OVP: Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Film: Deepwater Horizon (2016)
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O'Brien, Kate Hudson
Director: Peter Berg
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Sound Editing, Visual Effects)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

One of the crucial aspects of an action movie is that you root for the main character.  The film can't really function without it, in fact.  The whole point is you are out there, cheering on the men or women (but too often just men) that are trying to prevent the city/planet/solar system from being destroyed.  Then when they do, or don't, you have a vested interest in their success or defeat.  Normally, even in movies I don't like, I don't struggle with this, but Deepwater Horizon was different.  I am not naive about where my oil comes from, but I also am not going to sit around and celebrate literally anyone involved with this disaster, and so I struggled to get through this picture without yelling vigorously at the television like I did when the initial catastrophe happened.

(Spoilers Ahead) The reality is that offshore drilling should be a last-ditch resort to get oil (and we need to be doing more to get electric cars and non-petrochemical solutions to our energy needs), so I'm already at a disadvantage because I don't view these sorts of positions with the same sort of esteem you'd expect for, say, the military or the police or firefighters or any other profession that Mark Wahlberg decides to play onscreen (he used to be such an interesting actor, and then he turned into Clint Eastwood without the occasional artistry, which is such a disappointment because his movies are too big of hits for me not to end up seeing them time-and-again).  There is little forgiveness to be had here, and knowing that everyone was at fault here-not just the crew, but BP and Transocean were cutting corners to meet deadlines that ultimately polluted the entire Gulf of Mexico, killing marine life (and wiping out populations that could take decades to recuperate), as well as harm the well-being and livelihoods of people living in coastal Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.

I will admit, therefore, that no amount of Michael Bay-esque blame on John Malkovich is going to allow me to forgive anyone involved here.  Everyone should have been shouting "NO!" at the top of their lungs, and the rest of the film I checked out of what was happening.  It never approaches the level of propaganda that 13 Hours achieved, but I still checked out every time I remembered this was a real story, and the overall acting in the movie is too wooden.  I am hesitant to name a "best of" in the cast, since it was probably no one (I'm a big fan of Russell and Rodriguez in general, so it'd surely be one of them but not really based on their work here but general adoration), but I have to say Kate Hudson's role in this makes me once again question how she won an Oscar nomination, and Malkovich at some point has to try again and not just play yet another version of the same creepy-John-Malkovich style character.

The film won two Oscar nominations, and this feels okay.  The sound work is a combination of loud and louder, but doesn't have the precision of something like Wahlberg's Lone Survivor a few years back, and feels like it was nominated because Sound Editing is a sucker for underwater work.  It's fun to see a movie with practical special effects nominated here, as I actually like that they mix it up (there's an enormous amount of skill required to succeed on that front today, and it shows onscreen).  I don't know that there's a lot of differentiation in the special effects, with the biggest moment being Rodriguez's giant jump with Wahlberg (which is the only action moment in the film I was truly impressed by, but I didn't love the idea of Wahlberg having to help rescue the only woman on the rig like we're in an Errol Flynn picture), but when they are creating CGI for the film, it doesn't blend well and I think this is more a nod to the technical achievement of undertaking the film than whether or not it actually succeeded in looking believable.

We're going to leave it there because there isn't much more to say about Deepwater Horizon.  For those of you who saw it (which is probably a lot of you-Wahlberg movies tend to make bank), what were your thoughts?  Were you like me where you couldn't put your real-life opinions behind you and invest in these characters, or were you rooting for Wahlberg the whole time?  And what do you think of the film's two Oscar nominations-deserved, undeserved, or perhaps you're still mad that it lost?  Share below!