Jarhead 4: Law of Return (2019)

Plot of Jarhead: Law of Return. A Israeli air force pilot who is the son of a US senator, is shot down over Syria and captured by Hezbollah fighters, who torture him to find out who is father is. Meanwhile a group of American special forces guys enhanced by some Israeli commandoes and a Mossad woman are tasked with getting him back. They are aware that he will be executed after 36 hours. The rescuers go into Syria and attack the installation where they think Ronan, the pilot, is held, but do not find him. However, they are in touch with a command centre who tell them that a convoy in which he is being held is leaving the place where he had been held and going to the city, which it seems, he will be executed. The rescuers, in their three attack vehicles, take on the enemy.

Content: Just a bit of sex and nudity between the pilot and his wife – gratuitous really. No drinking, drugs or smoking but the IMDb parents guide identified the complete range of swear words. In the opening scene we see the guys in a shoot out, and thereafter there are a number of  gun battles, including some sniper attacks with blood spurting as people are hit. Communications between the command centre and the guys in the ground and one drone attack on the rebel convoy. Quite a bit of unpleasant torture of the pilot.

A View: The original Jarhead was a great film, where the protagonists are in the desert being trained for their task but never actually do anything meaningful. Which was the point. As a result the title has been hijacked for a number of films which are little more than shootouts between middle eastern insurgents and the brave American military. This outing seems to have had some money spent on it and some of the scenes were well shot, but there are only so many AK-47 wielding terrorists being shot we can stand, and the number was exceeded here.

Fun Fact: ‘Law of Return’ is Israel’s rule that any Jew anywhere can be granted Israeli citizenship.