#watched "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi"
If anyone had mentioned that 13 HOURS was directed by (the late) Tony Scott, I would have believed you. Besides the uber saturated color palette (especially the night scenes), and visual gravitas - the hallmarks of Tony (ala 2005's "Domino ", 2006's "Déjà Vu") - I wouldn't have suspected otherwise, except knowing beforehand that "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" was in fact directed (and produced by) Michael Bay, and stars John Krasinski in the role of PMC "Jack Silva", buffed up and ruggedly bearded (versus his goofy-ish role of "Jim Halpert" in NBC's "The Office" / he could have been Captain America), in a testosterone-fueled feature film outing toting guns, bullets and inapt decision makers.
The roles of "Private Mmilitary Contractors" AKA "PMCs" explained and expanded (against all the "mindless mercenaries" seen in countless other military-fueled films) here, and their actions deemed spectacularly heroic and necessary in the scheme of (war) things.
And while I would not judge thus scenarios, the film itself was pretty enjoyable, and while not necessarily an extremely well known combat situation (unlike Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down", example), hence the lack of pre-knowledge what will happen next, this 144 minutes long film turned out to be a riveting watch!
"This is a true story, but never told."
The "hero"-function switched way up, as are the fast-n-furios pointers to bumbling mercs-for-hire (seeing a "Grimm" AKA actor David Giuntoli with a corny mustache, was a hoot tho :p).
Truth be told, this brings me back to the days of "The Rock", "Bad Boys", and even "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbour" = days before "Transformers" when I enjoyed films of Bay, in all it's visual heroics and film-communicative gravitas! (Yes, I have used the word twice now, I don't care :p)
I had been a fan of his, and still is … not ALL the time, anyways … :)
Worth a rental watch, if you are into this sort of military-themed situations, but otherwise somewhat detached from "non-conflict real world" or fantasy settings, and you can comfortably live through life otherwise :)
Cheers,
Andy
WHAT-IS: "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (also known simply as 13 Hours) is a 2016 American biographical war film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay and written by Chuck Hogan, based on Mitchell Zuckoff's 2014 book 13 Hours. Billed as being based on a true story, the film follows six members of a security team who fight to defend the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya after waves of terrorist attacks on September 11, 2012.
The film stars James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini, Toby Stephens, Pablo Schreiber, David Denman, Dominic Fumusa, Freddie Stroma, and Alexia Barlier. Filming began on April 27, 2015 in Malta. The film was released on January 15, 2016, by Paramount Pictures. The film was a financial success, grossing over $69 million worldwide, and despite a mixed response, it stands as one of Bay's best-reviewed films."
(All stills here via IMDb)
It's "funny", how PMCs were quite a phenom back in the early 2000s especially when we toy-collectors were kitbashing 1/6th-scaled action figures, with the most detailed ones released by Hot Toys, whom have now known to produce Hollywood feature film licensed characters instead :)
I did a group 1/6 kitbash recently (with my toy-buddies), inspired by the 2014 film "Sabotage" (directed by David Ayer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger), based on Urban-styled "PMCs" instead.
