The Choice is another Nicholas Sparks book that has been made into a movie and 11 of his books have been made into a movie so far, which is an incredible number . Everyone would probably agree that his best movie was The Notebook , which came out in 2004.

Of all the best selling authors right now have to figure that the most successful is Nicholas Sparks if you combine the number of books sold with the number of books made into a movie.  Clearly the all time winner in net worth would be the author of the Harry Potter books JK Rowling, who reportedly is a billionaire. All of the 11 Sparks movies, with the possible exception of the Notebook, follow the same formulaic paradigm.  They are all about a love story that involve some major conflict and then a climax and almost always some kind of a happy ending and many attempts to make you cry.   This movie “The Choice” is not an exception to the Sparks formula and at times it seems you are watching some part of the other 10 movies that have been made from his books, but despite this this movie works because of the solid acting from two relatively unknown actors Benjamin Walker and Theresa Palmer and a story that for the most part was well told.  As with all Sparks movie there are scenes of heavy drama and major conflict, but despite these reminders of other Sparks movies, the movie still works.

Despite the formula-like plot and story I do recommend this movie.

The Choice – IMDB

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
BRYAN CRANSTON / Dalton Trumbo – “TRUMBO” (Bleecker Street)
JOHNNY DEPP / James “Whitey” Bulger – “BLACK MASS” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
WINNER: LEONARDO DiCAPRIO / Hugh Glass – “THE REVENANT” (20th Century Fox)
MICHAEL FASSBENDER / Steve Jobs – “STEVE JOBS” (Universal Pictures)
EDDIE REDMAYNE / Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe – “THE DANISH GIRL” (Focus Features)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
CATE BLANCHETT / Carol Aird – “CAROL” (The Weinstein Company)
WINNER: BRIE LARSON / Ma – “ROOM” (A24)
HELEN MIRREN / Maria Altmann – “WOMAN IN GOLD” (The Weinstein Company)
SAOIRSE RONAN / Eilis – “BROOKLYN” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
SARAH SILVERMAN / Laney Brooks – “I SMILE BACK” (Broad Green Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
CHRISTIAN BALE / Michael Burry – “THE BIG SHORT” (Paramount Pictures)
WINNER: IDRIS ELBA / Commandant – “BEASTS OF NO NATION” (Netflix)
MARK RYLANCE / Abel Rudolph – “BRIDGE OF SPIES” (DreamWorks)
MICHAEL SHANNON / Rick Carver – “99 HOMES” (Broad Green Pictures)
JACOB TREMBLAY / Jack – “ROOM” (A24)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
ROONEY MARA / Therese Belivet – “CAROL” (The Weinstein Company)
RACHEL McADAMS / Sacha Pfeiffer – “SPOTLIGHT” (Open Road Films)
HELEN MIRREN / Hedda Hopper – “TRUMBO” (Bleecker Street)
WINNER: ALICIA VIKANDER / Gerda Wegener – “THE DANISH GIRL” (Focus Features)
KATE WINSLET / Joanna Hoffman – “STEVE JOBS” (Universal Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
BEASTS OF NO NATION (Netflix)
ABRAHAM ATTAH / Agu
KURT EGYIAWAN / 2nd I-C
IDRIS ELBA / Commandant

THE BIG SHORT (Paramount Pictures)
CHRISTIAN BALE / Michael Burry
STEVE CARELL / Mark Baum
RYAN GOSLING / Jared Vennett
MELISSA LEO / Georgia Hale
HAMISH LINKLATER / Porter Collins
JOHN MAGARO / Charlie Geller
BRAD PITT / Ben Rickert
RAFE SPALL / Danny Moses
JEREMY STRONG / Vinny Peters
MARISA TOMEI / Cynthia Baum
FINN WITTROCK / Jamie Shipley

WINNER: SPOTLIGHT (Open Road Films)
BILLY CRUDUP / Eric MacLeish
BRIAN D’ARCY JAMES / Matty Carroll
MICHAEL KEATON / Walter “Robby” Robinson
RACHEL McADAMS / Sacha Pfeiffer
MARK RUFFALO / Michael Rezendes
LIEV SCHREIBER / Marty Baron
JOHN SLATTERY / Ben Bradlee, Jr.
STANLEY TUCCI / Mitchell Garabedian

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (Universal Pictures)
NEIL BROWN JR. / DJ Yella
PAUL GIAMATTI / Jerry Heller
COREY HAWKINS / Dr. Dre
ALDIS HODGE / MC Ren
O’SHEA JACKSON JR. / Ice Cube
JASON MITCHELL / Eazy-E

TRUMBO (Bleecker Street)
ADEWALE AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE / Virgil Brooks
LOUIS C.K. / Arlen Hird
BRYAN CRANSTON / Dalton Trumbo
DAVID JAMES ELLIOTT / John Wayne
ELLE FANNING / Niki Trumbo
JOHN GOODMAN / Frank King
DIANE LANE / Cleo Trumbo
HELEN MIRREN / Hedda Hopper
MICHAEL STUHLBARG / Edward G. Robinson
ALAN TUDYK / Ian McLellan Hunter

Given that this incident in Libya happened on September 11, 2012 I am rather surprised that it took this long to make a movie about what happened that day.

Micheal Bay has a very unique way of making movies and I for one mostly find his constant flashing to different scenes method quite annoying, but for this movie; which was a lot like “Black Hawk Down” his style of direction mostly worked, much to my surprise. At times the movie dragged on too long and it took almost full hour before anything really happened.  In the end, soldiers with families were killed and many civilians were in harms way during the raid which started at the Ambassador’s compound and then moved to the CIA location in the city. Given the size of the attack and the weapons used, its rather extraordinary that more people were not killed. The war scenes were very well done and realistic for the most part during this over 2 hour movie.

Chris Stevens US Ambassador to Benghazi Libya was killed in the raid on his compound on September 11, 2012 and as a result major political problems and blame towards Hilary Clinton, who was the Secretary of State at the time, began. The bottom line is that Libya is now a stronghold for ISIS and for the most part there is nothing anyone can do to avoid future attacks like this, including terrorist attacks.  As far as the blame anyone should take for this raid, including Hillary Clinton ; that is ultimately up to each individual to decide on their own. The problem with Congress and investigations like this one is they are always looking for someone to blame for anything that goes wrong, but the real blame for an attack like this is years of mistakes that were made that has enabled terrorism and countries like Libya to exist in the first place.

Despite the slow parts in this movie, and there were several, the tension level was at a high level most of the time and I do recommend this movie which reminded me of the movie “Black Hawk Down”.

13 Hours – IMDB