A hard, rough-around-the-edges war film that is straight forward and to the point.

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2016)

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi stands as Michael Bay's best film since The Rock and proves that Bay, despite lately delving into this, is maturing as a filmmaker. Many people are torn on the Transformers franchise. If you ask a 12 year old boy, Transformers is the best series ever but if you ask someone over the age of 18, they would probably rather see something a little more indulgent. 13 Hours is for the adult moviegoer. It is violent, rough, bloody and very adult in its approach to a still restless political situation even three years later. Bay has no interest in going out of his way to tarnish anyone's reputation here...the events speak for themselves. The story follows a group of contracted government employees who engaged in a firefight between Libyan militia for 13 hours trying to defend a secret US station in Benghazi. We are all well aware of Hilary Clinton and her hand in this situation, Bay knows that so he doesn't even waste actor's breaths on the situation. He decides to let the action speak for itself, literally and figuratively. The film is beautifully captured, it features signature Michael Bay shots, music video esque color grading, which do become repetitive after awhile, but are done in a tasteful manner. Coming from a script penned by Chuck Hogan (The Town; Argo), it is so drenched with the American hoorah type of soldier characters that those Bay-esque angles compliment the film and the telling of it quite well. These were men that didn't really get enough credit for their heroics so anything Bay can do to immortalize them, he is hell bent on doing. The acting is that of your average Michael Bay film, screaming, gunfire, big buff guys working out, it is all the same without the objectifying of women. This film Bay trades his objective vision of women to men, which is a bit comforting to know that he isn't all that sexist after all. Starring John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, and Toby Stephens, the cast does its best between gunfights to establish some character development that doesn't go much further than establishing these men as family men and as soldiers. There's barely character development to grasp here thanks to an ill advised first act that tries to give the audience background on what led to the attack on the embassy in Libya. However, despite the tension filled yet useless first act, the second and third act are blistering with brutal and bloody shootouts, excellent camera work and explosions that put you in the middle of the action. This is a different Michael Bay shoot 'em up, this is one that makes you feel inside the action rather than a spectator of it. Overall, if you can put politics aside, I recommend this film. Yes, this is catering more towards the right than the left but that doesn't make it any less of a good film. 13 Hours stands as Michael Bays finest work in a very VERY long time. Hopefully he can continue this trend of smaller more adult films.