Full Metal Jacket

Pros: some performances, artful tracking shots, apt music
Cons: English Vietnam, conventional, somewhat defanging source

I think that Stanley Kubrick's last move, "Eyes Wide Shut" (1999) , is hideously bad and that he is very overrated as a "genius" film director. I admire the movies he directed during the late-1950s and early-to-mid 1960s: "Paths of Glory," some of ...

Pros: strong first part, some terrific performances
Cons: setting didn't feel authentic

Full Metal Jacket is almost two movies in one. The first half deals with Marines going through boot camp at Parris Island during the height of the Viet Nam War. The second half takes place after they have been deployed in Viet Nam. ...

Pros: Good performances, stunning combat sequences
Cons: Uneven tone. Does it want to be satirical, or straightforward Vietnam War saga?

Even though Hollywood had made several movies that dealt in some fashion with the Vietnam War in the 1960s, 1970s and early '80s, it wasn't until Oliver Stone's Platoon became a critical and commercial success that other filmmakers dared to tackle ...

Pros: classic, definitive, iconic
Cons: uneven in tone and style

Art isn't just about the message. It's also about the medium, the specific portal through which that message is conveyed. Some media are better at expressing action, or color, or thought. Some media are more portable, while others are more visceral. ...

Pros: R. Lee Ermey
Cons: Pointless second half.

I guess I don't understand Stanley Kubrick. Although I liked "Spartacus", "Paths of Glory", "2001", and, to a lesser extent, "A Clockwork Orange", I cannot find the greatness my fellow Epinions reviewers find ...

Pros: Very realistic movie along with some awesome acting!
Cons: None

Full Metal Jacket is the most realistic movie ever made to date about (basic training) "Boot Camp".

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Directed By Stanley Kubrick
Matthew Modine as Pvt. Joker
R. Lee...

Pros: Kubrick's powerful visuals and sound; effective evocation of Marine Corps boot camp and Vietnam War
Cons: A lot of viewers find the second half unfocused; insufficiently sympathetic lead character

Sir, yes sir! Sir, it is my duty to report that Pvt. Metalluk is about to review Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Sir! By way of disclosure, dear readers, I should mention that I once served in the U.S. Marine Corps for six years, three on ...

Pros: Realistic, good pacing,
Cons: Not a feel good movie.

I asked an acquaintance (who served in Vietnam) what he though was the most realistic movie. He answered and said the first part of Full Metal Jacket. He wasn’t so won over by the second part of the film though. This is considered by some to be a ...

Pros: Best Boot Camp Scenes Ever
Cons: Combat Scenes Are Jumbled

The opening scene to this movie brought forward a tidal wave of memories for me. We see a group of teenage American men getting ready for boot camp by having their heads shaved with less care than a Sheep farmer takes while husking the herd. My...

Pros: Unforgettable scenes, brutally honest about war, strong acting
Cons: Second half drags somewhat, tenuous plot.

My time on Epinions is getting shorter, but Full Metal Jacket is one of those films of the 80's that I couldn't let go unreviewed. Aside from reviewing The Killing Fields, I've so far neglected to look at the 80's trend of war cinema that was about the ...

Pros: Acts 1 and 3. Performances.
Cons: Act 2 incites snores.

Nearly all Kubrick films are partial to the occasional tedium, but Full Metal Jacket is his only post-L olita picture where an entire act lacks allure. In the film's second phase, Private Joker ...

Pros: First rate first half. Ermey as Hartman.
Cons: Second half doesn't measure up all the way. Weak extras.

Stanley Kubrick had this habit of making movies in chunks. Movies that have two or more contrasting segments. "2001: A Space Odyssey" was like this, the lengthy (and confusing and, yeah, a little boring) opening sequence ...

Pros: some genuinely hilarious dialogue, great performances
Cons: second half fails to match the quality of the first

I can't decide which is a better description for Full Metal Jacket..."two movies in one" or "the first and last thirds of one movie". Simply put, the first portion of the movie is nothing like the second. Coming from Stanley Kubrick, an unusual ...

Pros: Ermey and Modine, Kubrick directs with flair, a stylish script
Cons: May be too impressionistic for some

"Full Metal Jacket" is two movies in one. Okay, some would argue that that the Tet Offensive and sniper scenes should each be given full billing. But I'm more concerned with the violent change in tone and agenda that takes place between the training...

Pros: Direction, Acting, The brilliant first half, War scenes
Cons: Doesn't all come together at times, some off pace scenes in the second half

Full Metal Jacket (1987) Matthew Modine as Pvt./Sgt. Joker Arliss Howard as Pvt./Lt. Cowboy Adam Baldwin as Animal Mother R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman Vincent D'Onofrio as Pvt. Leonard 'Pyle' Lawrence Dorian Harewood as Eightball There ...