Truly Dreadful Film

the audience applauded

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film is made in the style of a fictional documentary similar to Blair Witch but about a guy who wants to make a documentary by going to Afghanistan and searching for the truth about the war that has ensued since 9/11.The style is gritty as if they were using hand held cameras, following around the main character and his interpreter through out the land searching for answers. There is decent FX, the story is easy enough to follow but with major flaw. A documentary is about a subject and not about the documentary maker so that's where the film could lost me and weakened the premise of the film entirely. If the camera were to be the main character, I think the film would have been more palatable for myself.Even with this weakness the effort to try to make a film of this style is appreciated.

At first the film started off fine in the classic first person documentary position. However, the more I watched, the less documentary it seemed and the more staged it became. Some of the voice over commentary is dribble at best.As an active member in the armed forces and having good knowledge of the areas the film took place in, the more unbelievable the story line became. Lars taking all the liberties which he did in the film truly would have got him killed in a matter of days. Moreover, the fire fight scenes we completely staged and dramatized. But the movie is a drama so I guess that goal was accomplished.If the film was scaled back to Septem4er Tapes, I probably would have given it a higher rating. Once the point of beyond reason was reached, the film makers should have just wrapped it up. Seriously, an American with a camera going to interview the bounty hunters searching for Bin Laden and Bin Laden himself..... I am sure he would have granted the interview if he was indeed found. Come on. The plausibility of an outsider especially an American roaming freely to find Bin Laden is just too much.

Beforehand I read that it was shot on location as a documentary. Fooled me longer than 10 minutes because some TV stuff I've seen was indeed that inept, stupid, misled, ignorant, and full of beans, so I didn't figure this one was too far off the stuff that shows on 60 Minutes. Also, some TV journalists are as egotistical, uninformed, stupid, and ignorant as this movies' protagonist, so it wasn't a stretch to accept him as a real documentary maker. Also, the main character became so far from believable that he became a caricature of a "serious journalist," and needed to be laughed at. Whether this was intentional or not, it worked.Gets a 10 to counter all those bitter "ones", to counter the Michael Moore-is-wonderful-and - everything-else-is-garbage syndrome. Also, some, especially the earlier, of the firefight scenes were excellent.Definitely should be seen.

This movie wasn't what I thought it would be. I indeed thought it was a real documentary but realized about half-way through it was a complete bunch of crap. What I really found extremely irritating was the main character's blase attitude during the whole film. He's supposed to be in a country torn apart by years and years of war and filled with terrorists who would love to get their hands on an American yet his demeanor is as if he's in a shopping mall somewhere in suburban America. I mean give me a break. And the scene where he gets arrested, saying he can get more information if he is taken into custody. Ha Ha Ha . I actually laughed during this scene. (Was this really supposed to be a comedy?) There were too many scenes to state that looked absolutely absurd. On the cover of the DVD, it read "OUT-GUNS BLACK HAWK DOWN AND SAVING PRIVATE RYAN." WHAT???? The only movie this out-gunned was Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. I was totally disappointed though I did watch the whole thing. The character Walid's acting was the only thing that saved this DVD from going into the fireplace. I give it 4 out of 10 and again, only because of Walid's character.