American Sniper

I was completely unfamiliar with the story of Chris Kyle, a man whose life is certainly worth bringing to the big screen. With Clint Eastwood's solid, action-heavy direction, the movie places you right in the center of Kyle's Navy SEAL team coming in to Iraq post-9/11. Kyle is the current holder of most kills for a US sniper, and with that title comes an enormous weight that you can tell the man couldn't shake off. Cooper, in what might be his finest role to date, cements himself as one of the top five best actors working today, and if he keeps making movies like this, maybe one of the GOATs. He transforms into this bulky, confident military man with a perfect southern accent and a sense of pride and honor while on tour, and detachment and mild sorrow when he's home with his family. Sienna Miller is fine in the role, she's just limited to when Cooper interacts with her, we don't get much backstory on her character, just that she does love and miss Chris to death. While the action is simultaneously gut-wrenching, well-directed and powerful, some scenes could've been cut for length. When it works though, boy this movie rolls and hits its targets like one of Kyle's bullets, especially some intense scenes of will he/won't he shoot. Cooper truly deserves his Oscar nomination, and "American Sniper," despite some flaws, deserves to be seen before Oscar night. Additionally, leave this one for your older teens. There's graphic war violence and appropriately filthy Navy SEAL language.