Deepwater Horizon

October 7, 2016

Jays Rating:
Actors: /

Deepwater Horizon is the latest disaster film that actually takes viewers through the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. The date is April 2010, and electrical technician Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) says goodbye to his wife Felicia (Kate Hudson) and their daughter and leaves home to spend three weeks on the oil rig, Deepwater Horizon. Within minutes of arriving on the oil platform, Mike notices things aren’t working correctly and shares his observations with his colleagues, Andrea Sleytas (Gina Rodriguez) and Crew Chief, Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell). There are problems with the telephones, the smoke alarms, and safety equipment that just isn’t working. When these and other issues are brought to the attention of BP executive, Vidrine (John Malkovich) he accused them of looking for the negative and reminded them they are forty-three days behind schedule and losing money. They run a pressure safety check on the underwater lines which resulted in a methane gas leak and explosion setting the oil rig on fire. Mike is at the center of the excitement and before the end only 95 of the 105 employees on the rig escape with their lives. Now don’t expect to watch this film and learn what impact the oil spill had on the environment – it’s simply not that kind of film. The first half of this movie is the setup and the anticipation of the catastrophe and the second half is the actual destruction of the oil rig. My wife said the disaster scenes looked really authentic and I could feel the tension in the story. Some scenes seemed a little over dramatized, but that’s expected in this type of film. The studio built a replica of an oil rig right off the coast of Louisiana just to destroy it during the shooting of the movie. Overall, this film is fast-paced, exciting, and effective in showing the audience how corporate greed was the real cause this ecological disaster. I’m giving this emotional disaster film a B rating.

This movie has been given a PG13 rating by the MPAA

Although I am blind, I can appreciate a good movie as well as sighted individuals. I rely more on a good story line than special effects.