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

 

 

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rate this movie:
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Author: EdG

There are currently 1 Comment »on this post.

Anonymous Content, First Look Media, Participant Media,

Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci, John Slattery

Based on a true story, Spotlight is a special team of of investigative journalists working at the Boston Globe. They take on stories that take extra time and effort, sometime up to a year to seek out all the facts and prepare a special story or series of stories. Led by Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton) the Globe get a new manager from Miami who wants to improve sales. One his ideas is for Spotlight to investigate the policy of the Catholic Church to reassign priests who are known pedophiles, molesting young boys and girls. As the dig into the story, the find much more than they ever expected. This is true story of how they managed to go against all the odds to bring this story to light in one of the most groundbreaking stories of all times.

This movie won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2016. Surprisingly, this is the second film in a row starring Michael Keaton to win Best Picture. This is a very well done Docudrama and won an award for being most accurate portrayal of a real story, and the actors certainly put a LOT of effort into making the depictions of the real characters very lifelike. In fact, many of the reporters hung around the set and were amazed at how accurate the settings and depictions were done. Best film of 2015? I doubt that, but it is a good film. Hollywood types have a strange way of jumping on the bandwagon to to vote for a cause instead of a film, but this is not the worst Best Picture I have seen them choose. But it is popular to bash the Catholics these days. Most of the reporters who investigated the real story were, in fact, Roman Catholics, and they went to great lengths to show the hard choice of telling the story, even if it harms the church that has done a lot of good for the city. This is a conundrum, for sure. The agony in the faces of the folks is very well portrayed. From what I read, the actors did so well in portraying the people, that many of them remarked that it was like looking in a mirror. Robbie Robinson said that if Michael Keaton robbed a bank, the Boston Cops would be standing by ready to put the cuffs on Mr. Robinson in a blink of an eye. It was a nice compliment to the performance Michael pulled off. Basically, the subject matter is hard to take, and they may have been able to spend a little more effort on the victims, instead of all about the reporters, but that is how they chose to show it. All in all, this is a very well done movie and well worth watching. It’s a very serious topic, but very well done.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rate this movie:
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Author: EdG

There are currently No Comments »on this post.

DreamWorks SKG, Reliance Entertainment, Participant Media,

Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander, Carice van Houten

The biographical story of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Daniel Berg, partner and usually the spokesman for Wikileaks and perhaps one of those who most tried to limit and control Julian without much luck. These folks started out disturbed by the way mainstream media repeated what they were fed, and didn’t really seek out the truth most of the time. The internet brought the idea of citizen news rather than big corporate news organizations, and Julian was fascinated with the idea of getting his hands on top secret documents and publishing them to the world without censorship of any kind. Others tried to limit that, as many names and addresses were published without blacking them out, causing a lot of dangerous situations for a lot of people. Some people praise him as a genius innovator, and others as a threat to humanity. The truth lies somewhere in between.

Is this movie a Documentary? Certainly not. It’s based on several books about Wikileaks, and is played by actors and dramatized. Is it true? I have no way to know that as I have no knowledge of what really happened. Julian Assange himself said it was lie upon lie and not much of it’s true. I don’t suspect that’s exactly the case, especially because he liked the way he was portrayed. What I figured out was that he was a very strange character, and rather creepy. As for the movie, I learned very little about the story that isn’t common knowledge, and I found it very difficult to sit through more than two hours of this stuff. I don’t think the story was done very well, and it certainly wasn’t very interesting. I think it probably could have been a lot better and is another of those lost opportunities. Perhaps there’s just not much to the story, but in that case, a totally fictionalized version would have been far more enjoyable than this movie. The phrase “watching paint dry” really describes how I felt watching this. I really didn’t get into the story, and I was relieved when it was finally over. I don’t recommend this story unless you’re really interested in the story, although a visit to Wikipedia might give you more information than this movie did.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rate this movie:
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Author: EdG

There are currently No Comments »on this post.

Summit Entertainment, Exclusive Media Group, Participant Media,

Dwayne Johnson, Barry Pepper, Jon Bernthal, Michael Kenneth Williams, Melina Kanakaredes, Nadine Velazquez, Rafi Gavron, David Harbour, Benjamin Bratt, Susan Sarandon

John Matthews (Dwayne Johnson)’s son was setup in a stupid drug deal, but due to changes in the law, he’s on the hook for a massive sentence unless he helps to setup one of his friends in the same way he was setup. He’s got more character than that, so John is stuck setting out to risk his own life to setup and snag a cartel leader, setting off on a risky plan that could lose everything.

This is a slam-bam adventure story full of chases and and crashes, lots of gunfire, and edge of your seat excitement. This is the type of film The Rock was born to play in. But the basic premise here is pretty far out. I had a hard time buying the whole premise that the justice department’s hands are so tied, that they can’t do anything but hand down a 10 year sentence to an obviously innocent boy. I also found it hard to believe that The Rock would be able to set out and bring down a whole Mexican drug cartel single handed, and that would be the ticket to get his son off. But the action is acceptable, and if you’re a fan of bang-bang action flicks, this is just as good as the next one. The story just didn’t strike me as particularly original, and it was pretty ho-hum for me. I was not bored, and did stay with the whole movie, but it was not very memorable. I’ve seen a lot better. Though not as awful at “Tooth Fairy”, it’s not that great either. So if you’re looking for a typical action film with lots of escape even though it doesn’t make a lot of sense, then this is a decent rental. But for the most part, it’s hardly worth the effort.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rate this movie:
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Author: EdG

There are currently No Comments »on this post.

Participant Media, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ, Blueprint Pictures,

Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Tom Wilkinson, Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup, Dev Patel, Tena Desae, Sid Makkar

A variety of elder British subjects are finding it hard to survive. They all have different problems, different issues, but they all are trying to get by on a meager budget. An brochure shows up of an Indian palace for only elderly people where for a small amount you can stay and enjoy paradise. As they arrive, the harsh reality of how it really is. But the young manager, trying to make the best of his investment, despite the contemptuous way his high class mother treats him. This is the adventure of a bunch of folks trying to get by and making the best of their situation.

This was a charming film. It’s an ensemble piece, and there are many stories going on at the same time. Most of them are very interesting, and the pace is slow and relaxing, and the character development is meticulously done. There are a lot of stars here, but none of them steal the show. It’s the entire cast together that makes it very interesting. The relationship of the hotel manager and his fiance who his mother despises goes through a lot and plays a major part of the story, but it is well done. Each of the stories gets it’s fair share, and all in all, when the fairly long film ends (it’s over 2 hours) it’s very fulfilling. There are hilarious moments, but mature humor, not the high school potty humor of most films today. This is probably not a film that younger folks are going to enjoy. But those of us in the sunset of our lives will identify with the problems these folks have. It’s very British, but here in the U.S. if things go like they are going, we’re headed for many of the same issues, where older folks will not be able to afford to live, and, like one of the characters who needs hip surgery, places like India will make up for the months and months of waiting for a chance to have a procedure like that done under socialized medicine. There is a monologue Sonny (Dev Patel) makes about the idea of outsourcing old people (we’ll take what these countries don’t want) to India, and it sounds reasonable. This may be the next stop for India, taking our social security checks in return for a life of curry and rice. Hey, anything can happen.

All in all, I was pleased with this film. The cinematography was brilliantly done, giving us the feel of India like as if we’ve actually been there. The story is very good, slow developing, but rich in character and charm, and the acting is superb. If you feel up for a brilliantly done dramatic film, this is a good choice. I really enjoyed it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rate this movie:
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Author: EdG

There are currently 1 Comment »on this post.