13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Written by Chuck Hogan Directed by Michael Bay U.S., 2016 After the box-office success of Lone Survivor and American Sniper, the cottage industry of military themed January releases continues to go strong. Whereas those films came from Peter Berg and Clint Eastwood, directors known for taking a backseat …
The opening scene of Joe Carnahan’s latest shows a man getting jettisoned from the driver’s side window of his car in a crash, hitting the ground rolling and ending up sitting on the street with barely a scratch. That’s how this film begins, and it only gets zanier from there. The plot follows a down-on-his-luck limo driver, Stretch (Patrick Wilson), who finds out he has to pay $6,000 of gambling debts by midnight. Roger Karos (Chris Pine), a deranged billionaire, offers to cover his debt if he drives him around for the evening, an experience that gets more hellish with each passing minute.
The zombie apocalypse has been an oft-explored topic in film, with George Romero often considered the definitive voice, though not the only one, as filmmakers such as Zack Snyder and Danny Boyle have also put their own spin on the mythology. Marc Forster is the latest to try his hand at the genre, helming an …