13 Hours

Michael Bay is making a comeback and after all the trailers in early February, he's serving up the first major surprise of the year, although I'm not concerned about how much hate the film will get and for what. It's impossible not to expect Black Hawk Down version 2.0, but the fact that the viewer actually gets exactly that in the end is actually a good thing. The difference is that while Scott has elevated warfare to cinematic art, Bay serves it up in his own way, within the subgenre of his own creative ego. Take it or leave it. 15 years have passed quickly and the audience's perception has fundamentally changed, so if you grew up on "Call of Duty" (and other wannabe clones), you can’t help but be intrigued. Bay takes the path of least resistance and quite sympathetically lines up the flesh-and-blood protagonists, going after all the clichés and cheesy scenes so hard that you don't actually get angry at him - because only he can do them that way. He lets the paranoia of a broken state, where a foreigner can't be sure of anything, pour off the screen in full throttle and then unleashes a full-blooded barrage of war that lasts, with few breaks, until the end, when the survivors are in tears and so are you. In fact, the action is something so impressive, at once absorbing in the opacity of the camera and the editing, that one is left wondering why it doesn't bother us this time. It's wartime carnage without the slightest overlap, but also without cinematic compromise. In the week of the presidential primary, Republicans couldn't have asked for anything better to be in movie theaters. PS: I understand that Michael has to give the heads at Universal something to do, but couldn't they negotiate a deal of five personal action films for every Transformers? (03/02/2016)

The solid action scenes aren’t enough to save the flat story. In an effort to be serious, Bay becomes less entertaining. We’ve seen bands of tough guys pitted against ragheads a billion times. Of course, the bloody finale is fine, but I wanted more catchphrases and some crazy sadistic son of a bitch to spice up the boredom a little. I understand that based on real events means less of everything and more harsh reality, but then it would require a more interesting historical milestone than this. Next time they should try Greengrass or to film it from the Jihadis’ point of view, where the goons from the CIA would play the bad guys. (08/07/2016)

Michael Bay is searching and doesn't know which way to go. He may be aging and maturing in certain creative aspects, but at the same time he is dramatically losing his directorial touch and there is almost nothing left of what entertained his millions of fans and die-hard worshippers in the 90s and 00s. Nowadays they're more or less experiments meant to evoke some sort of shift in the viewer's perception, but I want the old Armageddon and 14 cuts per second back, not a half digital copy of Black Hawk Down where the dying and marine feeling is similarly raw but formally lost before our eyes. The viewer is eventually hit by explosions and bullets, but not entirely in a positive way. It's not as it should be. (05/02/2016)

13 Hours subjectively ends it, Michael Bay pulls one pathetic cartridge after another from his sleeve, there are bloody plastic bags and an American flag... Otherwise, this attempt to grasp the absurdity of the geopolitical situation through a realistic view is pleasantly cheesy. You would go for a beer and a fox hunt with most of the heroes-contractors. They are full-bearded, pert, simple and, unlike over-wise and re-educated operatives, they "know the map". But the action served in waves has balls, a gore factor and dynamics. At times, however, Bay forgets that he wanted to stay short and pulls out his typical mortars. The runtime is hard to defend, and ideologically, this work (like all of Michael's "more thoughtful" films) moves on a minefield of hardness... but it is quite fun, not as sharply cut and cohesive as Black Hawk Down, but it's still reliable enough to the title of the sweatiest and most sentimental macho film of 2016. Too bad Optimus Prime doesn’t emerge at the end. That would be expensive. (18/01/2017)

Black Hawk down for good. After watching the murderous footage and a more than thorough introduction, it is clear that this is a dream project, whose author was unrestrained and thus able to fulfil his greatest wishes. And although the motivational speeches or threats about dead Americans bring to mind Pearl Harbor with their quantity, it only slightly diminishes the experience. When it comes down to it, Grade AAA Action comes to the forefront, proving that Michael Bay simply never gets old, but matures in his own way. Every salvo or explosion surpasses everything you could possibly see in the genre with its dynamism, and the increasing fear for the main characters drives towards an overheated and even more exhaustively satisfying finale for the audience. (03/02/2016)