From the opening scene, I could tell this wasn’t gonna be a feel good movie. We get some foreshadowing of what’s to come from a little girl puncturing a soda can. Deepwater Horizon is a film based on true events. A man-made disaster that occurred April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. An oil rig in which the film is named after exploded causing an oil spill and taking the lives of eleven men. I am not spoiling the film as this is an incident that happened almost ten years ago.
It is directed by Peter Berg, who also headed Patriots Day. It is another tragic film that tells the story of the bombings that took place during the Boston Marathon in 2013. Look for my review on that later this month. It stars Mark Wahlberg as well, so these two are no strangers when it comes to working together on these types of projects. Now that we got that out of the way let’s jump right into it. The writers don’t waste any time letting you know something is amiss in the operation.
For over 20 minutes you’ll keep hearing the question, “Did Schlumberger team run a cement bond log test?” Turns out they didn’t. In addition the phones are down. Not a good sign for our crew members. The cast consists of Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Douglas M. Griffin, James DuMont, and other grimy looking fellas. There’s lots of clever dialogue here between different characters. All of it pretty much the same. The managers and executives want to drill a hole but the grunt workers don’t feel its safe.
If I had to categorize a theme for this film it would be greed. After over an hour of exposition things start to go north, vertical, off the chain, ape s#*t crazy! You think you see it coming but trust me you don’t. My mouth dropped from the chaos that ensued. I know the Oscars are all about movies that portray the worse of human suffering but damn. Give me a break! There is so much carnage taking place as this rig goes bananas. Now I see why my girlfriend didn’t want to see this. However, I’m a morbid guy so such things don’t bother me too much.
As far as performances go, everyone is just there. Lots of swearing, crying, screaming, sweating, frowning, and dying. I saw no standouts in this story. No honorable mentions. Just your typical disaster film. Glad I didn’t go to the theater to see this. I certainly would have been disappointed. It made me wonder why someone would make this into a movie. For example, if someone decided to make a movie about 9/11 I would not wanna see it. We know what happened and will always remember. Hollywood needs to stop cashing in on the tragedy of others. On the other hand, we got to see what assholes BP are. I give this one a 6.5 out of 10.