I Want to Be a Soldier (2010)

I Want to Be a Soldier (2010). 1h 40m

“u0026quot;I want to be a soldieru0026quot; is a wonderful movie for all the wrong reasons. The general plot follows the vicissitudes of Alex; he is a child who wanted to be an astronaut and had an astronaut imaginary friend, up until his parents bought him his own TV. Since the TV shows lots of violent acts like shootings, murders and war movies, Alex is now a violent 10-year-old who wants to be a soldier (and has a US officer as his new imaginary friend).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe direction is quite poor in and of itself. A good portion of the movie consists of the main character monologuing about being a soldier so he can kill people, torture prisoners, make Nazi-like experiments on his victims, become a dictator and so on, while a collage of violent stock footage runs on the screen. This happens quite often, too, and I think makes at least 25-30% of the whole movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe characters are about as stereotyped as possible, what with Alex hanging around with the geeky kid when heu0026#39;s u0026quot;goodu0026quot; and then with some bullies who smoke and have knifes after he switches over to the u0026quot;badu0026quot; side. Alexu0026#39;s family is about as cliché as possible, with the mother being obsessed with the newborn twins, the father having an affair and both dismissing their kidu0026#39;s behavior as u0026quot;a phaseu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe u0026quot;imaginary friendu0026quot; concept is sort of nice and adds an interesting layer to the movie as both friends (astronaut and officer) are played by the same actor, and they switch roles depending on the phase Alex is currently in. Itu0026#39;s not enough to save the movie from its silliness, though.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;I want to be a soldieru0026quot; is quite enjoyable to watch for its u0026quot;so bad itu0026#39;s goodu0026quot; wackiness and its unending stream of dumb plot devices that ultimately end up in Danny Glover stating how u0026quot;TV is evilu0026quot;. However, itu0026#39;s far from a good movie if taken seriously. I can only suggest you rent this film if youu0026#39;re smashed and/or in for a laugh with some friends.”