13 Hours

Michael Bay finally hits rock bottom with this interminable and absolutely worthless thriller revolving around the now-infamous 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Iraq, with the movie following several men (including John Krasinski’s Jack Silva and James Badge Dale’s Tyrone Woods) as they doggedly attempt to make some sense out of the violent chaos. It’s an inherently stirring premise that could’ve, in the hands of a competent director, translated into a searing war flick along the same lines as Saving Private Ryan or Black Hawk Down, with the movie instead, virtually from the word go, striking all the wrong notes and relying hopelessly on the hoariest cliches of the genre. There’s little doubt that ranking high on 13 Hours‘ extensive list of deficiencies is its total lack of compelling, sympathetic characters, as scripter Chuck Hogan offers up a laughable assortment of generic figures that remain hopelessly (and aggressively) underdeveloped for the duration of the movie’s seemingly endless running time. And while the movie is almost watchable during its initial, more low-key stretch, 13 Hours, once the aforementioned battle rolls around, morphs into as lifeless and monotonous an endeavor as one could possibly imagine – with Bay’s inability to effectively establish the geography of the narrative’s locale ensuring that the comes off as a cacophony of loud noises and explosions (ie there’s just never a point at which one is able to wholeheartedly discern just what’s going on and who’s shooting at whom). It’s perhaps not surprising to note that one’s efforts at discerning which of the protagonists have been killed and which remain standing prove fruitless, while the completely unearned sentimentality of the film’s final stretch comes off as both unearned and, frankly, insulting – which confirms 13 Hours‘ place as a thoroughly reprehensible piece of work that deserves every ounce of derision and vitriol thrown its way.

no stars out of ****