User Reviews

Lets hope no war veterans or soldiers see this movie. First of all, i cannot understand why anyone, like a SNIPER, would carry binoculars they KNOW "fogs up" now and then. Just because good memories of his DEAD partner? And how anyone can spot anything if they just zoom across the horizon so fast that the image gets blurry, is beyond me. Now these 2 "soldiers" look so gritty and dirty and experienced, that it is shocking to see their panic and feeble fumbling when something actually happens. The amount of dust and dirt on their clothes, weapons and faces is just incredible.

A pipeline is being built. All (some?) of the construction workers has been shot, along with their body guards ? 2 soldiers (our heros) are hiding in some bushes, looking at the bodies. WHY ARE THEY THERE ? Are they part of the "protection" for the construction workers ? Are they sent to investigate ? Did they just stumble over the scene by accident ? Do they have ANY orders ? They have been there for 20 hours, where is their relief ? Why is there not anyone coming in armored trucks to clear out the area and get the pipeline built ? Why do they not contact headquarters and ASK what to do ? Maybe they could get a drone in to spot for them ?

So: WITHOUT CALLING HQ ON THE RADIO, the big soldier gets fed up with sniping, walks in to the open and gets shot. The little one then starts breathing heavily, and fumbles around with his equipment like a total noob, before he does the same. Does NOT call for help while hiding in the bushes, oh no, that would be too easy. The little one manages to get in cover, (whatever cover may be, when you have no clue where your enemy is), behind this "wall", a pile of bricks and rock that would provide very little protection in reality.

Of course their mysterious enemy has shot his water bottle and radio, while he was running around in circles in the open, so he has no water, and no means of calling for help. Luckily, he does not need the radio, because by a MIRACLE: the rescue team calls him up on the intercom (short distance radio) and little soldier has no suspicion and proceeds to tell how his situation is, he is wounded and his buddy is shot and probably dead, all while breathing heavy, rolling in the dust, crying, and screaming Feck Feck Feck constantly. At this time i was hoping he would get shot more, because then maybe he would die faster.

Then he frantically hammers a hole in the wall to peek out, and nearly demolishes his shooting finger when the wall collapses. Of course there is no rescue team, only the psycho (with a radio) who shot the water bottle and knocked the antenna off the radio, ON THE MOVE, FROM 8-900 yards away.

Psycho is sitting in a pile of dung and waste, and has probably no hurry getting back to his hut for dinner, even though he must have been there for days.

Now he want to scare the little soldier. But hey, little soldier manages, with his little retar*d brain to figure out where Psycho is, because of the background noise on the radio, from metal sheets banging against each other.

If I had to sit and snipe in a waste pile for days, i would certainly put a stop to any banging metal sheets in my environment. That would just drive me crazy.

I had to stop watching the film, it was just too stupid.

'The Wall', in simple terms, is a nail biter. A three man film, two Americans snipers and the disembodied voice of an Iraqi 'juba' or marksman. Director Doug Liman has a steady hand in overseeing the camera in close ups, long shots, and using the windy, an arid stretch of Iraq desert. Dwain Worell has cleverly written a script that conveys a situation that conveys tight wound up spring of anxiety and tension on a battle field. A wonderful Aaron-Johnson is Isaac, who has signed up for yet another tour in Iraq, to expiate his guilt for a fallen comrade that his bullet killed; John Cena, Shane offers a moment of humor in a serious shootout with a wily sniper who has already killed a team of workers laying pipe to convey Iraq's oil for export. And then there is the Iraqi who unseen, in a game of killing the snipers. Shane is quickly put out of action early on. And here the drama builds up as Isaac wounded, behind a crumbling wall, with a thirst and hunger, hit in the knee he cannot staunch loss of blood. 'The Wall's' psychological development take the high ground as the Iraqi psyches Isaac out. He's well educated and taunts a poorly educated Isaac, to the point of reciting Edgar Allan Poe, a macabre detail. Isaac manages to contact headquarters for medical evacuation, only to discover the Iraqi knows his name and has been in radio contact with it, to his bitter frustration. Meanwhile as the conversation between the two continue, Isaac finally locates where the Iraqi is hidden. He pushes the shaky wall until it collapse, then shots, as two Medevac helicopters come to rescue him and recover Shane's body. And as they lift off the ground, shots ring out, causing the machines and crew and Isaac to crash and be killed. And the sniper lives to kill another day. The Iraqi, a school teacher whose school was destroyed when the Americans invaded Iraq. The killing of innocent lives has pushed this educator to take to the Iraqi underground resistance to the invader (and yet we cannot be sure his doing this out of attachment to Islam). And the eternal quest he asks Isaac why he was in Iraq and why he has returned? He even tells him that the war is over, a rather paramount judgment. Over all, 'The Wall' may be seen as a testament to an invasion that has gone wrong, and an even handed understanding of why the Iraqis opposed the American invasion.

I saw "The Wall", starring Aaron Taylor_Johnson- The Kick_Ass movies, Shanghai Knights; John Cena-Daddy's Home, Trainwreck and the voice of Laith Nakli-24:Legacy_tv, The Blacklist_tv.

This is a psychological cat and mouse game that takes place at the end of the Iraq war. The war is officially over but someone did not get the memo. Two American soldiers, John-a sniper-and Aaron-his spotter-are sent to investigate an ambush at a secluded oil pipeline. When they arrive, they find dead bodies but no signs of any attackers. That is when they start getting shot at. John is hit and falls where he stood but Aaron gets it in the leg as he makes it to a minimum amount of cover behind a crumbling wall. John doesn't move so Aaron doesn't know if he is alive or dead-or maybe just trying to stay still so he doesn't get shot again. Aaron then hears a voice over his radio, telling him that help is on the way. But he soon learns that that is not the case, and he is actually talking to the Iraqi sniper, Laith. It seems that Laith has been luring soldiers into ambushes and then picking them off. Aaron and Laith have lengthy discussions over the radio about various things-war, personal things, etc.-and then there is the dilemma of how things will end; will real help arrive in time to help or will they be ambushed, too? It's rated "R" for language and war violence and has a running time of 1 hour & 25 minutes. It was interesting but I don't think I would buy it on DVD-one viewing was enough-but it would be a good rental.

What I loved about this movie is that it gives you a perspective of what an enemy thinks of a soldier who is in the enemies country. The Iraqi sniper has two advantages...he speaks english and knows Army "lingo". It doesn't take long for the American to figure out that the person he is speaking to by radio is his enemy. He is being taunted by this Iraqi who has the advantage of being hidden from sight and can see the two Americans. Aaron Taylor-Johnson gives a brilliant portrayal of a desperate, badly injured soldier who is desperate to find the location of the Iraqi sniper. This is really a one man movie which I stumbled upon and can't understand why I had never heard of it before. I love movies that are psychological thrillers and "The Wall" certainly falls into that category. I don't have any military experience so I wasn't focusing on what equipment these guys were using which some other reviewers who most likely have experience in combat, were commenting on what a soldier would be carrying aka binoculars. It's unfortunate that they are missing the point of this movie which to me is the Iraqi is not buying into the American reasons for being in his country. The Iraqi is questioning the insanity of blowing up a school in his country and then thinking that by sending teams to reconstruct infrastructure that Americans themselves previously destroyed was somehow going to make up for all the death and destruction.

So... This could have been a great movie. Had all the elements for it, could have been a Phonebooth in a war setting. Unfortunately it's just not a good movie. There's no character development and the lead actor (Isaac) is trying his hardest to portray a totally incompetent soldier. As you'll learn in the beginning, they are supposed to be an ODA-element. There's just no way ODA guys would get into a situation like this (trapped by a single Iraqi sniper), and if they did they wouldn't whine about it like Isaac. I mean, the whole movie Isaac is freaking out and making bad decisions. How would this guy ever get into an ODA-element? And then the ending... the single Iraqi sniper takes out two helo's? Right right, sure. You would almost think the director tried to make an Isis promo video. It's far from a good or even a realistic movie. Can't recommend it at all.

This movie really did have the potential to be great. The story was right, the tension needed just a hair more and it would have been on the money. I wish we could have dropped the bad accents from all parties if I'm being frank about it. but the worst was the TERRIBLE moments portrayed by the Sniper team. If you know anything about the military EVERYTHING this team did was so wrong and obviously stupid it makes my damn head hurt. I didn't really get an anti-American feel from the movie, but I did get a hint of sentimentality for middle-eastern insurgents that take up arms against the U.S. Military. Again I say this movie had potential, but the ending was DUMB as hell, the actions taken by the "U.S. Team" were so blatantly wrong, it was hard to watch.