Mr. Movie review: ‘Deepwater Horizon’ wastes good actors

This is the second of this week’s pablum movies. On April 20, 2010, an explosion on a mobile offshore drilling unit killed 11 workers and produced a fireball that could be seen for 40 miles. The accident also caused the largest oil spill in U.S. history. When the unit sank, the hole drilled in the bottom of the sea poured 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Several firms — including oil company BP — shared responsibility and the billions in fines for the damage and payments to victims.

Deepwater Horizon is the story of how many on the derrick survived, and how some of workers died. While it’s sad that so many people died and were injured, director Peter Berg’s (Lone Survivor) film about the incident isn’t good. Wasted is action flick pros Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell. They have little to do but look brave and save people. Also wasted is the always superb villainy of John Malkovich and Kate Hudson, who plays the supportive but worried wife of Mark Wahlberg’s character.

All are reduced to tossing off lines that slowly lead you to the reason for the movie. Things plod along for 45 minutes or so before the big event, and then the big event is a a let down, because it looks pretty much like every other disaster movie involving fire and explosions.

In the end, Deepwater Horizon is kind of shallow.

This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘Deepwater Horizon’ wastes good actors."