I had some trepidation when I ordered tickets to this one but it had Mark Wahlberg and it was about one of the worst oil spill disasters in history and maybe, just maybe they would do a good job. I was sadly disappointed. Although they do try in a minor way to pin this on British Petroleum there is absolutely no message here about environmental issues or the irresponsibility of the oil industry to prevent these kinds of situations. Instead it is literally all about the night of the blow out and the desperate acts of the men and women on the rig to escape. The film is very confusing. Dialogue is hard to make out over the simulated din of the machines, you have no idea who the characters are, what their roles are, what the relationships are between the workers or why the disaster happened at all. No attempt is made to explain how all the systems on board would fail simultaneously. And the film is loud, wear ear plugs if you go. The attempts at escape are also very confusing and we have two hours of screaming, shouting, explosions, fire and gross injuries. I left the film feeling angry and stressed and I usually can handle an action film like Jason Bourne but this was literally just stupid. If you get the impression I was not impressed you are picking up the right vibes. Stay away or if you must watch it – wait for it to show up on Netflix or iTunes.
Movies: Rants and Raves 