I wasn’t sure I was going to buy John Krasinski as a bearded, ex-military tough guy. I wondered if every once in a while somebody would shout out something obvious (“They’re storming the gate!”) and he’d turn to face the camera and smirk. But it turns out he’s definitely believable as a tough guy. As are all the major leads—James Badge Dale and Pablo Schreiber in particular.

I’m sure you all know the basic plot by now, but if you haven’t watched a news broadcast in the last couple of years, I’ll make it brief: a terrorist force overruns the temporary “consulate” (which housed Ambassador Chris Stevens, killed in the attack) in Benghazi, and follows it up with an attack on a CIA outpost a short distance away. Krasinski’s Jack Silva (a fake name for a real dude) and five others from the outpost break protocol to help the consulate’s inadequate security staff, at significant risk to their own lives.

Although any film about this incident is going to touch on politics, the film manages to avoid addressing them head on, but it’s a “damned if you do; damned if you don’t” situation, because we never really find out in the film a) why the consulate is being attacked, and by whom, and b) why the help that we assume will be coming, never really does. That last one is particularly frustrating. You keep wanting to yell at the screen “c’mon! There’s a drone watching it all happen, for chrissakes!” But despite what a number of reviewers assert (like the guy who gave it a zero, and seemed to be obsessed that the leads were all sporting beards, because he kept mentioning it. Really, dude? A zero?) the film isn’t really an attack on former Senator and Secretary of State You Know Who. In fact, her name’s never mentioned once. Instead, the film focuses on these six men in the face of overwhelming odds. And so the “bad guy” is really the faceless political system that puts its citizens into harm’s way…and leaves them there. It’s personified in the CIA outpost chief (played by David Costabile), a bureaucrat so concerned with politics, he can’t seem to spit without calling for authorization first.

The film has two major strengths. The first is that it does well in conveying the men’s frustration and suspicion of the locals. The men are working with a local militia, and many of the other locals seem friendly, or even disinterested in the goings on. But as is made clear very early on, one can never be sure where loyalties lie. Are those guys coming out of the bushes here to help us or kill us? Why does the head of the local militia group have the bad guys on speed dial? We don’t know, either, and it leads to a number of suspenseful moments. The second strength is the action itself. It was visceral and frenetic and chaotic and completely believable. It was some of the best war footage I’ve seen since…Saving Private Ryan, maybe? (And be warned: there is a fair amount of gore here, too.) But it’s directed by Michael Bay. Action is what he does.

The film does have some major flaws, though. It’s quite long, which, although that does convey a sense of just how agonizingly endless this incident must have seemed to those involved, and reinforces the tragedy of being left with no backup, it still wears on you. And it gets a little corny here and there. (Bay does action; he doesn’t do drama.) The dialogue is corny (“I’m proud to know an American like you.”), some of the shots (including a shot he stole from his own Pearl Harbor) get a little operatic, and we never really quite get to know these men as much as we’d like. Bay is content to let us know them—except for a few clichéd scenes—only through their action. But like I said, it’s damn good action.

IMDB gives it a 7.5, all from FOX News viewers, if you believe the left-leaning media reviews (although Slate, even though it leans left, had a pretty fair review, if you want to check it out). I don’t think I can go that high. I enjoyed it, but enjoyed it like I would an old-fashioned war picture, just with better special effects. A 6.5 from me. (running time 2:24)