Deepwater Horizon

Deepwater Horizon

Rating 8 out of 10

I remember when the big oil spill happened in the Gulf and what a mess it was.  Seems I remembered that several men died in that mess.  Unfortunately their deaths were glossed over with all the oil that washed up on beaches.  This movie does a good job of putting faces to those names and showing the sometimes heroic actions some of the men did that saved lives.

The movie starts off showing the every day lives of some of the men that go sometimes 40-50+ miles off the shores of Texas and Louisiana to work on these floating oil rigs.  Most work two weeks on the rigs and then are off for two weeks.  Many years ago as a young man in Louisiana I was going to be hired to work off shore on an oil rig.  I had to wait a month before going out on the rig.  Being impatient I decided to be a roofer instead.

There is some great acting here.  Mark Wahlberg plays Mike Williams who works on most everything on the rig.  The always good Kurt Russell plays crusty vet Mr. Jimmy that oversees everything and is not afraid to tell the BP guys they are idiots.  John Malkovich plays the seedy BP exec that forces bad decisions and then gets to witness the carnage his decisions create.

The action is amazing.  Director Peter Berg likes to jump around with is filming and I was afraid there was going to be lots of shaky cam.  Luckily that doesn't last long and the effects are very good.  My only problem with the movie (always have atleast one) is I didn't feel the movie explained exactly why the well blew out simple enough for those of us that are simple.  It was interesting enough that I went to wiki as soon as I got home to find out.

Good movie.  I definitely recommend it.  The Hottie loved it even more than I did.