成人X站

SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

At its heart, ‘Deepwater Horizon’ is an old-fashioned disaster movie

Sep 30, 2016, 11:21 AM | Updated: 11:22 am

YouTube video

“Deepwater Horizon” is one of two big-budget movies that will battle it out for box office supremacy.

“Deepwater Horizon,” of course, is about the worst oil spill in history. An oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana in 2010 killed 11 workers and spilled 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Related: Tim Burton鈥檚 visual flair is on full display in 鈥楳iss Peregrine鈥

Producer and star Mark Wahlberg said he wanted the movie to focus not on the environmental devastation but rather on the professional men and women who where working the rig at the time of the accident. That’s more or less true. We get to know a handful of people — the hands-on employees doing the grimy work of manipulating the massive machinery, the managers responsible for overseeing the operations, and the sleazy executives who cut corners to feed their bottom line.

But what the movie really is about is the massive explosion, or explosions. And they are spectacular. Especially in IMAX. The propulsive mud that first shoots up out of the pipeline is like a volcano, smashing windows and slamming workers into walls and equipment. Then more explosions, cracking apart sections of the rig itself, followed by fires breaking out everywhere, some shooting hundreds of feet in the air. And against this hellish background, the people we’ve gotten to know scramble to save their lives. It’s all pretty thrilling.

At its heart, “Deepwater Horizon” is an old-fashioned disaster movie. “The Towering Inferno” on water, if you will. It’s not much more than that. The characters are well-acted but they’re thinly drawn. But it’s definitely a spectacle.

Much of Deepwater’s $156-million budget went to the special effects department in order to make the real-life disaster as realistic as possible. Meanwhile, its box office opponent, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” tries to make a fantastical world just as realistic.

renton shooting...

Frank Sumrall

3 killed in Renton shooting, no suspects arrested

Three people were killed in a shooting in a Renton neighborhood, the Renton Police Department confirmed.

3 hours ago

Mario and Gail Cirasunda, of Orchard Park, N.Y., share a kiss on a bench following a Memory Cafe ev...

Associated Press

Memory cafes at the National Comedy Center ignite laughter and connection for dementia patients

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. (AP) 鈥 Side by side on a sofa inside the National Comedy Center, Gail and Mario Cirasunda chuckled at a clip from the 1980s sitcom 鈥淔amily Ties鈥 that was playing on a TV screen. The show鈥檚 oldest daughter, Mallory, was introducing her unconventional artist boyfriend Nick to her bewildered television family. 鈥淚 think […]

4 hours ago

A Sheriff's deputy pauses while combing through the banks of the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic, ...

Associated Press

3 people are still missing from deadly July 4 floods in Texas county, down from nearly 100

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) 鈥 Officials in a Texas hill country community pummeled by deadly flooding on July 4 said Saturday that just three people remain missing, down from nearly 100, after people who had previously been reported missing have since been accounted for. The reduction in the number of people on the missing list came […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Arizona governor tours wildfire destruction along Grand Canyon North Rim

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs on Saturday toured the destruction caused by a wildfire along the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, surveying what she described as devastating damage, Hobbs called for an investigation into the handling of the blaze. The governor, who sought to gather information ahead of her meetings with federal officials next week, looked intently […]

5 hours ago

Associated Press

Execution date set for man who abducted woman from a Florida insurance office and killed her

A man who abducted a woman from a Florida insurance office and killed her is scheduled for execution in Florida under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Kayle Bates is set to die Aug. 19 in the 10th execution scheduled for this year. DeSantis signed the warrant Friday, just three days after […]

10 hours ago

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy testifies during a House Committee on Transportation and Inf...

Associated Press

Trump administration imposes limits on Mexican flights and threatens Delta alliance in trade dispute

The Trump administration imposed new restrictions Saturday on flights from Mexico and threatened to end a longstanding partnership between Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico in response to limits the Mexican government placed on passenger and cargo flights into Mexico City several years ago. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Mexico’s actions to force airlines to move […]

10 hours ago

At its heart, ‘Deepwater Horizon’ is an old-fashioned disaster movie