Deepwater Horizon

Remember how inconceivable it was in 70's blockbuster, The Poseidon Adventure film that a cruise ship could malfunction, flip upside down or drown hundreds of passengers in one fell swoop.

Well, I'm pretty sure the crew members of Deepwater Horizon felt  the same way when a simple, routine pressure test malfunctioned turned all of their worlds upside down.

Based on a true story, on April 2010, the "blowout preventer" failed to engage, hydrocarbons shot up the well at an uncontrollable rate and causing a series of explosions on the Deepwater Horizon.  The well was capped on 15 July and it was permanently sealed on September 19,2010 killing 11 people from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.  This film couldn't be more timely.  It's a perfect example of how corporate greed puts the almighty dollar ahead of preserving the sanctity of human life.

BP purposely passed on doing the otherwise routine check and having done so would've adverted this tragedy, saved lives and saved America the embarrassment of experiencing one of the worst coastal oil spills in its history.

Of course, BP's report placed most of the blame on gas equipment company Halliburton and Transocean, but its findings have been heavily criticized. Ed Markey, a senator investigating the spill in Congress at the time remarked: "Of their own eight key findings, they only explicitly take responsibility for half of one. BP is happy to slice up blame, as long as they get the smallest piece."

The action in this film had me from the first frame and had me so stressed out, I actually had to go have a cocktail with some girlfriends...lol.  You would think I didn't know how this would turn out!

Director, Peter Berg is on a roll for 2016, with glowing review under his belt for Hell or High Water, he obviously is a master at keeping the suspense in a drama right up until the very last second!  Cinematographer Enrique Chediak and Editors - Gabriel Fleming| Colby Parker Jr. are to be praised for their mad technical skills filming and editing the rig explosions.  I'm sure that task couldn't have possibly been a piece of cake!

My two favorite performances are from Gina Rodriguez (Andrea Fleytas) and John Malkovich as a despicable BP Corporate Head (Vidrine).  Rodriguez gives a humorously layered dramatic turn that is not seen on her weekly Golden Globe winning show Jane The Virgin.  I , for one, look forward to seeing her tackle more of this types of roles to remind Hollywood that Latinas can be more than a maid or a spitfire.

Malkovich is simply brilliant.  The steel, cool, manner in which he portrays Vidrine is so unsettling that it keeps you on your toes wondering what he might do next.  But, isn't that why we love this actor so much in the first place?  He always keeps you guessing.

Mark Wahlberg is gonna start giving Matt Damon and Tom Cruise a run for their money in the action-adventure hero department.

Deepwater Horizon is an intensely, intriguing film that leaves the audience in tears as pictures of those who perished and those who survived glide across the screen along with real footage of the Congressional Hearings on this tragedy.

Deepwater Horizon opened on September 30th, is the Number #2 film in the country and has grossed 33 million domestically.

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