13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi - directed by Michael Bay
Starring: John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, Toby Stephens, Pablo Schreiber, David Denman, Dominic Fumusa, Max Martini, Alexia Barlier, David Costabile, Freddie Stroma, Andrei Claude, David Guintoli, Matt Letscher
Screenplay: Chuck Hogan
Music Score by: Lorne Balfe
Cinematography: Dion Beebe
Edited by: Pietro Scalia and Calvin Wimmer
Running Time: 144 minutes
Rated: R16 - brutal war violence and frequent profanity
Way back in 1995 I went to America for the first time and part of the trip was LA and time at Disneyland and Universal Studios.
Loved 'em both - specially Universal Studios.
Two years later I went to Surfers Paradise and part of that was trips to Dreamworld and Movie World.
I liked them but how on earth could they compete with those bigger American parks that had clearly inspired them?
Which brings me to "13 Hours" and "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Black Hawk Down".
Yep - I liked this movie quite a bit but I would probably have liked it more if I had not seen Kathryn Bigelow and Ridley Scott's master works beforehand.
It is very clear from the very first frame that Michael Bay's latest flick really, really wants to be like those two films and to be fair - it doesn't do a half bad job.
It just takes a little bit of time to warm up.
It is 45 minutes into the two and a half hour running time that things start to heat up action wise.
Up until then we have seen Jack Da Silva (John Krasinski buffed up the yazoo) arrive in Libya's second largest city to be escorted to a 'secret' CIA base named the Annex where he will offer protection to the American staff there.
His escort is close friend Tyrone 'Rone' Woods (James Badge Dale) and the men will spend the next five weeks escorting staff to meetings with various contacts.
Otherwise it is phone and skype calls to their families, reading, videogames and trying to stay cool in the sweltering heat.
That is until the nearby US Embassy is attacked on the evening of September 11th, 2012.
Islamic militants swarmed onto the grounds and killed ambassador J Christopher Stevens and U.S Foreign Service man Sean Smith.
When the call for help goes out the only people close who can assist are Tyrone, Jack and four additional private military contractors - Oz, Tig, Tonto and Boon.
Against the wishes of the CIA Station Chief the men arm up and head off .
The scenes prior to this consist of pure set up.
We are introduced to the country and the state of chaos that it is in.
These are the months after Gaddafi was killed and competing militia rushed to take up the arms left over from the regime.
"Zero Dark Thirty" style aerial views with text inform us that there are 294 US Embassies on foreign soil and 12 are considered extremely dangerous - 2 of which are in Libya.
An early encounter in a blocked street sees Jack and Tyrone confronted by armed militia.
The scene doesn't generate nearly as much tension as it is designed to and was early cause for concern for me.
It was with much relief then that I found myself considerably more drawn in when the guts (no pun intended) of the film arrived.
The initial action at the Embassy is in fact relatively subdued.
When the team and the survivors make it back to the Annex the real trouble begins.
Hordes of militants converge on the compound and this is when Bay begins to shine.
I am not a huge fan of the man's work generally and have only really liked "Bad Boys 2", "Pain and Gain" and "Transformers 3".
It's his one tone style and over-editing that I don't care for.
And the fact that all but one of the Transformers movies are so dumb it beggars belief.
"13 Hours" further convinces me that the Bay movies that I will like are the ones that are his least financially successful.
Costing $50,000,000 "13 Hours" has so far managed $56,000,000 worldwide.
This is a shame because it is worth ten of "Transformers 4".
Bay tones down his slow motion, billowing flag, figures against sunsets schtick and delivers a very solid action movie mostly grounded in reality.
I should note that there are two scenes starring the American flag but by Bay standards they are very subdued.
Not to say that this film is without faults.
The cliches come thick and fast.
It didn't bother me too much and it is hard I'm sure to do this sort of film without at least skirting close to about a dozen war movie tropes but still - they are jarring on occasion.
It's the little speeches about how the calm moments are the worst or the monologues about past conflicts.
A little of this is fine but there is a bit too much of it.
The running time could also have been pared down by twenty to thirty minutes quite easily and to the film's benefit.
The idea seems to be that if we spend more time with the core cast before the action starts we will identify with them more when they are in grave danger.
There is some merit in this as the cast are all very, very good and I liked all of the main characters.
Krasinski is hard not to like generally and so it is in this film.
James Badge Dale and Max Martini are the true standouts though.
Martini has done fantastic work in the likes of "Saving Private Ryan", "Pacific Rim" and "Contact" - one of my all time favourite movies.
It is Badge Dale who is the heart of the film however.
Tyrone is the clear leader and the actor imbues the character with great strength and command.
I was also impressed with French actress Alexis Barlier who has considerable chemistry with Martini.
I'm genuinely bothered by how poorly this film is performing even though I expected it.
It seems that the movie going public at large just won't accept Michael Bay movies unless there are giant robots featured heavily.
His direction is far, far better in this film than it has been in some time.
The script by Chuck Hogan who also wrote the novel that Ben Affleck's "The Town" was based on only overdoes the 'war is hell but at least I have good men at my side' stuff occasionally.
The aforementioned cliches notwithstanding it is pretty good. The pacing is mostly fine and nothing is confusing.
And clearly Pietro Scalia's editing is a huge boon.
He won Oscars for "Black Hawk Down" and "JFK" - no doubt the former was a big reason for his recruitment here.
The movie looks good for the most part but Dion Beebe's cinematography is a little too colourful for much of the film.
Bright colours worked for him on Michael Mann's "Miami Vice" and "Collateral" but the sort of look that he gave "Edge of Tomorrow" would have been the better choice for this film. I doubt that this was his choice to make of course.
All in all this is a very good movie.
It seems close enough to the real events to qualify as a fitting tribute as far as I can tell and certainly functions well as an often tense, action packed crowd pleaser.
Some of the violence is very brutal but infrequent enough that the impact is greater when it is there.
Again- Bay can make good movies when he steers clear of robots it seems.
I've complained about the length of the film but that isn't to say that I was bored - I most certainly wasn't.
This movie held my attention for all of its nearly two and half hours and that is a sign that something is working (more likely many things)
It doesn't hold a candle to "Zero Dark Thirty", "Black Hawk Down", "The Hurt Locker" or "American Sniper" but it is a decent imitation.
Actually- that is a little unkind - this movie has enough merit in its own right and deserves to find an audience.
* Interesting note.... Denham and Krasinski starred together in the US version of "The Office" as Pam's current and former boyfriends
RATING: 76/ 100
CONCLUSION: Overlong and riddled with cliches as it is this is still an enjoyable, well made film. The cast are all damned good and the action is well shot, nicely edited and suitably brutal when it needs to be.
Screenplay: Chuck Hogan
Music Score by: Lorne Balfe
Cinematography: Dion Beebe
Edited by: Pietro Scalia and Calvin Wimmer
Running Time: 144 minutes
Rated: R16 - brutal war violence and frequent profanity
Way back in 1995 I went to America for the first time and part of the trip was LA and time at Disneyland and Universal Studios.
Loved 'em both - specially Universal Studios.
Two years later I went to Surfers Paradise and part of that was trips to Dreamworld and Movie World.
I liked them but how on earth could they compete with those bigger American parks that had clearly inspired them?
Which brings me to "13 Hours" and "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Black Hawk Down".
Yep - I liked this movie quite a bit but I would probably have liked it more if I had not seen Kathryn Bigelow and Ridley Scott's master works beforehand.
It is very clear from the very first frame that Michael Bay's latest flick really, really wants to be like those two films and to be fair - it doesn't do a half bad job.
It just takes a little bit of time to warm up.
It is 45 minutes into the two and a half hour running time that things start to heat up action wise.
Up until then we have seen Jack Da Silva (John Krasinski buffed up the yazoo) arrive in Libya's second largest city to be escorted to a 'secret' CIA base named the Annex where he will offer protection to the American staff there.
His escort is close friend Tyrone 'Rone' Woods (James Badge Dale) and the men will spend the next five weeks escorting staff to meetings with various contacts.
Otherwise it is phone and skype calls to their families, reading, videogames and trying to stay cool in the sweltering heat.
That is until the nearby US Embassy is attacked on the evening of September 11th, 2012.
Islamic militants swarmed onto the grounds and killed ambassador J Christopher Stevens and U.S Foreign Service man Sean Smith.
When the call for help goes out the only people close who can assist are Tyrone, Jack and four additional private military contractors - Oz, Tig, Tonto and Boon.
Against the wishes of the CIA Station Chief the men arm up and head off .
 |
| Dominic Fumusa, John Krasinski and David Denman * |
We are introduced to the country and the state of chaos that it is in.
These are the months after Gaddafi was killed and competing militia rushed to take up the arms left over from the regime.
"Zero Dark Thirty" style aerial views with text inform us that there are 294 US Embassies on foreign soil and 12 are considered extremely dangerous - 2 of which are in Libya.
An early encounter in a blocked street sees Jack and Tyrone confronted by armed militia.
The scene doesn't generate nearly as much tension as it is designed to and was early cause for concern for me.
It was with much relief then that I found myself considerably more drawn in when the guts (no pun intended) of the film arrived.
The initial action at the Embassy is in fact relatively subdued.
When the team and the survivors make it back to the Annex the real trouble begins.
Hordes of militants converge on the compound and this is when Bay begins to shine.
I am not a huge fan of the man's work generally and have only really liked "Bad Boys 2", "Pain and Gain" and "Transformers 3".
It's his one tone style and over-editing that I don't care for.
And the fact that all but one of the Transformers movies are so dumb it beggars belief.
"13 Hours" further convinces me that the Bay movies that I will like are the ones that are his least financially successful.
Costing $50,000,000 "13 Hours" has so far managed $56,000,000 worldwide.
This is a shame because it is worth ten of "Transformers 4".
Bay tones down his slow motion, billowing flag, figures against sunsets schtick and delivers a very solid action movie mostly grounded in reality.
I should note that there are two scenes starring the American flag but by Bay standards they are very subdued.
 |
| James Badge Dale - takes the acting honours |
The cliches come thick and fast.
It didn't bother me too much and it is hard I'm sure to do this sort of film without at least skirting close to about a dozen war movie tropes but still - they are jarring on occasion.
It's the little speeches about how the calm moments are the worst or the monologues about past conflicts.
A little of this is fine but there is a bit too much of it.
The running time could also have been pared down by twenty to thirty minutes quite easily and to the film's benefit.
The idea seems to be that if we spend more time with the core cast before the action starts we will identify with them more when they are in grave danger.
There is some merit in this as the cast are all very, very good and I liked all of the main characters.
Krasinski is hard not to like generally and so it is in this film.
James Badge Dale and Max Martini are the true standouts though.
Martini has done fantastic work in the likes of "Saving Private Ryan", "Pacific Rim" and "Contact" - one of my all time favourite movies.
It is Badge Dale who is the heart of the film however.
Tyrone is the clear leader and the actor imbues the character with great strength and command.
I was also impressed with French actress Alexis Barlier who has considerable chemistry with Martini.
I'm genuinely bothered by how poorly this film is performing even though I expected it.
It seems that the movie going public at large just won't accept Michael Bay movies unless there are giant robots featured heavily.
His direction is far, far better in this film than it has been in some time.
The script by Chuck Hogan who also wrote the novel that Ben Affleck's "The Town" was based on only overdoes the 'war is hell but at least I have good men at my side' stuff occasionally.
The aforementioned cliches notwithstanding it is pretty good. The pacing is mostly fine and nothing is confusing.
And clearly Pietro Scalia's editing is a huge boon.
He won Oscars for "Black Hawk Down" and "JFK" - no doubt the former was a big reason for his recruitment here.
The movie looks good for the most part but Dion Beebe's cinematography is a little too colourful for much of the film.
Bright colours worked for him on Michael Mann's "Miami Vice" and "Collateral" but the sort of look that he gave "Edge of Tomorrow" would have been the better choice for this film. I doubt that this was his choice to make of course.
 |
| The great Max Martini as Mark "Oz" Geist |
It seems close enough to the real events to qualify as a fitting tribute as far as I can tell and certainly functions well as an often tense, action packed crowd pleaser.
Some of the violence is very brutal but infrequent enough that the impact is greater when it is there.
Again- Bay can make good movies when he steers clear of robots it seems.
I've complained about the length of the film but that isn't to say that I was bored - I most certainly wasn't.
This movie held my attention for all of its nearly two and half hours and that is a sign that something is working (more likely many things)
It doesn't hold a candle to "Zero Dark Thirty", "Black Hawk Down", "The Hurt Locker" or "American Sniper" but it is a decent imitation.
Actually- that is a little unkind - this movie has enough merit in its own right and deserves to find an audience.
* Interesting note.... Denham and Krasinski starred together in the US version of "The Office" as Pam's current and former boyfriends
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