Deepwater Horizon pays a respectable and riveting tribute to the worst oil disaster in US History

Movie Title:  Deepwater Horizon

Grade:  A-

Rating:  PG-13, 99 minutes

In a Nutshell:  If you don’t remember the real events from when this true story happened, you learn that the oil rig’s blowout lasted 87 days, making it the worst oil disaster in U.S. history.  Director Peter Berg is great at creating tension and action sequences that make it hard to look away.  This is the second time he and Mark Wahlberg have filmed a true story action flick (Lone Survivor), and they have another one hitting the big screen soon (Patriot Day).

It’s truly stunning how they filmed this movie, because it looks and feels so real.  It took over $100 million to recreate this man-made disaster that shook the country in 2010.

Uplifting theme: 

• Family is everything.
• Hope, greed, sacrifice for others, friendship, grit and determination.

Things I liked:

• Impressive machinery and rough working conditions will make you respect the men and women who work on oil rigs.  The film does a good job paying tribute to the people in this tough industry.
• There is some humor in the beginning that allows you to sense the friendship and comradery among the team workers and allows you to begin to care about them.
• John Malkovich gives a great performance with an interesting Southern drawl.
• I’m always so impressed with people who are calm in an emergency.
• It’s great to see Kurt Russell in movies.  The first time I saw him in a movie I was a little girl and thought he was so handsome.  It was nice to see him and Kate Hudson together in the same movie.  Don’t we all miss Goldie Hawn?
• I love Gina Rodriguez from the hit TV show “Jane the Virgin” for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. It’s great to see she got another gig in a movie.  She learned to rap for her role in the indie film Filly Brown in 2012.
• The touching reunion scene at the end of the movie got the audience crying all around me.
• You get to see pictures of the real people who died in this disaster.   
• Mark Wahlberg is the perfect actor to play this rough and tumble oil rig worker with a heart.  
• There is a powerful scene when Kurt Russell and John Malkovich just look at each other, yet volumes are spoken.

Things I didn’t like:

• Sometimes people talk really fast and slurred, making it hard to understand what they say.
• It’s often difficult to see what’s going on, because there is fire, mud, oil, and debris flying everywhere.
• If you want to see this movie, do it at the theater.  Some of the scenes are dark and will look terrible on your computer screen.
• There is a lot of facial hair in this movie!  Why is that such a popular thing right now?  Just a little bit of scruff is sexy, but when you can hide jelly beans in your beard, you know it’s too long.
• The audience won’t always be able to understand the technical jargon.

Interesting lines:

• “Hope ain’t a tactic, Don.” – Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg)

Funny lines:

• “I don’t know if it’s stupid, but it ain’t smart.” – Caleb Holloway (Dylan O’Brien)

Tips for parents: 

• 2 F-bombs and lots of other profanity.
• Bloody, deep wounds, people in perilous situations, death, destruction. 

Penguins of Madagascar is cute and cuddly enough to make you laugh out loud at least once

Movie Title:  Penguins of Madagascar

PG, 1 hour 32 minutes

Grade:  B

In a Nutshell: The zany, spy penguins from the Madagascar franchise finally got their own feature film, full of high-jinks and frivolity.  No matter what age you are, you’ll laugh at least a few times.  It’s brightly colored, frantic, and fun. Parents’ patience will probably wear thin towards the end, but there are enough clever puns, and jokes to keep you mostly entertained.

This movie has 2 words for teenage girls:  Benedict Cumberbatch.  He voices the studly Agent Classified.  Listen to how he pronounces the word “penguins.”  Kinda quirky and awesome.  Just like he is. Other voice talents include the iconic John Malkovich, Tom McGrath, Andy Richter, and Ken Jeong.

Directed by J.P. Simon and Simon Smith….I wonder if it ever got confusing whenever someone on the Dreamworks animation team yelled “Simon!”

Uplifting theme:

·          “Looks don’t matter.  It’s what you do that counts.  And look at what you did.” - Skipper

·         Never leave a man….um…penguin behind.

Things I liked:

·         The gag rate and fast-moving action sequences make the movie feel like an old Looney Tunes cartoon on Saturday morning.  (Am I showing my age?)

·         Cheezy Dibbles dust!

·         The scenes in Venice were gorgeous animation.

·         The visual details and humor that were included were excellent, such as when they the roll over the black and white lines to break into Fort Knox, and when they were lost at sea and growing facial stubble.

·         They had several funny runs with celebrity names like:

         -          “Kevin, Bake On….we’re still going to need that victory cake!”

         -          “Hally Bury them!”

         -          “Hugh Jack on!”

·         I laughed out loud during the scene when Dave the evil Octopus was trying to figure out how to use the technology to do a live video conference call with the penguins.  I’ve experienced that with my own parents and hate to admit that I've caught my own kids rolling their eyes when they’re trying to teach me how to use my cell phone. 

·         I love word play.  There is a LOT of it in this fun flick like:

                    “Venetian blinded again!”

·         Like all good adventure movies, it ends in amazing New York City.

·         I thought the film crew scenes in Antarctica were hilarious.  They featured a cartoon version and real voice of Werner Herzog who actually filmed a documentary in Antarctica entitled “Encounters at the End of the World.”

Things I didn’t like:

·         I can only take frenzied silliness for so long.

·         It’s not the greatest animation to hit the big screen this year, but cute and cuddly enough for the girls and screwball enough for the guys to enjoy.

·         It would have been fun to see a cameo of some of the other Madagascar characters.  I counted how long the penguins actually spent in Madagascar during this movie: 0 seconds.

Funny lines:

·          "Remember our talk about true, but unhelpful comments?” – Skipper

·         “Canada is secretly training an army of Sasquatch.” – Skipper

·         “Cancel our Improv class!”  - Skipper

·         “How long do we stand here like this?” – Corporal

      “Until we’ve reached maximum coolness.  (Pose)  There it is.” – Skipper

·         “I find reason tedious and boring.  We’ll use force.” – Skipper

·         “Time travel.  You just want to slap a hippie, but all you get is multiple Kowalskis.” – Skipper

·         Entire web sites have been dedicated to all of the funny lines Skipper has ever said in the 3-movie Madagascar franchise.

Tips for Parents:

·         There are quite a few jokes and gags that will fly over the heads of little ones.  There is so much to see and hear, that all ages will get something.  It’s all pretty harmless fun.  Even the bad guy isn’t very scary, so very young children will enjoy this.

·         It’s a kids’ movie, so expect potty jokes, some rude humor, and animated violence with explosions, tazers, and tranquilizer guns.

   If you missed the first Madagascar movies or can't get enough of these covert penguins, check out some of these fun products:

Red 2 movie review

 
The last time we saw John Malkovich in Red, he was wearing blonde braids and being pushed in a wooden cart through a field in Maldova with bombs going off all around him, while being chased by dozens of armed soldiers. 

Red 2 reunites John Malkovich’s paranoid and retired CIA-Agent (Marvin) with his old partner, Frank Moses, played by Bruce Willis.  You have to love a Hollywood movie where all of the stars are over 50.  I watched the first installment of the 2010 sleeper hit Red this week to refresh my memory of the fun story and quirky characters in preparation for the sequel, and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time, but you don’t have to see it to still get a kick out of Red 2.  You’ll miss a few inside jokes and some relationship background, but you’ll catch on quickly enough to enjoy the goofy action.

Although the original poster to advertise Red was actually red, it’s actually an acronym which stands for “Retired Extremely Dangerous”, a label some “thumb sucker” used on a file when Frank and Marvin retired from the CIA.  The color red is actually highlighted more in this second film, as well as a more comic-book feel.  The campy 70’s music from the original is replaced with a more current twist, often using popular musical snippets to underscore comedic moments.

Red 2 opens in Costco, where Marvin and his girlfriend (Mary-Louise Parker) are shopping for giant bags of shrimp to take home to their quiet, boring life in the ‘burbs.  It doesn’t take long for bullets to start flying and a mysterious crime to call them into action. 

The film is rated PG-13 for lots and lots of violence (mostly bloodless).  It has it all: awesome explosions, car crashes in impressive chase scenes in Paris, tons of shooting with various weapons, hand-to-hand combat, and even a guy getting killed with a lethal origami bird.  You’ll hear some profanity in the heat of the moment, but no F-bombs.  Oh, and lots and lots of kissing.  Frank’s girlfriend often resorts to kissing the bad guys when she can’t think of anything else to do.  She’s an enthusiastic accomplice, successfully donning short skirts during most of the movie, eagerly taking tactical tips from Marvin when Frank isn’t looking.  It’s important to have fun activities to do together as a couple.

Speaking of Frank’s girlfriend (Sarah Ross) played by Mary-Louise Parker, I wish Hollywood actresses would stop messing with their faces and just age gracefully.  I always admired Mary-Louise Parker for her feminine beauty before she had “work” done, including Botox which leaves her acting more reliant upon voice inflection than facial expression.  She’s a terrific actress, also starring in this weekend’s arrival of R.I.P.D. directed by Robert Schwentke, who directed the first Red, but not the sequel.  Marvin comments that she has something that neither he nor Frank have: people like her.  And they do…in both Red 2 and R.I.P.D.

Frank’s romantic kryptonite is revealed in the “dusky femme fatale”, Russian Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones).   What happens in the Kremlin, stays in the Kremlin.  I’ll bet you didn’t know there was a Papa John’s right next door to Soviet headquarters, did you?  The beloved Anthony Hopkins graces the screen as a brilliant scientist who can unlock the secrets to the “Project Nightshade” dilemma, but alas, he has been put under I.C.E. (Incarcerated Can’t Execute). 

Helen Mirren’s character, MI6 agent Victor, offers relationship advice to Sarah and skillfully takes out enemies while looking fabulous the entire time.  Marvin encourages Frank to run to emotional safety, explaining “I know one thing: women and covert ops.”  Frank protests “But that’s two things.”  Marvin, in his great wisdom, opines “No Grasshopper.  It is not.”

As our favorite cool, yet deadly, retired agents all come together again, Han (Byung-hun Lee) appears in the least convenient times to put a hit on Frank.  Their fights are pretty impressive, especially considering the age difference between the two.

My husband has a hard time enjoying movies that are completely implausible, and there are quite a few critics out there who are also annoyed by the film’s holes, but imagine the actors and director with their tongue firmly planted in their cheeks and you’ll be entertained.  By the way, Maldova gets a shout-out in the movie, and John Malkovich ends the movie wearing fruit on his head, dressed as a dancer in their next adventure in Caracas.  Red 3?

Grade = A-