Deepwater Horizon - Movie Review

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Kate Hudson, Dylan O'Brien, Ethan Suplee, Brad Leland and J.D. Evermore.
Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan & Matthew Sand.
Directed by Peter Berg.

★★★½

This is a solid, straightforward effort as the star (Mark Wahlberg) and director (Peter Berg) of Lone Survivor are reunited to tell the story of the 12 hours that led up to the explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig that led to the biggest oil disaster in history.

It's white-collar vs. blue-collar. Kurt Russell is Jimmy Harrell, the head of the rig and the one who wants to make sure all of the safety tests have been conducted. John Malkovich is Vidrine, the BP exec who feels like they're behind schedule and they don't really need to do all of the tests. While they're the main conflict, the movie also has us get to know Mike (Mark Wahlberg) and Andrea (Gina Rodriguez) and a few other crew members so that we care about these characters before the inevitable disaster hits.

Once it does, it becomes The Towering Inferno at Sea. Berg has already demonstrated himself to be a solid action director, and he makes the stakes harrowing. A few crew members did die that night, and unless you studied the backstory before seeing the movie, you won't which ones might be among them.

At the same time, this does feel respectful to the people who were involved in this tragedy. No Jack & Rose love story thrown in.

Red 2 - DVD Review

Starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Mary-Louise Parker, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung Hung-Lee, David Thewlis, Neal McDonough and Brian Cox.  Directed by Dean Parisot.

★★½

There's a certain breezy silliness to the whole affair, aging hitmen brought out of retirement.  Morgan Freeman's presence is missed, but Malkovich and Mirren still seem to be having a grand old time, and the script is clever enough that we don't feel bogged down by overdoing what made the first one work. Bruce Willis phones it in, to the point that I'm trying to remember the last time he didn't phone it in.

Warm Bodies - Movie Review

Starring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco and Analeigh Tipton.
Directed by Jonathan Levine.


★★★


The voice-over narration is by a witty fellow, but unfortunately that narrator is trapped in a zombie body who can only shuffle along and manage some moans and grunts.  His grunts get more strained when he meets a cute girl.  So ultimately this is a perfect metaphor for lovestruck teenhood.

R (Nicholas Hoult) is one of many zombies that came about a plague struck Earth eight years before whenever we are now.  He's called R because that's the only part of his original name he remembers. You may remember Hoult as Beast from X-Men: First Class. He's been in many other things, but his work as R is going to be the role where now I won't forget who Hoult is.  ("Who's Nicholas Hoult?" "The guy from Warm Bodies." "Oh yeah...")

Now underneath it all, yeah, it's a twist on the Twilight craze, where Romeo's a zombie instead of a vampire, but it's decidedly a comedy first, and it works. It also has less gore than your random Walking Dead episode.