Patriots Day (2016)

[Silver Raven]

Not a bad movie, some interesting information I didn't know before.  The last ten minutes is with the real people being portrayed in the movie.  Mark Wahlberg's character is fictional, which is good, because he's an asshole.

I don't know how accurate the movie portrayal is, but it shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as being much more involved in the bombings and leadup than the news stories at the time had made him out to be.  Alex Wolff was pretty good in the role, playing him as an American lowlife stoner.  Just like his buddies back in college who knew he was involved but didn't tell anybody.

Melissa Benoist, Supergirl, plays Tamerlan's wife.  She was very convincing in the role.

[Spartan Girl]

Forgive me, but I just feel like it's a little too soon for a movie about the marathon bombing. Especially with all the anti-Muslim/immigration sentiment coming out right now.

[MsNewsradio]

This is one I'll be saving for a library rental. Having experienced those events firsthand (I had friends down on the marathon line when the explosions went off and was living five minutes away from where the final shoot-out took place), it hits way too close to home. While I understand why it was made (though I too question whether it was made too soon after the events it depicts), I don't think I will be able to sit through it in a crowded theater without major flashbacks. It was an incredibly tense time. 

[anna0852]

Yeah, way too soon for this.

[thuganomics85]

I didn't think it was bad, but like Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg's other film; Deepwater Horizon; I just found it surprisingly... generic, I guess?  Like, outside of the A-list cast and violence and profanity, it would almost feel like it was a special episode of a procedural on network television (probably CBS), and not be about one of the most recent and still haunting US terrorist attacks in real life.  Again, it wasn't like it was horrid, but it just felt strangely run-of-the-mill, which made its last minute Oscar push strange.

My biggest issue was the whole concept of making Mark Wahlberg this "composite" character, based off of several officers.  Looking past whatever limits he has an actor (which, I'm starting to think he either needs a great director like Martin Scorsese or Paul Thomas Anderson to guide him, or just stick to playing the straight-man to Will Ferrell in comedies), it just made the character come off like some bizzaro Forrest Gump, who just happens to be at every major event in the film.  There he is at the finish line when the bomb goes off.  There he is telling the FBI how to canvas a neighborhood.  Look at him showing up at the aftermath of the Watertown shoot-out.  And, hey, he is the one that finds Dzhokhar!  If I was being generous, maybe they just thought this was the best way to keep the movie flowing.  If it I wasn't, it felt like some weird fantasy of Wahlberg's, where heroically saves Boston almost single-handily from the terror.

Still, a great supporting cast at least.  Kevin Bacon and especially John Goodman can appear in every film as far as I'm concerned.  J.K. Simmons didn't have much to do, but at least he has an awesome moustache.  Michelle Monaghan was wasted in the wife role, sadly.  The rest of the cast of mainly lesser knowns did good work, with Alex Wolff the highlight.  Oh, and Melissa Benoist.  That was certainly a sight to see!  What did you do, Kara!

I did think the bombing scene itself was good.  It was quick and sudden, and not drawn out or overdramatized, and the aftermath was effective, without feeling too much.

Finally, this is admittedly just a person hang-up of mines, but I'm just disappointed that this seems to be the direction Peter Berg is heading as a director.  I'm not saying he was fantastic or anything, but I thought his earlier work showed that he was willing to tackle different subjects and put an interesting take on them (Friday Night Lights, The Rundown, even Hancock.)  But he just seems to be content now to competently, but boringly directed and write films, where Mark Wahlberg plays an everyman in a based off of a real life tragedy film, and perseveres and what not (I guess capture the American spirit?)

Edited January 20, 2017 by thuganomics85

[Raja]

On 1/19/2017 at 1:25 PM, thuganomics85 said:

 

My biggest issue was the whole concept of making Mark Wahlberg this "composite" character, based off of several officers.  Looking past whatever limits he has an actor (which, I'm starting to think he either needs a great director like Martin Scorsese or Paul Thomas Anderson to guide him, or just stick to playing the straight-man to Will Ferrell in comedies), it just made the character come off like some bizzaro Forrest Gump, who just happens to be at every major event in the film.  There he is at the finish line when the bomb goes off.  There he is telling the FBI how to canvas a neighborhood.  Look at him showing up at the aftermath of the Watertown shoot-out.  And, hey, he is the one that finds Dzhokhar!  If I was being generous, maybe they just thought this was the best way to keep the movie flowing.  If it I wasn't, it felt like some weird fantasy of Wahlberg's, where heroically saves Boston almost single-handily from the terror.

Still, a great supporting cast at least.  Kevin Bacon and especially John Goodman can appear in every film as far as I'm concerned.  J.K. Simmons didn't have much to do, but at least he has an awesome moustache.  Michelle Monaghan was wasted in the wife role, sadly.  The rest of the cast of mainly lesser knowns did good work, with Alex Wolff the highlight.  Oh, and Melissa Benoist.  That was certainly a sight to see!  What did you do, Kara!

I did think the bombing scene itself was good.  It was quick and sudden, and not drawn out or overdramatized, and the aftermath was effective, without feeling too much.

I agree Mark Wahlberg's character did too much. I understand making him wounded to take his physicality out of it. A homicide detective in uniform as all hands were on deck for crowd control, fine. But then he is called in like he was the beat cop for the street where the finish line was, patrols alone and is the first to actually listen to the car jacking victim and finally gets the call to the boat. I don't know Boston PD ranks but it seems like the Sergeant was ordering around the Superintendent(?), in any case 3 stripes versus 4 stars as if he was a junior patrol officer. On the  Longest Day's, A Bridge Too Far, etc they just brought in more big name actors for a few days of work versus one big star to carry the movie. So one actor as the supervisor on the finish line, another as the detective questioning the victim, another as the beat cop the FBI ask to help identify what is on those blocks

 

JK Simmons for me was one of the highlights, or more precisely the hero senior cop of the suburban Watertown  Police another who was not physically able so while the cops rolling up on a car jacker and then finding bombs thrown at them while running low of ammo he calmly walks around to flank the terrorist. I will never know if I would have been so calm if forced into combat since I served during peace time.

Edited January 23, 2017 by Raja

[Danny Franks]

On 19/01/2017 at 9:25 PM, thuganomics85 said:

 

My biggest issue was the whole concept of making Mark Wahlberg this "composite" character, based off of several officers.  Looking past whatever limits he has an actor (which, I'm starting to think he either needs a great director like Martin Scorsese or Paul Thomas Anderson to guide him, or just stick to playing the straight-man to Will Ferrell in comedies), it just made the character come off like some bizzaro Forrest Gump, who just happens to be at every major event in the film.  There he is at the finish line when the bomb goes off.  There he is telling the FBI how to canvas a neighborhood.  Look at him showing up at the aftermath of the Watertown shoot-out.  And, hey, he is the one that finds Dzhokhar!  If I was being generous, maybe they just thought this was the best way to keep the movie flowing.  If it I wasn't, it felt like some weird fantasy of Wahlberg's, where heroically saves Boston almost single-handily from the terror.

It definitely sounds like Wahlberg wish fulfillment to me. Hasn't he given macho brags in the past about how he could have prevented one of the 9/11 planes being hijacked, if he'd been on it?

He's a dick, and seems to embody some of the worst aspects of American masculinity. This 'heroic everyman' who is nevertheless incredibly smart and tough and capable and resolute, is probably what he dreams of every night. And I have to say, there aren't many sentences that can put me off a movie more than "starring Mark Wahlberg". As soon as I see that, I just know it will be a bland, boring action movie or a po-faced drama that pretends to worthiness.