Patriots Day (Peter Berg)

[TGM]

PATRIOTS DAY

Director: Peter Berg

imdb

[TGM]

So I had the unique experience where they actually played the trailer for this movie in front of the movie itself. Heh, never experienced that before.

Otherwise, yeah, like all of Berg's other films I've seen so far, this one's really damn good. A bit too soon, perhaps, but it handles the material in a respectable enough manner, and is damn thrilling throughout. There's a gun fight in a neighborhood where the bombers are exploding cars and shit where I honestly wasn't sure if that's how it actually happened or not (I don't recall hearing reports on that, at least, not in the level of detail that's shown here in any event), but holy shit, the way this movie presents it all as just a point by point "this is how it happened" ordeal without trying to really put in any particular political spin or agenda or anything like that, just laying the facts out there, then if that's how that all went down, that shit's just fucking terrifying. I can't even imagine.

Throughout, they splice in footage of the actual event, when we see what went down from various viewpoints and such, which lends credence to the whole "laying out the facts" approach the movie takes. However, this also adds to the almost creepy "too soon" vibe, and the aforementioned terror of the situation, but I felt it was a pretty overall effective approach. The only aspect I wasn't a huge fan of was when suddenly the movie became a full on documentary for the last 10 minutes, featuring the real people in this event discussing it all. I get why they included it, but I could really do without all of that in a movie like this. If you wanna be a documentary, be a documentary. But if you want to be a movie, then please, just stick to being a movie.

But overall, yeah, this was yet another really damn good outing from Peter Berg, who has had a hell of a year with both this and Deepwater Horizon under his belt. Dude has a knack for making some of the best disaster movies in this day and age by basing them on real events like this.

[Spinal]

So I had the unique experience where they actually played the trailer for this movie in front of the movie itself. Heh, never experienced that before.

That's hilarious!

[Ezee E]

I want to see this.

[Lazlo]

This was okay. The drama is effective and most of the cast is really strong. Wahlberg, however, is terrible and his (not real) character is so clumsily inserted into the narrative.

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Show Spoiler

Also, for a variety of reasons, the shots of David Ortiz in slow motion walking through the tunnel, shaking Wahlberg's hand, made me laugh out loud in the theater. Kenan Thompson's impression of him on SNL combined with the overblown sense of importance placed in those shots made it really funny to me.

]

[Ezee E]

This could certainly have been my favorite of last year. I thought it was incredible in its breakdown of police procedure, incredible suspense, and emotionally effective. Wow.

That firefight scene........ I'm sure some of the explosions were a little exaggerated, but that was an incredible sequence.

Factchecking this is essential since it takes such a realistic approach. Looking into it, there's nothing too irritating. Too bad a few characters had to be combined together as I was wary of Mark Wahlberg's character being able to be everywhere at once. Looking into it, it was at the request of the actual people that they not be represented in the movie. I suppose that's fine. A small flaw to the grand piece.

[Dukefrukem]

I enjoyed this. Was really confused why Jeff Bauman wasn't mentioned a single time. And why Jake Gyllenhaal wasn't in this movie at all. And then I realized that Jeff has his own movie coming out- Stronger which is the movie I mistakenly thought was this movie filming at Fenway. The spliced in video of actual footage and pictures of the event sprinkled through the movie was really well done. I didn't even realize it was real until after. I also really enjoyed the short interviews at the end. Berg's best. And possibly Wahlberg's best.

[transmogrifier]

Not in a world where Boogie Nights exists.

[Dukefrukem]

Not in a world where Boogie Nights exists.

Fuck I forgot about that movie.

[Morris Schæffer]

This may be Peter Berg's best movie. Absolutely gripping and powerful stuff, more so than Deepwater Horizon which I saw yesterday.

[number8]

I saw this thread got bumped and I thought it was gonna about the news that Dave Henneberry, the guy who found Tsarnaev in his boat and had a cameo in this movie, passed away today.

[Morris Schæffer]

I also really enjoyed the short interviews at the end.

Yes, I can't say they were a nuisance, they probably enhanced the finale for me further.

Rip Mr. Henneberry.