A movie review by: Lee Sonogan

(2016) 2h13min /Drama, history, thriller

A movie based on real events starring Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman and Kevin Bacon. The movie’s storyline is about on April 15, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts, Police Sgt, Tommy Saunders is pulling security duty on the annual Boston Marathon when the Tsarnaev brothers strike with their homemade bombs in an act of terrorism. In the resulting chaos as the wounded are cared for, Saunders and his comrades join forces with the FBI to get to the bottom of this attack. With a budget of $45 million dollars, it made over $44 million at the box office.

The casting call for extras for the film resulted in a line stretching the entire quarter-mile length of Braintree Street in Allston. The film’s script was merged into two separate scripts. One was called “Boston Strong” and focused more on the action/thriller side of the story. Another was titled “Patriots Day” which was more of a factual drama. The final script was a mix of the two which would have the film be both factually correct. And would have some tense action to keep the audience involved and entertained.

This is the third collaboration between Mark Wahlberg and Director Peter Berg since Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon. This movie, like their previous collaborations, is also based on a true story.

When this happened in real life it was a big deal. Extremists are always bad. The bombers are shown as villains and are brutal. The film develops its characters with typical American styled banter. Then after the bombing, the people of Boston get mad. I sorta like how everybody swears a lot in it. There’s an impressive/explosive action scene near the end. Then in the ending, It tells you the real-life story in a short video. I recommend this movie to those who like the Boston styled movie, thriller themes and history.

6.6/10