Patriots Day

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%. (27/03/2017)

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)

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)

The scenes of the Boston Marathon blast are really powerful in themselves and the subsequent chase with the terrorists works excellently, primarily the shootout in Watertown is polished and clearly true to life as much as was at all possible. It was maybe unnecessarily too full of pathos and characters (in some places the movie loses momentum terribly). Berg is good at realistic reconstructions, but the mass of authentic shots detracted a little from the power of the picture. There isn’t much shine to Reznor’s soundtrack this time round. (14/01/2018)

After the tranquil introduction leading to the explosion, Patriots Day escalates in an exciting hunt for the bombers and, conversely, their attempt to get away. I don’t want to exaggerate, but I don’t think we’ve seen such an engaging, authentic street shootout since Michael Mann’s Heat. Berg recreates the events by mixing real documentary shots with a thriller movie, and whether he embellishes the story or not, the result looks great. It’s perfectly balanced in terms of character portrayal, narrative dynamics and the tolerability of the patriotic elements. At some moments, I was riveted to my seat. (26/01/2017)