Deepwater Horizon (2016) ★★★★ Quote:
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A story set on the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which exploded during April 2010 and created the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
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I'm a big fan of Peter Berg's films and his approach to stories based on true events – I've yet to see Mile 22 – and consider this as good as, or better than The Kingdom, Lone Survivor, and Patriots' Day. It's an extremely loud film, it should be loud because of the on-screen events, which is great demo material for anyone with a Dolby Atmos set up, and a thoroughly engrossing watch which isn't diminished by repeated viewings.
Midsommar (2019) ★★★★★ Quote:
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Several friends travel to Sweden to study as anthropologists a summer festival that is held every ninety years in the remote hometown of one of them. What begins as a dream vacation in a place where the sun never sets, gradually turns into a dark nightmare as the mysterious inhabitants invite them to participate in their disturbing festive activities.
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Watched the Director's Cut and loved it just as much as the theatrical version I watched at the cinema. Even though I feel I need to watch both versions several times to fully appreciate everything in the film, I consider this to be a modern day masterpiece.
The Water Diviner (2014) ★★★ Quote:
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In 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor travels to Turkey to discover the fate of his three sons, reported missing in action. Holding on to hope, Joshua must travel across the war-torn landscape to find the truth and his own peace.
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Despite some questionable CGI and slow motion, this is a fine directorial effort from Russell Crowe, and a film where he is an engaging presence in front of the camera. Olga Kurylenko is surprisingly convincing as a Turkish widow, and something of a love interest for Crowe's bereaved Cooper, but I was surprised (and not in a good way) there was a brief history lesson of the Ottoman Empire without a single mention of the Armenian genocide, a glaring omission from the screenplay.
It's an engaging and well acted film with some extremely good combat scenes, but a film which could have been much better.