Hollywood will never run out of stories for war movies. There are probably millions of stories that will never get told, while some of the most heroic ones get silver screen treatment. 12 Strong has a great premise, but I got to admit if I never heard about this event, I would have been okay. Right after the events of 9/11, the 12 men of unit 595 head over to Afghanistan to start the war on terror…with a couple of guns and a handful of horses. As the story unfolds, most of the typical war movie clichés rear their ugly head, like lack of intelligence, terrible communication, and no back up. It is 2018 and 17 years later, America never really won the war over there, and thousands of people lost their lives. No one could ever imagine if it wasn’t for these 12 men, how bad America could have failed over there when they finally landed in masses. I felt the movie moved at a slow pace and was longer than it needed to be. Ana pointed out that some of the story could have been trimmed, which I agree. We don’t get very in-depth backgrounds on the 12 fighters, which could have gone a long way towards our investment in outcome. There are already a hundred movies about the battles across the globe post 9/11 and I’ve seen a good chuck of them. Although the action sequences were pretty good and intense, I’ve seen better and deserved better from this particular cast. 6/10
Ten Stars or Less 