Sam Mendes’ Jarhead – an adaptation of U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford’s First Gulf War memoir of the same name – is a great film, boasting a stellar cast led by Jake Gyllenhaal, and which chomps down on the meaty message of a generation of soldiers who were enticed into enlistment by the promise of hot-blooded battle, but then ended up fighting boredom and each other more than any enemy combatants due to the bureaucracy of war. Here’s the Wikipedia entry that can tell you all about the war-drama.
I link you to that Wiki because maybe you’ve also never seen or heard of Jarhead before, much like the makers of Jarhead 2: Field of Fire clearly haven’t. Whereas Jarhead was a slow-burn character study, this direct-to-DVD sequel appears to be a gung-ho, flag waving bout of explosive jingoism (set to a generic video game menu guitar riff). Exactly the type of thing that the whole message of Jarhead was speaking out against. Not even the presence of Stephen Lang appears to be able to save this fatigued turkey.
Scarred by the war, Corporal Chris Merrimette (Josh Kelly) is given command of a unit and assigned a mission to resupply a remote outpost. While on mission, the unit is flagged down by a Navy SEAL and enlisted to aid in his operation.
Jarhead 2: Field of Fire is directed by Don Michael Paul (Half Past Dead, Harley Davidson and the Malboro Man) and also stars Josh Kelly, Cole Hauser, Danielle Savre, Bokeem Woodbine, Ronny Jhutti, Cassie Layton, Jesse Garcia, Jason Wong and Esai Morales. It will be released on DVD and VOD on August 19, 2014.
Last Updated: August 6, 2014
James Francis
August 6, 2014 at 10:10
What the fuck?
WhiteRock
August 7, 2014 at 07:57
Cashing in on some Franchises yo – surprised they ain’t eating some KFC while kicking Taliban butt…
Hank Terrebrood
August 7, 2014 at 16:54
It would have been fine had the “Major” not been dubbed in with a line that does not happen in the movie. The Marines were supply troop and got tangled up in another mission. They were not out to extract a high value target.