Patriots Day

As expected. From the filmmaking point of view, Peter Berg did not disappoint. The explosions at the marathon and the subsequent confusion are filmed so well that you will bate your breath. It literally makes you feel like you are there with the cameraman. But this is where all the positives of this movie end. Unless you like American hysteria and an emphasis on patriotism. But that is, after all, apparent already from the title of the film, so count on the portrayal of America as the unique country and there is a number of characters in the film, who, of course, make it so unique. (27/10/2017)

Peter Berg's reputation with me has recovered a bit after the recent not very satisfying Deepwater Horizon, but Patriots Day still falls short of the pinnacle of his work. While it is a rather sensitive subject, I still find it odd to make a film about a terrorist attack where only three people died when there are far greater disasters happening in the world. But about the film: The pacing is good, the big shootout is stylish, the filming is solid, and Mark Wahlberg is classically fine again, so I'll give four stars for entertainment. 70% (07/02/2017)

The narrative is without major mistakes and hesitations, but for the one hundred and ninety-fourth time the stale concept of a racist hunt for terrorists, starring an iconic, flamboyant and morally immaculate hero (we're talking about Wahlberg, Goodman needs to lose some weight and J.K. Simmons needs to gain some) just can't satisfy me anymore, even as a fan of old Hollywood conventions. Moreover, it's as long as a list of government debts, and the pacing fluctuates between many characters who, though played by top-notch actors, aren't very convincingly portrayed. Berg is definitely up for something bigger, at least in terms of physical rush, which you can see here, for example, in the very intense and realistic street shootout. 60% (15/04/2017)

A well-grasped narrative style. The main characters are introduced while explaining the concept of the plot twist, the key event of the bombing and the gradually tightening noose. Something similar worked very well in Zero Dark Thirty, with the difference that it was better balanced dramaturgically. Patriots Day has a lot of pathetic dross in the form of testimony from actual witnesses to the event and various pieces of wisdom from the main characters that are not very on point, and when they are, they are just clumsily handled. If you overlook this shortcoming and the fact that it steals a good 10-20 minutes from the film, you can't help but marvel at Berg's grasp of action and the dynamics of the action sequences, because the shootout in the streets is frenetic, volatile and yet incredibly raw and clear – and it’s also the scene after which the end credits should have rolled. If he could work with characters and the build-up of the story like Michael Mann, we'd all be whistling because it would be a full-on hit. (21/03/2017)

With this film, Peter Berg utilized his previous experience and managed to translate it onto the big screen without any significant mistakes. For me, Berg belongs to the top tier of directors, and I simply won’t hear a bad word about him. This time he chose a well-known event that undoubtedly shook the world for some time in 2013. He didn’t pick an easy topic to direct, but he handled it admirably. The cast is incredibly strong, each name a notable figure in the film industry. Although the pace was slow at the beginning, after the explosions, it accelerated to high gear and didn’t stop. The combination of film and documentary inserts might seem poor to some for this kind of movie, but Berg knows what he’s doing, and as a viewer, it grabbed my attention even more. The camera work and music perfectly follow his style, as if I were watching The Kingdom again. The best moment was the nearly ten-minute-long sequence of continuous gunfire in Watertown, combined with spectacular bomb explosions. I haven’t seen such a raw, authentic-looking, and even goosebump-inducing shootout in a long time. You can clearly see years of practice here because coordinating the filming of something like this is no simple task, especially with such a great final result. There was definitely a resemblance to Mann’s Heat. The ending, with the real people who lived through this event, squeezed out a lot of emotion, but if it hadn’t been there, I would have been upset. We’ll see what Berg brings us in the coming years. This director has a bright future ahead of him, so I think we have a lot to look forward to. I give it 92%. (28/03/2017)