13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Transformers director Michael Bay calls his blow-by-blow procedural detailing the 2012 terrorist attack on a US compound in Libya his "most real movie". But it has more in common with the jingoism of Rambo than the sobering analysis of something like Black Hawk Down. Bay treats the adaptation of Mitchell Zuckoff's politically divisive book (written in conjunction with Annex Security Team survivors) in simplistic terms: it's basically The Alamo, only in Benghazi. Focusing on the six freelancers hired by the CIA to protect key US personnel after the fall of Gaddafi, these Global Response Staff soldiers swiftly move into gun-blazing action when a woefully safeguarded ambassador comes under fire from Islamists, a flashpoint attack that spreads to the makeshift US Embassy. Aside from mawkish family flashbacks, this wonky tribute to heroic courage works best when being visually dynamic and brutally immersive in its sensational combat sequences. And with Bay adding extra arresting value via expert hand-held camerawork and rapid-fire editing, it's certainly hard to ignore.