4 amaras. Kathryn Bigelow is up as both best director and best picture contender for “The Hurt Locker” against her ex James Cameron for “Avatar”. Two completely different types of film, both brilliant in their own ways. For me, Bigelow’s film making ability in this movie, however, outdoes all the pizzaz and drama of “Avatar”. “The Hurt Locker” is sensitive, brilliantly acted (best actor nominee Jeremy Renner) and most importantly, so very real. You don’t feel like you are, for a moment, watching actors in a movie. It’s almost documentary-like in its delivery of the story of an American bomb squad in Iraq.  It’s adapted from some of the personal wartime experiences of journalist Mark Boal.  Bigelow’s brilliance also comes out in the fact that there is not one wasted moment, or ‘extra calorie’ in the shooting of this film. Highly recommended.