13 Hours : The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi

13 HOURS : THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI

Director : Michael Bay

Year : 2016

Genre : Action

Rating : **1/2

While it may mostly consist of the same macho posing, migraine-inducing explosions, little to no character development and of course the same dollar store hyper-patriotism we have come to expect from him, Michael Bay's action packed war thriller '13 Hours : The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi' is still  the directors best movie in over a decade. Starring John Krakinski, James Badge Dale, 'Breaking Bad's David Costabile and 'Orange Is The New Black's Pablo Schreiber, the film tells the somewhat conservatively slanted true story about a small security team who, on September 11th 2012, fought to defend the American diplomatic compound in Libya from multiple waves of violent terrorist attacks. 

Based on Michael Zuckoff's best selling 2014 book of the same name, '13 Hours : The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi' attempts to palpably capture the horror of the situation and while Bay's trademark shaky-cam makes it almost impossible to decipher what's going on at times, there are several key scenes which are undoubtedly thrilling, fairly well executed and surprisingly engrossing to watch. The performances are also fairly strong, with both Costabile and Schreiber making the best of Chuck Hogan's ropey anti-left script and thanklessly bare-boned characterisations. However as is the case with every one of his films, at 144 minutes, '13 Hours : The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi' is way too long and despite a number of set pieces which hint at a more mature and restrained Michael Bay that what we are accustomed to, it still suffers from a distinct lack of development, far too much faux masculine posturing and a clear emphasis on the right wing pro- American ideology - it's late January US release just happening to precede both the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primaries.