Brian Moran

Here we have another situation where pampered hack American actors portray warriors under the guise of teaching us, the poor obsequious American public, what is must be like to suffer through combat in the Middle East (and on the streets of Los Angeles). But the real foundation of this piece is that it is focused on acting class, a place where hack American actors live out their fantasies of what it's like to have a real life in the momentous real world, by observing it from across the street. Being able to bring tears to one's eyes seems to be the only criterion for evaluation in lives on the outside that are almost as good as being there. There's a lot of talk about truth, done while stewing inside in a class while characters living outside suffer irredeemable violence and gore for their own sake. A regular yuck fest of flailing corpses and exploding squibs. This is a slick effort designed to numb the masses to the reality of violence. The people responsible for this should be sent to Afghanistan to pick through the rubble for the bones of our dead.