Deepwater Horizon

Disaster movies are a genre of films that has been slightly lacking in recent years. While environment disaster movies like Deep Impact, The Day After Tomorrow and even last year's San Andreas are still incredibly popular, man-made disasters are rarer. I think that was part of the joy I had in watching Deepwater Horizon, because it seemed to breathe new life into a stale genre.

Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) is the chief electrical engineer on the oil rig Deepwater Horizon. He is about to go for a three week stint aboard the rig and spends time with his family. Also going to the rig are Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez) and the boss Mr Jimmy (Kurt Russell). Things seem a bit strange when they get there to discover that the rig's BP bosses, including Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich), are all over the place, putting pressure on the teams on the rig to drill a new oil well without the proper safety tests having been taken. And that can only lead to one thing, disaster.

Deepwater Horizon suffers from a couple of things. The process of offshore oil drilling is something that people study for years and years at a university to be able to do. There are countless numbers of complex machines that go into an oil rig (something Mark Wahlberg is constantly reminding us of). It's hard to boil it down into an action movie, which is weird because the movie does it, but still is complex. The start even has a child's view of the drilling process for all us dummies in the audience. To my understanding, a hole is drilled down into the oil well, a pump is down there and they bring up that black gold (I'm no expert so forgive me for my lack of knowledge, my education in this business comes from movies like There Will Be Blood). The ocean floor however needs to be reinforced with concrete however, because when drilling that hole it can lead to a blowout (which is what happened). Now I was getting to how this works against the film. When you have a whole bunch of characters with Louisiana accents talking about 'see-ment' tests, it can be a little confusing and these are integral details to the plot. The characters also like using idioms and metaphors to explain their work, like Mark Wahlberg's impassioned monologue comparing oil drilling to catfish noodling (which is a weirdly specific piece of cultural knowledge you have to have for that to make sense).

Now I was going to put this next point in with those negatives but it's a weirdly good thing. Once the action starts in this movie, it doesn't stop. Literally. We have about forty minutes of setting the scene to what causes the explosion and then the remaining time is dedicated to explosions. Normally these movies have time in which they slow down and take a breather, but not this one. Mark Wahlberg is constantly running around the oil rig, saving people or switching off things. Again, that's nothing we haven't seen before. But this time it's different. Fat Mark Wahlberg. You read that right, he's fat. Now that is something we've never seen before. Instead of playing his usual super buff gym owner or muscular scientist, he's playing a slightly overweight engineer with a sedentary job. So when it comes to his feats of strength, you can't help but root for the guy. Kurt Russell is no stranger to disaster movie having starred in Poseidon back in 2006, although this time there is no water from him to drown in. Throughout the movie he has a busted up eye which is definitely a call back to one of his iconic characters Snake Plissken.

Deepwater Horizon looks like it's going to be a trashy action flick, but it ends up being quite enjoyable. Despite it's overly technical jargon and shots of the American flag with fire burning around it (which is weird because the rig is owned by British Petroleum, but I'm sure you could write a whole essay about that flag in this movie), the movie is just fun. The non-stop action is something that even a director like Michael Bay would shy away from, but in the case of Deepwater Horizon in works perfectly.

Penguins of Madagascar

Animated children's movies have to walk a fine line between entertaining the kid's that they are aimed at and not boring the parents who have to take them. But what happens when one of these movies tip ever so slightly in the favour of the parents? Whilst I'm not saying that Penguins of Madagascar will bore kids, the adult to child joke ratio has just a few more adult jokes in there.

The elite unit of penguins, Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon) and Private (Christopher Knights), break into Fort Knox to steal the last remaining packets of Cheese Dibbles, their favourite snack. Here they are kidnapped by Dave (John Malkovich), an evil penguin who has it in for the penguins. They are rescued by the North Wind, another elite team (who are just better funded) led by grey wolf Agent Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch).

This movie has plenty of silly escapades that will keep the kids happy; a gondola chase through Venice, the penguins falling out of a plane looking for a soft landing and many more jokes along this line, but there are some just hilarious ones for adults too. The first five minutes of the film is a nature documentary narrated by Werner Herzog (who breaks the fourth wall and appears as part of a documentary crew), the break into Fort Knox is lifted perfectly from Goldfinger and Dave gives his squid minions orders by naming celebrities ("Hugh, Jack, man the cannons" and "Drew, Barry, more power" are especially good examples).

The voice talents of some big names also make the film enjoyable and its fun to try and guess who they are. John Malkovich is an obvious one (as I have said in the past). Benedict Cumberbatch makes his third appearance in a big end of the year movie and plays his part superbly, as do Ken Jeong, Annet Mahendru and Peter Stormare who voice the remainder of the North Wind.

Verdict: A great movie to watch with or without kids, if only to hear Benedict Cumberbatch repeatedly say pengwings, as he can't pronounce it properly.

War Movie Month: Empire of the Sun (1987)

The Japanese invasion of China is an oft-forgotten aspect of WWII, but when you think about the idea of the small island empire invading its larger neighbour, you can definitely see how big the undertaking was. Combine this with Steven Spielberg's epic style of film-making and you get a pretty big and exciting film.

Jamie Graham (Christian Bale) is a privileged English boy living a life of luxury with his family in Shanghai, where his father owns a corporation. Soon after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbour, they invade Shanghai, leading to the separation from his parents. Left wandering around the city after leaving his home due to starvation, he is saved by Basie (John Malkovich), an American sailor. They are both eventually captured by the Japanese and sent to Soochow Creek Internment Camp. Jamie, now named Jim by Basie, finds a father figure in Dr. Rawlins (Nigel Havers) and runs a successful trade network that even includes some of the Japanese officers.

Spielberg's bigger picture really does come into play here. There are many scenes with hundreds of extras that blow my mind away. They're definitely something that doesn't get done today, massive groups of extras would just be added in digitally in contemporary films. There are also some great aerial battles, albeit watched from the ground through Jim's youthful eyes, and these are a wonder to watch.

I'm a little disappointed that treatment of the people living in the internment camp isn't something that is covered too much in this movie. Japanese camps were well known for not having the best living conditions, but again we watch this movie through the eyes of a 12 year old boy. Anyway, this is something that Spielberg portrayed much better in Schindler's List. Spielberg does also throw in a small group of scenes with young Japanese pilots training for kamikaze missions. These culminate with a scene of Jim singing the Welsh lullaby Suo-Gân as they fly off on their mission.

Christian Bale is more known for his roles as Batman and Bateman, but his skill as an actor started at an early age. He was 12 when he got this part, he came recommended by Spielberg's then-wife Amy Irving. Young Bale had a certain innocence that was perfect for role and was capable of showing terror when it was needed. John Malkovich isn't as scary as he would become later on, such as his role in Being John Malkovich, and I find it weird that his character is revealed in a way as though we'd be surprised that it's him. He has a pretty distinctive voice and we hear him talk a fair bit before we see his face.

Supporting roles from Nigel Havers and Miranda Richardson help aid the main stars, but they're not entirely memorable. One of the better smaller roles is Dainty, a gang member of Basie's and played by a young Ben Stiller. In fact it was on this movie that he got the idea that would eventually become Tropic Thunder.

Verdict: A fantastic war film and a great introduction to Christian Bale.

Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies isn't your average zombie flick, nor is it your average romantic comedy. Yet Warm Bodies seems to fulfil both genres.

Warm Bodies chronicles the story of R (Nicholas Hoult), a zombie who shuffles around an airport and occasionally spends time with his best friend M (Rob Corddry). During a food hunt into the city, R comes across Julie (Teresa Palmer), a human who was out looking for medical supplies. After eating Julie's boyfriend, Perry (Dave Franco), R sees Julie and immediately falls in love with her. He manages to calm her down and takes her to the plane where he lives. The two eventually bond, which causes R to come back to life.

After a couple of days, Julie is anxious to return home and R convinces her to let him join her, only to be abandoned by her. On his way back to the airport, R comes across M, who tells him that he and his group of zombies were kicked out of the airport by the Bonies, a form of zombie that has reached a new level of decomposition. M tells R that all the other zombies have started to come back to life and the Bonies feel threatened by this and that they are looking for him and Julie.

R uses the memories of Perry to find a secret entrance to the city, so that he can tell Julie the good and bad news. Once there, he meets Julie's friend, Nora (Analeigh Tipton), and her bitter and aggressive father, Colonel Grigio (John Malkovitch). R eventually convinces them of the Bonie threat by showing them that he can bleed (zombies don't bleed). Grigio turns his efforts to wiping out the Bonies.

This movie is really funny. Not in a hysterically funny way, but in a sustained and prolonged way, so that you feel satisfied by the humour in it. Most of the jokes come from R's internal monologue about his feelings toward Julie. That's another thing this movie does. It portrays the angst of youth and the feelings you get when you meet someone you like. Also the awkwardness. Lots of that.

Nicholas Hoult (Skins) is amazing as R. His portrayal of a thinking zombie is something that has never been done before and it certainly gives an insight into their motivations. His long and gangly body also helps get in the way of his movements (as we've seen before in X-Men: First Class).

Teresa Palmer (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) fantastically plays Julie. At the start, we see her confusion about R saving her and then how she falls for him. The inner conflict in her character is always there, but her performance is so captivating that you don't notice.

The rest of the cast is rounded out with performances from Rob Corddry (Moses Taylor for you Arrested Development fans out there), Dave Franco (brother of James) and John Malkovich (who still haunts my dreams).

Verdict: Warm Bodies is a really satisfying comedy about a situation that isn't. Not since Zombieland have I laughed so hard at zombies. But that was also it's downfall. No Bill Murray.