[a fool in paradise]

Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon
By most standards of conventional film narrative, this movie is a mess. [25 June, 1987, p.22(E)]

[a fool in paradise]

Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The footage on the Paris Island obstacle course is powerful. But Full Metal Jacket is uncertain where to go, and the movie’s climax, which Kubrick obviously intends to be a mighty moral revelation, seems phoned in from earlier war pictures.

[Rummyfan]

By most standards of conventional film narrative, this movie is a mess.

With 2001 Kubrick moved beyond conventional narrative. The Shining and later flicks were throwbacks.