Deepwater Horizon

[prettyxcool]

Saw this at the Times+ screening last week at Vue Islington. It was absolutely packed out and it started a minute early.

Based on true events. Could not follow what's going on, as the jobs that the engineers are doing are really complicated to follow, but the drama unfolding is quite suspenseful, however, it then somehow does not grip as much, once the disaster strikes, as the workers desperately tries to stay alive. It does honour the heroes and the lives that were lost in the worst US oil rig disaster. A family affair as both Kurt Russell and Kate Hudson are in the film. 7/10

[alythonian]

I saw this in Edinburgh on a horrid night which ment traffic getting to Leith took twice as long as usual so I only just made it. Seems most of the usual Times crowd couldn't bring themselves to go to deepest darkest Leith so thankfully for me there were ample seats left.
This was just ok in my opinion, no more than that.
Of course, it's a very American version of the events and BP truly were portrayed as the baddies of the piece.
5/10 and I told my OH not to go and see it as the American version would drive him nuts..

[orchid123]

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to know but is there a screening for Deep Horizon on the 20th at Wimbledon Ode on?

Thanks for your help!
Louisa

[nosila50]

I enjoyed this as I am a fan of a disaster movie. Kurt Russell looking old these days but still a twinkle in his eye. Story was interesting as only have a basic memory of the event at the time. It was fortunate that so few did die as it was going up like a tinder box.

8 out of 10.

[Noorjahapatel]

Brilliant movie, superb acting from all; good guys and bad guys. It is tragic that it is based on a true story. Very moving. Lots of true heroes. I can't believe some of them carried on working in the industry after watching that. The bottom and the middle staff always seem to suffer the most in my experience so far. BP should be ashamed of themselves. 9/10

[Beate]

Well, I've had a tiring day and I wanted EXPLOSIONS. They made us wait 50 minutes for anything to go wrong and another ten minutes for the first fireball. By that time I had almost succumbed to my tiredness, exarbated by a warm cinema. I was almost on OH's lap! I get that they tried to set the scene, explain some oil rig stuff, make BP the big, bad wolf and, rather half-heartedly, introduce some characters, but only one was allowed to have his family shown, I didn't understand any of the technical stuff anyway, and because we were given so little character input, I didn't really care much for any of them, whether they are Marky Mark or not.

Seeing how many people were on this oil rig, it seems a miracle only 11 were killed - honestly, how did they all escape this inferno? They must have had great evacuation training. Shame that none of the killed actually had a proper role in the film.

6/10

[D-Fens]

Enjoyable enough trip to the movies but poor film really.

As above, even though it took 50 minutes for the inevitable to happen when it did kick off I barely knew what was going on. Lots of close ups of the inside of pipes and no idea what normal operation is supposed to look like. Methane mentioned after the fact. Lost the sense of location (the control room was so unscathed, thought it was on a boat for a minute). Thought the young engineer was specifically

Spoiler

Show

ushered on to the lifeboat and then she's back on the rig for the big finale.

You could say it all just added to the sense of chaos (with added shakey cam) but considering it started with snippets of courtroom testimony I thought there was a better movie there if the trial and reenactment were intercut and things explained when they needed to be because the glimpse of oilrig operation that we got was interesting.

[steve045h]

Enjoyed the film a lot. Obviously a very tragic event but it was interesting to see a "backstory" to it all. As others have said, a miracle really that only 11 people lost their lives. I actually quite liked all the technical build up.. but then I always find it interesting to see how other people do their jobs and what that involves.

[Florence1]

Saw this at the Vue Islington. I enjoyed it but the first half was a bit technical and I didn't really understand what was going on. The second half with the ensuing chaos and explosions I realised was the breaking up of the oil rig. The acting and the special effects were really good. With all the explosions and the fireballs it was a miracle that only eleven people died. The film was interesting and made me want to find out more about this tragic event. Worth seeing. 7/10

[Bluebell]

Saw this at the Vue at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol tonight. I didn't fully understand all the technicalities of what caused the disaster but suffice to say that BP Execs putting pressure on to take shortcuts as time was money played a significant part in what ensued- no surprises there! The special effects were excellent and the acting was good with John Malkovich playing a villainous BP Exec and Kurt Russell a paternalistic Chief Engineer. There wasn't a great deal of characterisation but the film was enjoyable as disaster movies go. 7/10