Jarhead 2

The film starts with an American base under attack. They've positioned their base just below the hilltop....so when the Taliban attacks they simply shoot down into the base.

I have no military experience whatsoever but even I know that their base is badly situated. Found it difficult to take the rest of the film seriously.

Marine Corporal Chris Merrimette reluctantly takes a promotion from Major James Gavins (Stephen Lang) as the new leader of his supply squad after his sergeant gets killed by the Taliban. He is eager to return to his wife. His unit consists of Corporal Danny Kettner (Bokeem Woodbine), Lance Corporal Dani Allen, Private Rafael Soto, and Private Justin Li. Afghan Army Private Khalid Hassan Abu Faisal joins them on a resupply mission to a dangerous outpost. They are retasked when they pick up a SEAL team trying to evacuate an anti-Taliban activist.

The interesting thing about the first Jarhead is that the guy struggled with a war which doesn't need him. This is almost an opposite premise. Chris can't wait to get out of the war that desperately needs him. I'm fine with a completely new premise for a completely new war. There is plenty of gunfire action which is more than what I expect from a TV movie. The realism is debatable and that's no small thing. I really question Kettner pulling Faisal off the garbage pile. It would be more real to run away and let the new Arab take the bomb blast if that's what he wants. That conflict between realistic and unrealistic never goes away. I'm sure others have different ideas. The kill ratio seems high. Several times, the guys wipe out the entire opposition. The final rescue mission seems unrealistic. I don't know why they didn't at least try the Taliban's trucks. The realism questioning goes on and on. It's not Rambo but it's not that far from it. Some of the masked Taliban fighters look white. At least, the setting looks good.

When I first saw that there was going to be a sequel to Jarhead I already felt disappointed, I was a huge fan of the first movie and did not feel it ever needed a sequel. Hearing that it was action in this movie made me even worse as one of the main themes of the first Jarhead was the lack of action.

However I must say after watching this I would say I was pleasantly surprised and do not feel it soiled the Jarhead name like one of those sequels that makes fans pretend it never happened. It started off slow and uninteresting. I thought the main character himself was quite underdeveloped but once this movie gets going you do start to care for these characters. I think the main character could have been a lot more human than just being a marine as I couldn't relate to him. Warning lots of Hu-Rah's and Hell Yea's.

The script itself could have done with a little more polishing with some scenes feeling they could have had more of an impact but there is some intense scenes in this movie which is what I like in an action movie. There was one or two cliché moments but aside from that this was a pretty strong movie. It carried some important messages about how bad situations build great bonds. It also has the sort of Saving Private Ryan "How can one person be so important" cliché. It still pulls it off though.

So go into this with an open mind unlike me. Go in and just have a good time with this.

I personally don't mind if more Jarhead movies come out now as long as they all carry different messages and they are made to be stand alone movies.

I enjoyed the first 'Jarhead' film and was curious as to what any 'sequel' would be like. However, at least I kept my expectations low as I knew this was not produced by the same cast or crew as the first, plus part II was released straight-to-DVD, so, how good could it be? The answer... quite good actually, but only as a generic war film, rather than a sequel.

Okay, so occasionally the film mimics the original in style (think captions, mainly near the beginning) and it uses the term 'jarhead' a couple of times, but that's about it. In fact... I'm running out of other things that link the two films.

So, the best thing to do is basically just ignore everything you know about the first movie and go with what's on offer. And, what's on offer is a war movie set in modern Afghanistan. A small team of marines (or 'jarheads' to be precise) are on a routine mission, only to find themselves forced to protect an important female local as she travels across arguably one of the most dangerous regions in the world.

Bottom line: if you like war films, you'll probably enjoy this. It's actually got a half reasonable budget and doesn't feel too much like a straight-to-DVD movie.

So first off, this isn't really a sequel. It shares some themes with jarhead and its about Marines, but the storyline is completely unrelated and has a lot more action.

This is a relatively low budget attempt at a great war action/drama and although the writing lacks a lot of polish, the combat scenes are okay, the camera work is okay and the actors all seem to be doing their best with the clunky dialogue. The storyline itself isn't very original but again, its okay.

The film follows a Corporal who is considering leaving the Marines and explores ptsd, survivors guilt, etc. basically war is hell but it forms great bonds. Again, this isn't done exceptionally well but it does keep the movie from becoming a brainless action movie and brings a sense of drama to the film.

As a sequel to Jarhead this movie fails, but as a standalone action/drama flick it's actually fairly enjoyable.