Hyena Road

Note: I have seen this movie for "Xbox's Free Movie Weekend" that took place on the weekend of the August 5th. So I did not pay for this movie nor I did not pay to see this movie. The movie is "R" of course; there is gore, chopped off heads, body parts flying off, etc. It's your typical Army movie gore that makes you say, "Dammmmnnn." Hyena Road doesn't really have that many intense moments like with most Army related movies nowadays, you get a few, one or two major fights and that's about it. The acting is average, the plot was decent, the twist (can be expected) and the dialogue between characters could have been better. In some parts of the movie it was/it can be predictable, but I just wished it ended differently (but you can't change "inspired by true events" history). On the Xbox app (where I watched it), there aren't any subtitles for when the people are talking. This more or less takes you out of the movie moment and confuses you at times when these characters talk. Maybe there are subtitles on different movie outlets, but I didn't see any on the Xbox app. Hyena Road is nothing horrible, but it's an average war movie that you "don't need to see," but if you do see it don't expect too much.

The problem with Hyena Road is that it fails to engage on any level. Not with it's characters, not with it's plot, and not even with it's action. Nothing. The only thing it has going for it is it's attempts at authenticity to military procedure as well as presenting a morally gray depiction of the Afghanistan conflict. Of course none of that matters when the movie just isn't interesting. The drama falls flat thanks to it's inability to make you give a crap about what's going on. For the same reason, so does the message about the sacrifices troops make. Mix in the fact that the acting is flat and the action looks cheap (I get that they probably didn't have the biggest budget) and there's really no reason to check this out unless you're just a military buff that will get a kick out of people communicating over the radio in jumbled military code talk. I appreciate what the movie tries to do. I just wish it did it all better. To be honest if you want a really affecting war movie that carries similar, if not identical themes, then I recommend Lone Survivor. That movie won't bore you to tears. You'll also be able to avoid this movie's bits of awful dialog.