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So as you know, I stopped writing lengthy reviews on this site this year, keeping the blog as more of a film diary of sorts.  Lo and behold,...

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Movie Review - 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)
Starring James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, and a bunch of other people who just blend together
Directed by Michael Bay
***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

If I'm being honest with myself, I forgot I watched this movie.  It's not that 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is bad...it's just that it's generic.  The true story of how a group of soldiers and American government workers attempted to fend off terrorist attacks on an American diplomatic compound in Libya, 13 Hours has all the classic tropes of a war movie and its by-the-book structure becomes laughable at times.

Director Michael Bay deftly walks the line in terms of the controversy surrounding this event, and although he doesn't flat out blame the Obama administration for the deaths that occurred as the situation unfolded, he does infer that the US government was largely to blame for not getting the chaos resolved quicker.  Rarely does any type of criticism of the Left make it to the big screen so at least that's a bit of a breath of fresh air.  Unfortunately, everything else about the film feels stale.

The action sequences are well filmed and exciting, but the character development and quieter moments prove to be lacking.  Beyond James Badge Dale and John Krasinski, every other member of the cast just blends together into this melange of similar-looking soldiers or government workers and attempts at trying to give any of them a backstory -- this one has a kid at home, this one has a kid on the way -- feel cheap and manipulative.  You could certainly do worse than 13 Hours, but I can't tell you that you should rush to see it either.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

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