2.5 stars (out of 5)
Helpfully subtitled (but not onscreen) The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi, blockbuster-friendly producer/director Michael Bay’s latest is one of his ‘true stories’ after way too many damn Transformers movies, and for a pic that often seems to think itself apolitical it’s pretty seriously political, although only in the most sweatily macho and flag-waving fashion.
Family-man (naturally) beardie Jack Silva (John Krasinski, a long way from the US The Office) joins an elite security team assigned to the CIA outpost in Benghazi, Libya, a region wracked by civil war in the wake of the deposing of Gaddafi and for a long time one of the most dangerous countries on Earth. The Yanks had to be there though, of course, just to help the population get back on its feet, of course, and Bay appears to want a Zero Dark Thirty-type mood in the first half or so but it’s all oh-so-Bay-ish, with blokey ex-soldiers like Tyrone Woods (James Badge Dale), Kris Paronto (Pablo Schreiber), Dave Benton (David Denman) and others doing guy stuff.
After this seemingly endless build-up, we eventually get down to the business of orgasmically violent action when the whole area goes to Hell on September 11 2012 and the nearby consulate is overrun with terrorists, leading to the apparent death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens (Matt Letscher). The team want to help, are officially told to stand down but go in guns blazing anyway, and yowsa, do they regret it, as the second half of this mighty epic has them in an overextended stand-off as veritable thousands of faceless extras attack the compound, making this a gargantuan, graphically blood-drenched and racist variation of Assault On Precinct 13. Or Night Of The Living Dead, with, ahem, non-Americans instead of zombies – or some bizarre Transformers sequel without Transformers and with added severed limbs, and it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and ON.
There’s something about true stories (especially simplistic American military true stories in which real people died while the American government sat around twiddling their thumbs, damn them all!!!) that makes certain punters think they’re untouchable and immediate classics (ie. “How dare you criticise this one? Those soldiers died for you!!!”). And yet this ludicrously overlong and deeply objectionable saga IS a chore to sit through, and leaves you feeling less bloated on patriotism and more appalled by the brutalising pointlessness of it all. Late on one fed-up character shouts, “I’ve had just about enough of this 2012 Alamo bullshit!”, and you’ll just have to agree, Sir, yes Sir!!!
I Wake Up Screening 