American Sniper Blu-ray AVForums Review

Casimir Harlow

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My copy arrived on Sunday but I am not watching it till Thursday when I shall be on my own and can listen at near ref, I can hardly wait, as your review has left me in great anticipation of a truly great movie.

I always love Clint's work he seems to manage to get the best from actors and stories.
 
Bought this Bluray at the weekend, not watched it yet - haven't seen movie in cinema either - glad it gets a great review here. Looking forward to it!
I don't have any Dolby Atmos yet (either amp or speakers) but I did notice the Dolby Atmos logo in audio section on back of Bluray when buying and it was a nice sight!
 
I had no intention of buying this given some mixed responses from friends but given your superb review, I'm off to Amazon!!

One of the few reviewers I take any notice of so thanks for taking the time to give us such a well balanced and informative review.
 
Didn't feel that it was one of Clint's best. The movie seems somewhat lacking in areas, and without giving away any spoilers the final sequence really does play on gung-ho patriotism. Sienna Miller and Bradley Cooper were superb though.
Nowhere near as good as Million Dollar Baby, which for me is still his best to date.
As a side note I've just watched Chappie.....bloody brilliant!
 
I thought the trailer was much better then the film, I found that tense and thoughtful. But the film seemed a bit too much like manly men saying manly things. The quote "I can't believe this macho bullshit" kept popping into my head and I haven't seen Commando for years.
 
No way in hell this movie deserves an 8. More like a 4. Its one of Eastwood's worst and most ill-judged given the mess in Iraq now as a result. It is difficult to review American Sniper without reflecting on the context - the illegal invasion of Iraq and its aftermath, which is estimated to have killed up to a million people. The people of Iraq suffer to this day as a result of Kyle and his fellow countryman's actions, under direction of their masters. If one concludes it was illegal, as is generally accepted, then each killing by Kyle in Iraq was murder.

Kyle was held by God to be responsible, but the war mongers in Washington and London have (so far) escaped justice. Eastwood as director, tries to portray the child killing psychopath in a rose tinted way (compared to the book), as a man who did his duty - but his moral duty was not to take part in a war based on a pack of lies.

This was a man who viewed Iraqis, who were defending their lands against an illegal invasion, as savages. He killed men, women and children defending their land. The film and book assume all the targets were justified or were terrorists, but this is clearly not the case.
He once told a military investigator that he doesn’t “shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.” That's the kind of man he was. He was also a proven liar, (and was successfully sued to that effect by Jesse Ventura amongst others) - so how can we believe anything he said.

Multiple scenes in the movie portray Kyle as haunted by his service and actions. But that torment is completely absent from the book the film is based on. In the book, Kyle refers to everyone he fought as “savage, despicable” evil. He writes, “I only wish I had killed more.”

Take the politics out, and we have a pretty humdrum film, with poor pacing and an unlikeable main character with psychopathic tendencies. There are also entirely fictional sequences which have no basis in reality such as with the Syrian sniper. Kyle was no hero (more a legalised(?) mass murderer) and Eastwood was misguided to portray him as one. Basically the film is an overrated, jingoistic, deceitful mess, which did not deserve its Oscar nominations. Whiplash, Birdman and the other winners far exceeded the quality of American Sniper.
 
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.....and was successfully sued to that effect by Jesse Ventura......

...and you can strap that to your sore ass....

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I watched this film in old fashioned 7.2, don't know why, but found the surround effect was better than l have ever heard before, can't wait to get Dolby atmos.
 
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Can anyone confirm if the Region B version I can get from Amazon (unless somebody would like to recommend a more cost effective reseller) and defo has the Atmos sound track please?
 
Can anyone confirm if the Region B version I can get from Amazon (unless somebody would like to recommend a more cost effective reseller) and defo has the Atmos sound track please?
I purchased my region B version from Asda and can confirm that it has the Atmos soundtrack..hope this helps
 
Sainsburys £13 off the shelf
 
Hi - The review was very informative and inspires me to make a purchase. Just don't want to end up with no Atmos soundtrack when for when I go down that immersive route.

Keith - as always , a star!

Lol, why would you be worried about having no Atmos soundtrack if we reviewed the UK disc and said it had an Atmos soundtrack??!
 
Wasn't sure it was a UK platter. There is lots of talk on the forums elsewhere about Dolby Atmos disks, but Lucy has to bought from Hong Kong. I'd love to buy Unbroken if the UK version has Atmos.

Also some who bought Ex-machina were disappointed as this will have the first DTS X track, in the US at least.
 
Wasn't sure it was a UK platter. There is lots of talk on the forums elsewhere about Dolby Atmos disks, but Lucy has to bought from Hong Kong. I'd love to buy Unbroken if the UK version has Atmos.

Also some who bought Ex-machina were disappointed as this will have the first DTS X track, in the US at least.
I also have unbroken blu Ray UK edition..purchased from Tesco and it has a great sounding Dolby Atmos track
 
Me too purchased from Sainsburys with Atmos track, don't have an atomos amp though but the soundtrack on my 9.2 system still sounded brilliant.
 
I use a 5.1.2 with ceiling speakers doing the atmos duties and "Unbroken" sounds excellent
 
If you're looking for a film to show what Dolby Atmos can really do, this is the disc for you.

Well, I have to totally disagree with this statement! To say the use of the height channels in this release is minimalist is an understatement - a couple of bullets flying overhead and that's it. (I tested this by turning off all the main channels. There's also nothing wrong with my set-up. Others have commented similarly on AVSForum). There are load of scenes where the use of the height channels could have added significanlty to ambiance (e.g. helicopters flying overhead) but there's zip in the height channels. I realise that Atmos is more than just about added heght channels but these are can be a signifcant component. This disc is the worst in that respect of the current crop of Atmos releases!
 

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