Review of Deepwater Horizon (2016) by Joshua S — 22 Oct 2016

It's hard to critique a movie like Deepwater Horizon without tripping over the same clichés and points that I have made about a dozen other similar films over the last few years. It's a sound and sturdy yarn about blue-collar professionals who do their job and do it well, but are undone by unchecked corporate greed.

Much of it focuses on all-American family man Mark Wahlberg, who is the chief engineer of a hardscrabble oil exploratory crew contracted by an increasingly profit-concerned BP, represented by John Malkovich in a slimy, but somewhat fun performance.

I'm going to go against the grain here and posit that the series of increasingly stupid decisions that led to the disaster were more interesting than the action scenes later on, as I felt they were pretty average and typical for the genre.

To be honest I was somewhat disappointed with Deepwater Horizon, expecting a bit more meat on its bones. I appreciate how it did avoid pointless melodrama, but there is very little characterization or reason to care for anyone on screen beyond the protagonist and his best friend and boss Kurt Russel (a case of perfect casting).

There's also little mention of the incredible environmental and ecological damage done to the Gulf of Mexico as a result of this shitfest. But I'm nitpicking a movie that was probably not intended for viewers such as myself - general audiences prefer straightforward, no frills flicks.

I'm still curious why this movie didn't take off with that in mind, but I suspect that this will do well in the home video and streaming markets in the months to come. Flip a coin on this one people.