Review of The Finest Hours (2016) by Leon B — 15 Oct 2016

Review:

Although this movie was epic, and the whole rescue element was quite touching, it wasn't character driven, and there wasn't much depth to the characters, except for Chris Pine (Bernie Webber), who heads the rescue. Casey Affleck (Ray Sybert), was very calm and collected, as the ship captain who is waiting to be rescued while his ship is crumbling and his crew is panicking, and so was Eric Bana (Daniel Cluff), who sent Bernie out to head the rescue. Ben Foster (Richard Livesey), also seemed very calm as he was helping Bernie with the rescue, so it was hard to feel emotional about the whole situation. The only person who seemed to be worried about her loved one, was Bernie's fiance Miriam Webber, played by Holliday Grainger, who went through hell to get information about the whole mission but there didn't seem to be anyone else who cared about what was happening in the deep sea. I couldn't understand why they took out such a small boat to save a big crew, and with the terrible weather ahead, I'm shocked that the boat made it back in one piece. With that aside, it did look great and it seemed real but with the power of technology, and some clever CGI, I wasn't surprised from Disney. By the end of the film, I did feel a bit empty, and it was a shame that the director didn't show the aftermath of such a huge ordeal. Anyway, it's a watchable film but the fantastic journey could have been portrayed much better. Watchable!

Round-Up:

After making such a lose at the box office, like a lot of true motion Disney movies, I can't see this damaging the studio but I'm sure that Chris Pine and Casey Affleck will be disappointed, after putting so much effort into there performances. The movie was directed by Craig Gillespie, who also brought you Mr. Woodcock with Billy Bob Thornton, Lars and the Real Girl with Ryan Gosling, the awful Fright Night remake with Colin Farrell and Million Dollar Arm, which went down well at the box office. He put together a decent cast for this film but he didn't push the actors to the limit, in terms of emotion and depth. I personally was disappointed with the structure of the film, and I can understand why audiences and the critics didn't make that much noise when it was released.

Budget: $80million.

Worldwide Gross: $52.1million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/history/dramas, starring Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Eric Bana, Holliday Grainger, John Oritz and Kyle Gallner. 4/10.