13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Actors: James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini, Toby Stephens, Pablo Schreiber, David Denman, Dominic Fumusa, Freddie Stroma, Alexia Barlier.

Rating: 9 out of 10, While the actual events of the Benghazi attack have become political fodder for the past few years this is apparently an accurate portrayal of the events in 2012, blissfully stripped of all the politics, well except for a CIA station chief with a stick firmly up his posterior. I thought this would be an attack on Clinton but it’s not that at all. It’s the story of some true American heroes, former Special Forces soldiers contracted for security of the CIA post. They respond to the attack of the ambassador’s house and then return back to the base to defend it against a horde of radicals attacking from all sides. The battle scenes are very realistic along with human foibles always involved. The actors obviously spent some time with great coaches for their roles because they had the lingo and movements of operators down cold. I was wondering why a director like Bay would step into the political mess that is the aftermath of this affair but I honestly believe he was trying to honor the sacrifices of these special men which has been lost in the politics. Go see this movie to honor them and their incredible toughness and sacrifice. Best movie I’ve seen so far this year. I read an interview with one of the actual heroes and he was asked if he blamed Clinton for Benghazi. He responded simply that, no, he blamed the radical Islamic terrorists who attacked that night; kind of refreshing to hear an opinion like that in this most political of all seasons.

MVP: Dale as the tragic leader of the GRS - Rone

Gods of Egypt

Actors: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Chadwick Boseman, Élodie Yung, Courtney Eaton, Rufus Sewell, Gerard Butler, Geoffrey Rush.

Rating: 7 out of 10, A glorious mess of a movie. It purports to show ancient Egypt at a time when the actual Gods lived amongst the people; granted they were all ten feet tall, bled gold, and spoke with a variety of European accents. I say a mess because this movie is totally incomprehensible at times with a leaden plot and wooden actors. Some films (Sin City and 300 to name a couple) embrace total immersion in CGI and make it work. Whoever made this did not. By trying to do too much they ended up not doing enough, if that even begins to make sense. With an all-CGI movie you have to care about the characters and outside of the sprightly human duo, all the “gods” were just kind of there. Gerard Butler as the bad god chewed up his usual amount of scenery but his Scottish brogue was so thick at times as to be unintelligible. Coster-Waldau as the hero doesn’t connect with his plucky human sidekick or the audience. I think this was supposed to be his big “coming out” film but he fails at almost every turn. So a disaster of a movie but visually stunning, at least we see who’d win a fight between Jaime Lannister and King Leonidas

MVP: Thwaites as the plucky Bek, more luck than ability

Deadpool

Actors: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T. J. Miller, Gina Carano, Leslie Uggam, Brianna Hildebrand

Rating: 10 out of 10, I don’t think I’ve laughed as much at a movie in years as I did at Deadpool. The filmmakers took some real chances and while that doesn’t always work – it certainly does here. This is firmly Ryan Reynolds’ movie and he nails the sardonic, witty, hero-challenged title role. The pointed and very funny lines are relentless and would seem silly if it wasn’t backed up with a solid plot and fantastic action sequences. Reynolds doesn’t just break the “Fourth Wall” he desecrates it which ends up being some of the funniest moments in this hilarious film. This won’t be a film for everybody as it more than earns its “R” rating on as many levels as you can imagine, but it’s smart and innovative. It was nice to see a superhero movie overcome the corporate need to tranquilize itself down to PG-13 levels. Hopefully Deadpool’s obvious success will lead to more adult oriented fare. I loved it, favorite movie of 2016 so far.

MVP: Reynolds in the title role owns this movie.

Dirty Grandpa

Actors: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Plaza

Rating: 8 out of 10, Deniro plays a retired Army officer trying to mold the future of his grandson. Zac Efron is unfortunate enough to play the grandson because he gets the hell beaten out of him for the entire movie. I know the script will have the PC police out in force but there’s some really funny moments in this. Deniro is excellent as the randy senior citizen cutting a major swath through Jacksonville Spring Break a couple days after losing his wife. Efron’s main job seems to be getting punched and finding ways to lose not only his shirts but his pants repeatedly. It’s an excellent send up of several aspects of modern life but I’m sure that’ll be lost to most people who will rail against the almost non-stop lack of appropriateness, God forbid we actually offend someone with sarcastic humor. It’s like kids and mud puddles – sometimes it’s just fun to jump right in and get dirty. If you can handle humor that will push your level of discomfort then go see this. If not, run screaming away and I’m sure complaining the entire way.

MVP: DeNiro as the randy grandpa