The Hurt Locker

Director Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq-set battlefield movie plunges you right there in Baghdad with an elite US army bomb disposal squad, thanks to its documentary-style filming.

Director Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq-set battlefield movie plunges you right there in Baghdad with an elite US army bomb disposal squad, thanks to its documentary-style filming. An on-fire Jeremy Renner scalds the screen as the team leader who perversely enjoys the feeling-alive buzz of putting himself and his pals in dire risk on a day-to-day basis. Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes and David Morse put in useful cameos and Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty are superb as the other squad members, but it's Renner's movie. His character's perverse delight in his dangerous job adds to the film's intensity. A triumph at the Oscars (particularly for Bigelow, who beat her ex-husband James Cameron to Best Director) and Baftas, where it won six awards at each, though Renner missed out both times.