Deepwater Horizon

Only the Brave review “One of the year’s best films”

/ Adam Brannon / 2 Comments

Only the Brave posterFilms based on true events are ten-a-penny these days. From 2015s stunning American Sniper and 2016s breath-taking Deepwater Horizon to the critically acclaimed Patriots Day, there seems to be no stopping the ‘true to life’ variety of movies that has suddenly become very popular.

The trouble is, getting the films right is trickier than for any other genre. Not only do you have to please the audience with bombastic spectacle, you have to respect the events that caused them to exist in the first place. The new kid on the block is Only the Brave. But does this tale of the Granite Mountain Hotshots do their incredibly tragic story justice? Continue reading →

Box office disappointments: Top 5

/ Adam Brannon / Leave a comment

Adam Brannon HeadshotBy Adam Brannon. So Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets has tanked at the US box office, taking a paltry $17million in its opening weekend on a budget of around $200million. Ouch! By contrast, Star Wars: the Force Awakens took just shy of $250million in its first few days.

That got me thinking, which other films have been box office disappointments and led to huge losses for their studios? This list isn’t necessarily counting down the biggest box office bombs of all time, rather the films that were actually pretty decent but ended up being a massive let down for their directors, stars and studios. Continue reading →

“Disaster with feeling” Deepwater Horizon review

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10933939_858255040882983_331142605952023910_nDeepwater Horizon review: by Adam Brannon

UK certification: 12A

“Based on true events”. I can’t think of anything more disconcerting when I sit down to watch a film. When it comes to blockbusters inspired by real-life situations, the outcome can be a poignant movie that captures the heart and emotion of the episode – a la American Sniper.

Unfortunately, films in this genre can also be a disaster from start to finish with a story barely related to its real-life counterpart. You can forgive me then for going into Deepwater Horizon with an air of scepticism, but was it justified?

Continue reading →