Patriot's Day honors Boston's courage and compassion

Movie Title:   Patriot's Day

Grade:  B+

Rating:  R, 130 minutes

In a Nutshell: I love Boston.  I've been there several times and would eagerly go there again tomorrow.  It’s a modern city dripping in history. 

This powerful film offers a respectful look at Boston’s finest who responded to terrorism at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.   

“Two people took several days and weeks to plan out hate, but love responded in an instant.” – Interview with Patrick Downes

Uplifting theme: 

• Dedicated to all those who showed courage, compassion, and dedication during this terrible period in Boston’s history.
• Civic pride, teamwork, community
• Love vs. hate
• Good vs. evil
• Boston strong!
• “Always have hope.  Be confident that good always defeats bad.” – Dun Meng

Things I liked:

• The entire cast does a great job providing Boston accents and tributes to people we enjoy getting to know.
• Mark Wahlberg gives a dynamic performance as Sgt. Tommy Saunders.
• It’s always a pleasure to see J.K. Simmons, John Goodman, and Kevin Bacon.  I adore them all.
• You get to see real footage of the aftermath.
• Great aerial shots of Boston.
• Fans of Supergirl: Season 1 [Blu-ray], Melissa Benoist, will be happy to see her, although not happy to see her play the wife of a deluded terrorist.
• I loved the real photos and information at the end. The video footage of Patrick Downes running the race after his surgery really touched me.

Things I didn’t like:

•  Does anyone in Boston know how to speak a single sentence without using the F-bomb? 

Interesting lines:

• “Do not Mirandize.”   -  It's interesting and frightening that a decision could be made to deny an American citizen of his individual liberties.
• “Not what you were expecting, huh Comish? – lady cop

“It never is.” – Commisioner Ed Davis (John Goodman)

• “For a Muslim woman, marriage is a lilting dance of duality: strength and submission, beautiful, selfless, rapturous love of two masters, the carnal and the divine.” – Katherine Russell

Funny lines:

• “Give ‘em hell, brother!” – a guy who throw a sledge hammer out his front door to help the cops.
• ‘I gotta F***n quit smoking.” – Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K. Simmons)
• “I’ll tell ya that boat ain’t gonna float.” – cop after a bunch of other cops shot a ton of bullet holes in it. 

Tips for parents: 

• There is a lot of blood, gore, and violence.
• You see several people do drugs.
• A gazillion F-bombs and other profanity.
• It's important to point out to your kids that Dzhokhar's friends were arrested for seeing evidence, but not turning it over to the police and obstructing the bombing investigation.

UPDATE as of 2/1/2017
A Boston Marathon bombing survivor plans to marry the fireman who rescued her, several media outlets report. “In the hospital, my mom tried to set me up with him,” Roseann Sdoiasaid. “She was like, ‘Oh, did you see that firefighter? He’s so cute.’ And I was like, ‘Mom, I just got blown up.’ ” Sdoia and her new fiancé, Mike Materia, will participate in the annual Empire State Building Marathon to help raise money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Materia comforted Sdoia on the ride to Massachusetts General Hospital in a police vehicle on the day of the bombing. “I asked him if I was going to die. And he told me that I was going to be OK, that I only had a flesh wound,” she told reporters. “He’s seen me on my worst day.” The couple had their first date in June 2013. He proposed last month.

@trinaboice 

Survivor is a mash-up of other movies that did it better

Movie:    Survivor

PG-13, 1 hour 36 minutes

Grade:  C

In a Nutshell:   Not particularly great, nor terrible, this international thriller is a mash-up of movies you probably really enjoyed, like: The Bourne Identity , Salt , and The Fugitive .  I think it’s safe to say we love watching Milla Jovovich play a tough girl, preferably with a Russian accent.  In this action flick, however, she plays an American Foreign Service Officer who gets mixed up in a terrorist plot that makes her look guilty.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t have Jason Bourne’s cool skills or the super-babe, kick-butt grit that her character has in the Resident Evil franchise. 

By the way, if YOU want to learn some of those skills, my son teaches them in a class you probably learned about in the TV show "Shark Tank" or "Rachel Ray".  Check out his classes at www.SpyEscapePhoenix.com

Still, the movie is mildly entertaining, but only worth renting on DVD when it comes out if there’s nothing better on.  The movie informs us that since 9/11, American Law Enforcement has stopped 53 terrorist attacks in New York alone. 

Uplifting Theme:

·         A job is where you go to work to make money.  A career is a lifetime passion where you get paid to make a difference in the world.

·         Don’t mess with America.

Things I liked:

·         The cast is filled with great names that should make for a great movie: Dylan McDermott, Milla Jovovich, Angela Bassett, Pierce Brosnan, Robert Forester.  Unfortunately, most of their talents are wasted on a script that doesn’t truly let them blossom.

·         Great aerial shots of London and New York.

·         It was kind of interesting to learn a little bit more about how they screen travelers in and out of countries.

Things I didn’t like:

·         It’s pretty predictable with nothing very original to add to the “I’m not guilty so I better hide and figure out what’s really going on” genre.

·         Pierce Brosnon looks old and tired.  In the movie, Sam Parker (played by the handsome Dylan McDermott) explains “He’s had so much reconstructive surgery, no one knows the he## what he looks like.”  Ha ha

·         It’s a little slow-moving in the beginning.

·         For the “world’s deadliest assassin”, Nash (Pierce Brosnan) sure misses a lot of his shots.

·         It’s always New York City….

·         “I have been waiting 10 years for this moment to see the Americans pay for what they have done.”  - bad guy (NO spoiler alert)   Pretty cliché, right?

·         I never saw a trailer or billboards or poster for this movie before opening day.  It has had such little advertisement that it will probably come and go without most people even noticing.

      It's kind of annoying how Angela Bassett's character continuously makes the wrong decision EVERY time. 

·         Funny lines:

·         “Geez, you look how I feel.” –  Sally (played by Frances de la Tour)  We most recently saw her play the giant in Into the Woods and a visiting headmistress in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Interesting lines:

·         “Fortunes are made when there’s blood on the streets.” – Nash

Tips for Parents:

·         Pierce Brosnan is the one to utter the only F-bomb in the movie.  There are a few other  moments of profanity, most often coming out of his mouth.

·         There is violence and a body count.