It works pretty well as a thriller, but I didn't like the whole documentary part at the end. It went on for too long.

Yeah, seriously WTF is up with Berg, that's 3 films in a row. We get that it really happened.

Agreed. I don't know why this trend has become so prevalent with the big historical movies this year but I'm sick to death of the footage of the real people at the end. I get it, they're real. And here it was like 10+ minutes too, so unnecessary.

The film is actually pretty good though overlong. It has quite a few spectacular sequences which make it worth checking out in theaters. The standoff between the brothers and the police in the neighborhood is one of the best action sequences of the year - it's incredibly thrilling, visceral and intense. The buildup to the bombing and the incident itself are also done really well. And I thought one of the best scenes in the movie was the exchange between Melissa Benoist and Khandi Alexander ("Are there more bombs?"), both were fantastic and Benoist chillingly plays against type. The rest of the cast is strong though I felt most of the ensemble was underused. Mark Wahlberg is excellent and while their roles are small J.K. Simmons and Rachel Brosnahan make strong impressions. I felt Michelle Monaghan, Kevin Bacon and John Goodman were mostly wasted. The two actors playing the Tsarnaev brothers are both strong and menacing. The movie got a little too preachy for my taste and has a few too many moments that are clearly designed to make Boston residents applaud, but it's a strong and well-directed thriller. The documentary sequence at the end left a bad taste in my mouth though. B

It works really well as a thriller especially in the middle section, but I'll probably be one of those few who prefers the previous Berg/Wahlberg collaborations over this. This is a solid film no doubt, but I felt like the ensemble cast here was kind of wasted. Wahlberg is solid as always, but the villains are the biggest standouts IMO. The actors who played the brothers were great as well as Supergirl herself Melissa Benoist who I didn't expect could play such a creepy/chilling character that's so against her kind of type casting. Also, this film is worth seeing in theatres just for the incredibly gripping Watertown shootout. Berg definitely knows how to stage gritty action sequences and that scene along with the actual marathon bombing are fantastically done. The documentary bit at the end was a little overlong, but it didn't bother me as much as some people.

I doubt it. I'd say this and the oil film while good, are playing second fiddle to LS. Another reason I found the doc style ending so odd, is just how much they made up for that film. I say if half your film is fiction, you shouldn't be hitting people over the head with how true it is.

Now that I'm thinking of it, didn't Invincible and Pain and Gain have these kind of endings too? Wahlberg must love them.

Patriots Day is one of those movies where the sum of its parts exceeds the whole. There are a number of outstanding individual scenes (the interrogation with Khandi Alexander and Melissa Benoist, the police shootout in Watertown, the entire carjacking scene, the bombing itself, etc.), and some that just feel like padding. That said, Peter Berg has developed into a strong filmmaker who knows how to design a suspenseful set piece based on a real event. A typically eerie score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross helps elevate the tension considerably, and the film overall does a nice job balancing a sense of rah rah Bahhhston pride and its thriller sensibilities. B+

I really hope Berg is now done with these real life thrillers and gives us an original fiction. He can REALLY deliver action scenes even without Wahlberg on his side. The documentary part was a bit too much and I almost left during those last minutes. Surprisingly most of the cast is wasted here and Wahlberg while good doesn't have much in the second half of the film. The film feels a bit too long specially in the first half. The car scene with the Chinese (oh yes we have one to the rescue of Americans here) was great in itself but still a bit too long. The actual bombing scenes were not as good compared to the last two efforts of Berg maybe because they were in the first half of the movie but it was the chase in second half that was great almost brilliant if not for the forced tension in the boat scene. "Are there more bombs?" WAS BRILLIANT, Melissa Benoist and Khandi Alexander both do great specially the former. The shootout at Watertown was great as well in its depiction but went on too long (aren't police trained for going behind?, why did we see only one?).

This has good bits in it but everything seems a tad too long here and specially the last ten minutes seem completely unnecessary. We get it that Berg made big with LS but its high time to do something else. This cannot be the highlight of a good (can be great) director's career and become an yearly tradition.

5/10

Patriots Day - Spoilers for real life...sorta.

As someone from Massachusetts: It's everything that you'd want it to be. Like a Bostonian it's workmanlike, gritty, a little crude, and heartfelt.

As someone with a quasi-movie critic hat on: The star of the movie, Mark Whalberg, plays Tommy Saunders, who I believe is a completely made up character, and "shockingly", is almost completely superfluous to the film. He works as an audience surrogate (otherwise this would be way too documentary-ish), but he just happens to be covering the finish line when the bombs go off (on four hours rest), in the shootout in Watertown, and the first to walk up to the boat with a gun drawn and realize it's the terrorist? I get that he's supposed to be an amalgamation of every single Boston police officer, but is he Batman? He's also injured his knee in the first scene, you know, to make him even more relatable. Oh, and his made-up wife is barren (although that comes up in a very decent monologue about love trumping hate so it's kind of worth it, if very corny). The movie wears its earnestness on its sleeve almost to a fault.

The movie is also unnecessarily comedic in spots, mostly as playful jabs at how hard nosed Bostonians can be; like a female cop from Framingham interacting with two FBI guys on top of a roof...she's from Framingham and she's not fucking moving from her spot. In the words of Fozzie Bear: "funnnnnnnnnyyy". It also kind of happens during the Watertown shootout involving a resident trying to help. I'm going to take a wild guess and say a man never came out of his house (as bullets riddled it, including the front door right before he steps out of it) during the gun fight and offered a weapon to the police. Just a guess. But then again, Boston! Am I right?

Highlights of the movie:

Whalberg becoming Batman and having a photographic memory of Boylston street (I sound like I'm giving it shit by throwing Batman in there, but the scene is really well done).

Watertown

And a damn good interrogation scene.

Oh, and pretty much every performance. Even Supergirl, Melissa Benoist, is quite chilling.

One more thing: Maybe it's because they didn't want to be a part of the movie, but Krystle Campbell and Liu Lingzi are mysteriously absent from the bombings. But if you're not in tears with how they handle Martin Richard, you're not a human. It does make Campbell and Lingzi's absence a little more noticeable though (there might be a quick sight reference to Campbell involving a blue shirt). They are name-checked at the end in a very nice tribute.

And for anyone curious (or avoiding the film for this reason), the bombing, despite the R-rating, is wisely not gratuitous and handled delicately.

For Bostonians: See it, unless you think you've already lived it, which you kind of have. But if you want to see a damn good movie about the bombings, see it. It's a love letter to you and good still triumphs over evil.

For everyone else: See it, but this probably won't move you quite in the same way.

A-

We have one because the guy in real life happened to be Chinese. He appears and talks during the documentary section, a section in which everyone has said isn't really needed, and is pretty much correct. If anything it maybe should've only been attached to New England screenings. I'm not sure what anyone outside of New England is supposed to get from that that hasn't already been depicted in the film. It felt like a special feature on a DVD.

And most of the accents were pretty good, no? I mean Wahlberg's from Boston, but Simmons isn't. And I liked that the Boston accent actually played a small part in the story.

Yeah, I'd say so. There's no Diane Lane in The Perfect Storm here.

I remember seeing the documentary at the end but this felt right with the current BO condition. I have no idea on the New England screenings but yeah it does feel like a special feature on a DVD.

I'm a little surprised this didn't do better. There are scenes here and there that go on a little too long, and the ending felt a little off, but the acting, score, tension are all terrific, and there are several memorable scenes.

8/10

This is solid, but never particularly riveting or spectacular outside of two sensational sequences (the Watertown street shootout, the wife's interrogation). Despite the constant flashes of "12 hours since the blast"-type text, it is never as immediate and visceral as one might expect. And most of the A-list actors, John Goodman and Kevin Bacon included, are underutilized in a film which perhaps should have gone the United 93 route, using either unknown performers or even real people from the technical and/or law-enforcement fields depicted.

At the same time, though, it is definitely not a bad film. It is well-assembled and always at least interesting. Its proficient craftsmanship is clear and its tact admirable.

As for the documentary epilogue, it is definitely too long. It plays as an climax lifted from, say, a 30 on 30 ESPN documentary regarding the event. I broadly respect paying homage to the faces and the voices of the real victims and heroes, etc., etc., but it gives the picture's final stretch a lopsided quality. "THE END. All right, a bit of explanatory postscript text. All right, a minute or two of archival footage. All right, now there's interviews. And more interviews. And more text." And then, what?, 8 or 9 minutes have gone by.

Patriots Day

I'm getting really sick of 'Mark Wahlberg as Mark Wahlberg' films. He cannot act to save his life. A salt of the Earth police officer who knows the right and best way to do anything. Even more so than his superiors. Then the film is also plagued by a sickening portrayal of American people attending the Boston Marathon. All smiles and cheers. Such good, honest people. Not one of them had a bad day? Not one of them attended with a bit of a grump on? No. Of course not. Because you had to make out that the only bad thing that day was the bombing. Cheap storytelling. And the epilogue was just too much. And it goes on for an age. And it is just sickly to watch. Like, three people died in these attacks! THREE! And they're making the film with the sobbing weight as if millions died. It's so unearned. So, yeah, it had REALLY bad elements, which really drag it down. Everything up until the man hunt is pure crap. I was hating it up until that point, but the man hunt and the proceeding action right up until the sappy ending with the victims in hospitals, was thrilling and interesting, especially since it's a true account. The saving graces were John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, and J.K. Simmons, who were all great, and I liked every time they were on screen. But the film should have shaved 30 minutes off its run-time.

C-

I hated the moments for people from Boston. When the armed guards are atop the roof aiming at the boat, and the police woman says some macho bullshit. I rolled my eyes. Needn't be in the movie. And then the Chinese lad when being interviewed by the police says "Go catch doze mudderfuckers!". I just felt a lot of this preachy and/or America FUCK YEAH moments were totally unneeded. Like, they reveled in being against Islam because they can be, because in this instance Islam represented terrorism. It just felt wrong.

And while I don't know the entire story (nor care to), I was perplexed as to why his roommates are now imprisoned. Seems they were innocent/scared ... not very fair that they're imprisoned. But I suspect America FUCK YEAH crowd will love the fact that they are, just because America FUCK YEAH.

They impeded the investigation by not reporting what they found, is my impression.

I agree re: the Boston-Strong woo-hoo moments. They stand out and undercut the Paul Greengrass-United-93 type of verisimilitude Berg desires, but cannot muster.

And at one point during the street gun-and bomb-fight, a resident comes out of his house and throws the police a hammer? I couldn't be exactly sure what it was. But if it was a hammer, then it is so stupid. The guy couldn't hear the gunfire and bombs???! What the fuck is a hammer going to do? But then, if it actually happened like that, then sure, but still, not everything that happened warrants being in the movie.

I believe it was a baseball bat, lol.

Right. So this was another Boston FUCK YEAH moment. Red Sox!!

Saw it last night, great film. It blends the reality and dramatization of the events in an excellent way and I was locked in following the developments from both sides. Peter Berg has shown himself a capable non-blockbuster director, well able to capture drama and with Patriots Day he delivers some of his best work. The film has a great cast too, and it just does a really good job all around of capturing what happened and translating it to a well paced, engaged telling. I left impressed.

A-

It was a hammer.

Why he threw it, yes odd, it was a bit of a funny moment actually, and the cop reacted as such "WTF, what I'm going to do with a hammer". However when JK Simmons' character was fighting with the older brother on the street, that other cop was able to pick up the hammer and attack the brother with it.