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.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Anthem Productions, Paul Schiff Productions,

Finn Wittrock, Aaron Eckhart, Robin Tunney, Sarah Bolger

Based on the book “Courage Beyond the Game: The Freddie Steinmark Story” by Jim Dent this biographic film of Freddie Steinmark follows the history of his life as one of the best high school football players who was recruited by Texas and played in the Game of the Century against Arkansas in 1970. The film is pretty accurate in portraying Freddie’s life story. Being only 5′ 9″ and well under 200 pounds everyone told him he was too little to play defense. But he had been trained by his father very well and was really full of grit and able to play way beyond the level he should have been able to play. An inspiration to the team, Freddie motivated the team to win the SW championship and to be rated Number 1 in his final year. Freddie hid an injury from everyone and played through the pain in the final game until finally he had to go see the doctor and was given a very serious diagnosis. This is a heartwarming, tearjerker of a story showing the enormous fight in this kid.

This film got lost in the shuffle around all the other releases when it came out in the theater in late 2015. Many people have overlooked this film, but it is a very good retelling of the true story, and unlike most docudramas, this one seems to be very accurate on most all points. The research was thorough and it seems they really got it right. Starring Aaron Eckhart as Coach Royal and Finn Wittrock as Freddie, the performances are very good. The characters really look like the real people as well and the actual scene is presented at the end of the film, and it’s real, not recreated. This is a touching story, similar to a lot of the true sports tales, but since it is a true story of an amazing life and how he touched so many people, I was truly impressed with it and though many critics didn’t like the way it was portrayed, I felt it was done properly, with loads of respect, and though a sad story, told in a remarkably upbeat and uplifting way. This is a great football film with lots of sports action that is recreated very close to the actual history, and I highly recommend this film as a good film for all ages.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Amazon Studios, Bleeker Street,

Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Knoxville

Elvis Presley (Michael Shannon) had finished his stint in the Army. He was well established at this point, and needed something to keep himself occupied. Watching TV, he became obsessed by the troubles in the US, with civil unrest and rampant drug use. Elvis wanted a badge. He had a dream of becoming a CIA agent, and set off to Washington D.C. to deliver a handwritten letter to President Richard Nixon (Kevin Spacey). Surprisingly, the two had a famous meeting in the oval office, and this is the story of the events that led to that meeting and the results afterward.

This is a very interesting film. First, this is my first time (I think) viewing an Amazon Studios film. Yeah, that’s the Amazon.com people who like everybody else are jumping into content creation. This was the first feature film picked up by Amazon. Kevin Spacey was heavily involved in the production of this film, and does a hell of a Nixon impersonation. He was really superior in his portrayal of President Nixon. Michael Shannon does his best to try to be Elvis, but actually he doesn’t look or act much like Elvis and I have seen numerous Elvis impersonators (a few in this film, even) who can do Elvis better than he did. But that’s not a huge deal, as no one is really going to be Elvis. This is actually a fairly decent retelling of the what happened according to the folks who were there at the time. This is a small film, very low budget, and not even 90 minutes long, but still it’s an interesting story, one that I’ve heard tell of for most of my life since it happened in 1970, but something I was never really sure of what actually occurred. This was and interesting experience, and if you are interested, I certainly would recommend you watch it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

1492 Pictures, CJ Entertainment, Hyde Park International,

Adam Greaves-Neal, Sara Lazzaro, Vincent Walsh, Sean Bean, Jonathan Bailey, Agni Scott

Based on the novel by Anne Rice called “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt” this is the story of Jesus (Adam Graves-Neal) as a young boy. As the young boy is learning who he is, the family heads out after their hiatus in Egypt. King Herod, from when the child was born, is now dead, and his sons have split the kingdom of Judea into North and South portions. The son who has the southern part was still terrified of the rumors of the Messiah who is foretold, and sends the Roman Severus (Sean Bean) out to find and kill the boy. But young Jesus is determined to figure out his role and many things he still doesn’t completely understand just yet.

This is a generic religious story, as the producers and directors did definitely try to stay true to what might have happened without offending all the different flavors of Christianity of the world, but because there is very, very little information in the Bible about the childhood of Jesus, the writers (and the author) have to take a LOT of liberties and ultimately don’t claim to be telling the true facts, but more a feel for what it might have been like. As such, it is a beautiful film. There aren’t any good films about the youth of Jesus, and it’s nice to think about what it would have been like to be born this special, but as a child, not understanding all of it. I’m sure it took time to learn the whole scope of his mission. The scenery in Italy where most of the film is recorded is beautiful and suits the feeling of Israel perfectly. They purposely chose unknown people to play the holy family so that we would not be distracted by familiar faces. This was an excellent move. This is not a pushy film, not proselyting in any way, and it feels like a biography, yet it is true to the religious beliefs and sensitive to them. It’s a very good balance. This is not “The Greatest Story of All Time” nor “The Ten Commandments”. With a small budget, but a lot of love and care, they crafted a really well made movie without the need to go all out. Less is more in this case, and this is a fine film. Hint: IF you have the DVD, it might be worthwhile to listen to the commentary track after you’ve watched the film. It’s very well done.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Broadway Video, Little Stranger, Paramount Pictures,

Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, Billy Bob Thornton, Nicholas Braun, Christopher Abbott, Sheila Vand, Stephen Peacocke, Evan Jonigkeit, Josh Charles

Based on the memoirs of Kim Baker (Tina Fey) this is the story of a news reporter who is embedded with the Marines in Afghanistan and the dangers and excitement of trying to get the scoop and bet out other reporters while being in harms way every moment. This is the true story of this reporters experiences over a number of years in the early years of the 2000’s.

I was caught off guard by this film. Knowing it’s Tina Fey, and looking at the posters in the theaters, and not knowing anything about the content in advance, I expected a comedy romp through the middle east. This is NOT a comedy by any means. Now I have lots of respect for Tina Fey, and I don’t think she did really bad in this serious role, but still it was a little off putting to have her play such a dramatic and dark role. I ended up having a hard time keeping my attention on this film and found my mind wandering away. The story is interesting enough, but other than a few short episodes, most of it was bad romance and lots of talking and talking. One highlight was Bill Bob Thorton who plays the commander of the team Kim is placed in. He did a really good job, though it wasn’t a big role, playing this guy as tough as nails with a kind streak a mile long. I enjoyed him any time he was on the screen. But for the most part, it dragged and was not really that interesting to me. I was not highly impressed with this movie, and I guess the public pretty much agreed with me as it really disappeared in a hurry and ended up on DVD pretty quickly. If you are really interested in the subject of a female reporter in Afghanistan, the you’ll probably do better reading the book, and if you’re not particularly interested in the subject, then there’s probably not enough substance here to make it worth watching this nearly 2 hour film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog