Code Name Geronimo

With all the hype, I thought for certain this would be a strong 2 hours of television. Wrong. Little character development; less in depth behind the scenes; even the acting was bad. Without the actual footage of of September 11 and Pres. Obama, it would have been even worse. Then NatGeo filled the program with commercials and seemingly ran the same set of spots at each break. Just brutally bad. For contrast, go watch Showtime's Homeland. Indeed, this looked very much like a low budget, independent production filmed on a back-lot south of Los Angeles. I was truly looking for an engaging 'documentary-style' film. I am not quite sure what I saw tonight. And if you haven't seen it, don't. Go watch Swamp People or FashionPolice. I am sure they are better!

I think its a good movie, except for the Obama propaganda aspect of it. It does credit to those who actually are responsible for killing Bin Laden. To those with intelligence and who are informed, it will be hard to ignore the fact that the man who was least responsible for the missions success and had to be dragged kicking and screaming to approve this mission, is made out to be the hero. I am disappointed, but not surprised, that National Geographic made and aired this. It has ruined their reputation and exposes its political bias. I would advise to stay clear of this movie. Its government propaganda that has little to do with facts.

I gave it a one because it was the lowest rating possible. If we were to edit this movie down to the facts, it would have been about five minutes long.

It's one thing to take some artistic licence with a true story, but this movie didn't take licence. It seemed like they didn't get any support from the military and they didn't do much research. A lot of the details I noticed probably wouldn't have been noted by the average viewer.

However, the most glaring detail was the way the military was portrayed - like a bunch of high school drama queens. The kind of garbage portrayed in this movie was unrealistic at best.

Please, PLEASE don't waste your time.

Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden (2012)

*** (out of 4)

Made-for-TV docudrama taking a look at the Seal operation's twenty-two minute mission that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. The film starts off nearly a year earlier when the CIA comes across information of a possible hideout for the terrorist and then we follow the steps it took to take him down. SEAL TEAM SIX certainly isn't a masterpiece and there are all sorts of flaws in it but at the same time I think it gets the job done with a high entertainment factor. I think the film works best as pure entertainment because there's really a lack of drama or suspense that keeps it from being better. I'm not even certain how accurate everything is but this here doesn't matter too much because there's no question that the film grabs your attention right from the start and doesn't let it go. I think the best moments in the film are all the behind the scenes stuff where we get to see what was going on inside the CIA as they were trying to get the President to sign off on the operation. I enjoyed seeing this stuff as the CIA would have to discuss what proof they had that bin Laden was in this building as well as having to look at what would happen if they were wrong. The performances were all very good and one really couldn't ask for more. The flaws of the film include some very weak CGI effects at times as well as an annoying use of real photographs to try and build drama. Most of the photographs are of President Obama and having still frame photos in the movie just made the thing feel cheap and it certainly didn't add anything. We'll have to wait and see how the second, theatrical bin Laden movie will compare but while this one is flawed it's at least entertaining.

Seal Team Six is a 2008 American war film directed by the producer of The Hurt Locker, John Stockwell, inspired by actual events. John Stockwell (born on March 25, 1961) is an American actor, director, producer, writer and former model. It's a low-budget film which deals with the end of the infamous al-Qaeda head, Bin Laden, on May 2nd 2011. Moreover, it's a very short film which lasts only 90 minutes. After receiving orders of their superiors about the guarded compound in Pakistan, US intelligence have to dismantle the mission in a time limited. Very close to Zero Dark Thirty by Kathryn Bigelow, SEAL Team Six focuses on the truthfulness of the events and of the actions. It looks like a documentary which protects the X files of the government. The facts in the film were not "confirmed or denied" by White House officials. On the first hand, the script and direction are fairly matter-of-fact, even if there are lots of amazing shots of sunsets and landscapes), but on the other hand, there are lots of excellent performances as Connors, Ross Martin (as Mangus), Kamala Devi (as Teela), Pat Conway (as Captain William Maynard), and Adam West (as Delahay). These performances show why Geronimo is a success. The defects of the film are to avoid torture and to add fiction to reality. Yet, this film has lots of qualities as the final gunfight, the suspense, the moment of actions and the witch hunt against Bin Laden. We can also talk of the effects which engender the sense of danger and peril. They are no clear "bad guys" and "good guys" here. Rather, the conflicts of the film are portrayed as resulting from cultural dispositions, duty and necessity. Moreover, the film is visually amazing. The movie seems to be fascinating and full of new development but it has some little errors. It was nominated for the "Outstanding Art Direction For A Miniseries Or Movie" and for the "Outstanding Sound Editing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special" in 2013. It was not the red-carpet premiere that John had in mind. Positive criticism: "Very interesting, I look first "Zero Dark Thirty" because it was a famous film by Kathryn Bigelow, and I personally think that "Code Name Geronimo" is better than it. The acting is amazing!" Negative criticism: "Fichtner, once again typecast as a stern authority figure, is arguably the best of a mediocre lot, but fails to ignite the film's plethora of arduous and poorly written scenes within US intelligence HQ. Similarly irksome is the grating contrivance that almost no member of this apparent 'crack team' of SEALs is able to keep their emotions in check for seemingly any longer than five minutes. Predictably, macho face-offs are in plentiful supply."

To conclude, I personally think that this film is a human and subjective vision of the war by the soldiers who are constantly trapped between life and death. I prefer Seal Team Six because it is more realistic than Zero Dark Thirty which is too exaggerated.