Starring: James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini
Writer: Chuck Hogan
Director: Michael Bay
Transformers and Bad Boys director Michael Bay steers away from his usual blockbuster fare to give us the very serious true story of the 2012 storming of a US diplomatic outpost in Libya which then led to a subsequent prolonged and bloody attack on a nearby CIA intelligence station. Tasked with keeping the enemies at bay is GRS - a group of six elite ex-military security contractors led by Tyrone "Rone" Woods (Dale), whose men are generally referred to by nicknames such as Oz and Tig. In fact the only contractor without a nickname is Krasinski's Jack Silva, a recent addition to the group who has returned to the field, somewhat reluctantly, in order to earn the money which will ease his family's financial worries back home.
I'm not going to argue that the name of Michael Bay brings a lot of baggage when approaching any movie with his name on it but, fair play to the bloke, at least he's attempted to make something with more dramatic weight and serious intent than would normally be expected. It isn't totally successful, but it isn't the second Transformers movie either (which was robots thumping each other for the last hour and a bit - MAKE IT STOP!).
First and foremost, Bay gets some impressive work out of his cast, with all of the actors playing the contractors giving convincing portrayals of ordinary guys doing an anything-but-ordinary job. One moment they're talking about FaceTime with their families thousands of miles away, then next they're on security detail with the new American ambassador, wondering if someone in the crowd has a suicide vest on.
It's the mundane mixed with the terrifying, especially in the early stages, that works well and allows us to spend some time with the main characters, even if their arcs are no more complex than mentioning how much they miss home or making sure they have a photo of their recently-born son with them. It's possible to disagree with why those guys are there but they're still likeable.
It's when the shit really hits the fan that certain elements of the movie miss the mark. The confusion as to exactly who is on their side, with Benghazi's many factions constantly criss-crossing the city, is sporadically well-handled but there were many times - especially in the middle section - where I was at a complete loss as to who was shooting at who and which side had the upper hand. At one point I had absolutely no idea if the GRS guys were even on-screen.
Not knowing who's who aside, the chaos of the firefights in the city streets is well-filmed in a digital blur and the temptation to fill the screen with huge explosions is reigned in. It's a pity then that Bay punctures the realism by throwing in the odd beautifully framed slow-mo sequence of an antagonist being raked with gunfire or a perfectly backlit shot of four GRS guys silhouetted attractively against a road they're jogging along. The cinematic touches might look good but they're completely out of place in this kind of movie.
The movie's clearly on the side of the ex-military guys and whilst I have no specific issue with that the intelligence personnel are generally portrayed as pen pushing college types with no real life experience who spend most of the running time unaware of exactly how much danger they're in, which gives Rone and his guys plenty of work saving them. Are intelligence types so lacking in intelligence?
So is 13 Hours worth a watch? Just about, mostly for James Badge Dale and John Krasinski, the latter proving especially excellent in a role that's far removed from The Office. Otherwise it's slightly overlong, sometimes confusing and, unfortunately, fails to have the impact it should save for a couple of tense sequences. Doesn't mean that Michael Bay should give up on the serious stuff and go back to Transformers though.
No comments:
Post a Comment