difficulty in getting the correct facts from the natives at Mog because these people were outraged and angry at Americans, and they thought that Bowden was a reporter (which he wasn't at the time of the interviews). The movie focused on the Delta Force soldiers and Rangers. In which case, having such a small amount of facts of who was fighting helped the viewer in not becoming too confused. It was also the focus on the attempt on capturing Mohamed Farrah Aidid's generals on October 3, 1993. It gives you bits and pieces of the fights and the casualties, because it's a 2 1/2 or so movie. But that's all it tells you. It is only the half of the truth of what had happened. They don't tell you important things, like how Mike Durant was respectfully treated while he was the warlord's hostage. And the movie doesn't tell you the big key, like who really fought that day. It was more than just the Deltas and Rangers. I remember most of the details through the news during the time. The books more insightful when it comes to the full picture of the situation. This is why I'm reading the book right now, to know who participated in the war (not the names of the guys), and why we helped in the first place. Its REAL background story is about the attempt at stopping warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid from genocide; in which he was starving more than 3,000 fellow Samolians. So for the first few months or so the U.N. Peacekeepers and U.S. soldiers have kept Mohamed from starving people. But for six weeks they've failed in capturing him. There have been many attempts. On July 12 there was a peaceful meeting held at Qeybdid's household, to decide how they would negotiate with the peacekeepers. 2 of the 17 QRF helicopters that were circling the building opened fire. They called the pilots that fired their 16 missiles 'bored and trigger-happy.' They thought Mohamed was in the building. That was maybe the fuel that helped Mohamed gain more of his allies. The 'raid' on October 3, 1993 was to be a quick mission. The Deltas, Rangers, the Navy SEALs, Air Force Commandos, S.O.A.R., and average soldiers like Blackburn (who had just finished basic army training - not Ranger school) were involved. They were to have captured the people they were hunting down in one hour. Their mission lasted for almost an entire day. The Cast and Crew The actors consisted of fresh faces as well as some old ones. When first watching the movie, it helped seeing familiar faces like Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Ewen Bremner because your attention focused on them. But sometimes that was a bad thing because the movie would switch from one group to the next, making things confusing. There was a lot of actors that it was also hard to keep track with who was acting, which happens in a war movie. The director, Ridley Scott, has done some impressive movies, but I think this movie is his best war movie. The screenwriting was decent, but some of the information (like the boys' names) needs to be corrected. The sound was awesome, as was the special effects. The actors were:
OLD FAMILIAR FACES LIKE... Sam Shepard ('The Right Stuff', 'Swordfish'), Josh Hartnett ('Pearl Harbor,' '40 days and 40 nights'), Ewan McGregor ('Trainspotting,' 'Moulin Rouge'), Tom Sizemore ('Saving Private Ryan', 'Pearl Harbor', and soon to be released - "Big Trouble'), Ewen Bremner ('Trainspotting', 'Pearl Harbor'), William Fichtner ('Go', 'The Perfect Storm', 'What's the Worst That Could Happen'), Jason Isaacs ('The Patriot', 'Sweet November'), Ron Eldard ('Mystery, Alaska'), Jeremy Piven ('PCU', 'Serendipity').
AND NEW ACTORS LIKE... Eric Bana, Kim Coates, Brendan Sexton, Brian Van Holt, Carmine Giovinazzo, Charlie Hofheimer, Enrique Murciano, Gabriel Casseus, Hugh Dancy, Ioan Gruffudd, Richard Tyson, Danny Hoch, Tom Guiry. BOTTOM-LINE here is that the movie was pretty good minus the fact that they didn't give you the complete story. I'd watch it again, and quite possibly buy the dvd for the effects. Cheers
-shalaigne
Rating:
Summary: Warning
Review: The 2 stars aren't for the movie, which I think was fantastic. The 2 stars are for the DVD. Clearly, they spent no time on this DVD. There are no delted scenes, funny outtakes, in-depth featurettes, etc. This makes me mad, because I think I know what's going to happen- a future DVD release packed with extras. It's happened with Memento, Men in Black, and others. Some of my friends don't understand the fuss over the extras, preferring instead to just watch the movie. That's fine, but I'm not shelling out [$$$] just for the movie. If the movie was all I wanted, I'd buy the VHS, because frankly the improvement in picture quality isn't anything to scream about. IF you're looking for a DVD along the lines of Star Wars: Phantom Menace or some of the Criterion DVDs, I'd wait until you're sure that they're not releasing a better Blackhawk Down in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Ridley Scott does it again!
Review: Some may call it action with no acting, some may say it uses patriotism to make it better than it really is, but the truth is that Black Hawk Down is a gripping and realistic war movie that truly makes you feel like you are in it. The movie follows a group of American elite forces who are on a routine mission in Mogadishu, Somalia. But when two Black Hawk helicopters are shot down behind enemy lines, all hell breaks loose. The first half hour of the movie is basically the acting part, but from then on it's pure action. The movie manages to convey emotions even in the heart of non-stop action, and is truly an awesome war movie. The camera work is genius, and action fans as well as war movie fanatics will be tremendously pleased. Ridley Scott has just about cemented himself as one of the greatest directors of this time with this movie. A truly epic movie!
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