Hotel Mumbai

Director: Anthony Maras
Year Released: 2018
Rating: 2.0

Recreation of the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, India in which gunmen armed with AK-47s (and a seemingly inexhaustible amount of ammunition) raided several locations - this focuses on the chaos that took place in The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, where kitchen aide Arjun (Dev Patel) and the hotel staff try to get guests (including Armie Hammer and Jason Isaacs) to safety.  Don't get me wrong, the direction by Maras (it's his feature debut) is fast-paced and brutal - the movie doesn't shy away from depicting graphic violence (or wiping out main characters) - and of course there's a baby in peril (he's fine, no worries) but the only message I got from this was "not all Muslims are radicalized lunatics" and that "just because someone has an object on his/her head it doesn't make him/her bad" (Sikhs wear turbans) which should be clear to non-bigots.  The fact that the masterminds of this atrocity got away is upsetting, but what's also worth questioning is why the National Security Guard took several hours to arrive: their motto is, ironically, "omnipresent omnipotent security."  Might want to look up what that first word means....