Ed's Review Dot Com

Summit Entertainment, Participant Media, Di Bonaventura Pictures,

Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O’Brien, Kate Hudson

Deepwater Horizon is a fact based docudrama covering the 2010 explosion and oil spill on the floating rig Deepwater Horizon leased by BP. The crew from Transocean dug the initial well, and stabilize it with cement then cap it off and leave before the drilling crew from BP come aboard and finish the well. As they were over a month late, and over budget, BP was pressuring them to finish up and get on with it. Due to some likely shortcuts and unwise savings, the well suddenly erupted starting a huge fire which killed 11 men, and caused the rig to sink to the bottom of the ocean starting the largest oil spill in US history. This film is the story of the events leading up to and to the evacuation and rescue of the survivors after the fire. Led by Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) and his technical right hand man Mike Williams (Mark Walberg), and their interactions with BP executive Vidrine (John Malkovich) this exciting tale feels like a simple action movie but is based on the real events of 2010.

Produced by Wahlberg and Directed by Peter Berg, this is an excellent film. The excitement and action is first rate, special effects are mind boggling, and the movie still develops the characters and their motivations, and the human interest side of the story is developed very well too. Kurt Russell is amazing, as always, and Mark Wahlberg did a fantastic job as well. It is nice to Kurt and his daughter Kate Hudson who played Mark Wahlberg’s wife together as well. The beginning of the story was a bit slow, as it takes a great deal of time to give us all the background information of who the characters are, and why they are doing what they are doing. If this were fiction, that could have been shortened a little bit, but because to the need to be truthful to the facts, it is important to give us all this information about how it could happen. As soon as I got out of the theater, I looked it up in Wikipedia to see how accurate it was, and after having seen the film, I was surprised to learn how much I knew about the facts of what happened just based on those first 40 minutes or so while the story was introduced. But one trouble starts, thing get really moving real fast. It was an awful disaster, and I feel like I was there. One point though, although 11 men died in the explosion and fire, a great deal of damage happened long after the event (and is still happening). Though the film gives us the welcome pictures of the real people portrayed, and the words on screen telling us who quit the oil business after, and what essentially happened to the people, it does not spend any time talking about the consequences of the aftermath. For that reason, I would highly recommend that after you see this exciting film, that you do a tiny bit of research on your own to try to get the full picture of the whole story. This is a very good movie, and I highly recommend it for you.

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Marvel Studios, Vita-Ray Dutch Productions (III), Studio Babelsberg,

Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Daniel Brühl, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Frank Grillo, William Hurt

The government has determined that the Avengers are too dangerous to be left unchecked, and they set out to pass a law to limit their powers and only allow them to use superpowers upon the request of the government. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is determined to follow the new law as the mutants create fear, and as long as the run free, people will challenge them time after time. Captain America, (Chris Evans) on the other hand feels that protecting citizens is their ultimate goal, and the government cannot be trusted to make decisions for them. They all choose sides as Iron Man and Captain America become bitter enemies and try to destroy each other. But perhaps another person is afraid of challenging the Avengers on his own, but want to provoke them to wipe out each other.

This was a long awaited film, and brings back most of the Marvel characters, although I felt it was a bit of a disappointment. First of all, I can’t really keep all the different comic book superheroes straight and remembering who is with whom is too much for me. Not that I’m a fan of comic book superheroes in the first place. The battles were good, and it was nice to see all the different characters together. But the story was too hokey for my liking, and at over 2 1/2 hours, it still didn’t seem to really go anywhere. It seems that sometimes when there are too many characters, there is no way to pay justice to each of them fully. That may be the reason why I found it lacking in depth. All in all it seemed pointless to me. So I wasn’t a big fan of this particular film. This film was out at the same time as “X-Men: Apocalypse” and between two I chose to see the X-Men. I’m glad I did, as I felt it was the better of the two. However, since this film is now out on DVD, it’s worth watching since it was not all that bad, especially if you’re a fan of this genre.

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Odyssey Media,

John Cusack, Thomas Jane, Damien Garvey, Zoe Ventoura, Christopher Morris

Peter Roberts (Thomas Jane) was a top notch race car driver. But his wife wanted him to quit as she was pulling in a decent salary and she was afraid he might get hurt. So he works part time as a driving instructor. One day he is requested to teach Simon Keller (John Cusack) and he sets out to teach him how to drive on the “other” side of the road since he is not familiar with driving on that side. But after a brief stop at the bank, Peter learns he is now the getaway driver of a massive bank heist, and they are running for their lives from both the good guys AND the bad guys in this exciting high speed adventure.

John Cusack is really good in this role that is just right for him. It was great casting. He’s perfect for those understated, overly calm, crazy people that is perfect for this role. Jane on the other hand, is very good at the broken down, self doubting husband, who is afraid that his wife doesn’t care for him anymore. He’s making choices to try to make her happy, but the more he tries, the more he fails, so even though he is appalled at being kidnapped and forced to drive on a trip that he probably won’t survive, on some level it’s the most excitement he’s had in a long time. This is an action packed adventure with some Fast and Furious style driving, gun fights, double crosses, and twists and turns all the way through. I saw this film on Netflix and I found it actually worth-while. It has been in my watch list for quite a while, and I’m glad that I finally got around to it/ I should have watched it sooner, as it was an exciting film.

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Highland Film Group (HFG), Hassell Free Production, Ingenious Media

Nicolas Cage, Elijah Wood, Sky Ferreira, Jerry Lewis

Stone (Nicholas Cage) and Waters (Elijah Wood) are two cops who work in the evidence room of the Las Vegas Police Department. When a huge bail payment comes in, and is locked in the safe, the two hatch a plan to take it. They kidnap a lady who lives next to the safe, and use her apartment to try to break through the safe, in this unusual heist movie.

First of all Nick Cage has his fans, and those who hate his guts. Few sit in between, but I really thought he did a good job in this film. I also would not expect him mesh well with Elijah Wood as his partner, but surprisingly they did work well together. I always think hobbit when I see Elijah Wood, but I was able to put it aside as he did a good job in a totally non-similar role here. The budget was pretty low, but they used it very well. The story is entertaining and somewhat stressful, and the the events twist and turn several times throughout the ending of the movie. I certainly would not have seen that ending coming. I think it was fairly well put together, and is certainly an unusual buddy cop movie. It’s probably unlike any other film of its genre. I enjoyed it, and though it is certainly not a great film, it’s certainly good enough to spend some time with, and I must say, I did enjoy it. I can recommend this film, mostly due to the really good acting from both leads. Plus, Jerry Lewis pops in for a cameo role, and how can you beat that?

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Paramount Pictures, Alibaba Pictures Group, Bad Robot,

Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba

In the beginning of the 5 year mission to go where no man has gone before, Kirk (Chris Pine) takes the crew into an uncharted nebula on a rescue mission that goes very bad and strands the Enterprise and the crew out of communications range from the Federation on a planet with a really bad guy Krall (Idris Elba) who has plans to put an end of the Federation due to an old grudge. Kirk and the crew plus a few new found friends have to find a way to defeat Krall and find a way back home.

This is epic Star Trek. It is hard to believe that it has been 50 years since Star Trek first lit up our TV screens. This is a nod back to the original, perhaps as a nod to the 50th anniversary. The cast who play the younger version of the original crew do an excellent job, and this is a really good story with lots of excitement and action, along with the close relationship of the crew and a splash of real humor thrown in for good measure. I really enjoy this cast, and the addition of a brand new character, Jaylah, played by Sofia Boutella is a great addition to the cast. I saw this film in IMAX 3D and really enjoyed being in the middle of the action. This is not a perfect movie. There’s a new director this time out, and some of the choices are not perfect, but the affection for the characters, and the excellent script makes up for it. Are there some plot holes? Certainly. When has Star Trek NOT had plot holes? The style is an allegory tale, almost a science-fiction fairy tale, that does require some suspension of reality once in a while. That’s not a problem for me. I appreciate that mankind in the future will still be based in morals and values and trying to do right by one another. All in all, I really enjoyed another venture into the Star Trek universe, and found the experience very delightful. Great film!

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