Operation Red Sea

A blustery, noisy, polished, jingoistic hot mess based on the real life PLA evacuation of 500 Chinese nationals from Yemen in 2015.

Neither the story nor characters have any moral ambiguity or psychological shadings.

Ultimately this is all about the action, and that's something Operation Red Sea delivers in spades.

"Operation Red Sea" offers everything a fan of action blockbusters would ever with from the genre, and that is where the true value for one of the greatest entries in the category lies.

Despite only being 3 months into 2018, I'm not afraid to call Operation Red Sea one of the best action films of the year.

A cataclysmic cross between the gung-ho jingoist action blowouts of Michael Bay and the heroic bloodshed melodramas of Hong Kong, the film's more-is-more aesthetic resulted in one of the most thrilling and punishing spectacles in recent world cinema.

For all its unabashed jingoism (including a South China Sea warning towards the end), the hellish displays of combat it includes hardly make for an advertisement to enlist.

Basically every great, good and decent war movie rolled into one amazing must-see spectacle.

Hostages, helicopters, drones, boats, x-ray smartphones, snipers, night-vision goggles and bombs, stitched together with adrenalized pacing and superior stunts.

The unflinching rawness of the action has considerable impact while undercutting the dominant jingoistic tone.