There are three new wide releases hitting theaters this week and not one is a major disaster. Of course, there is the disaster at the heart of one of them, the inspiring true tale, Deepwater Horizon – starring Mark Wahlberg.
We’ve also got the superstar comedy cast Masterminds and Tim Burton returns to the unusually extraordinary in his film adaptation of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
Check out my thoughts on the ScreenPicks.com weekly podcast where I chime in on these three wide releases. My order of their excellence:
- Deepwater Horizon
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
- Masterminds
Deepwater Horizon is a masterpiece of mesmerizing and deeply emotional storytelling. It portrays the fragility of life in a way that few movies do. Peter Berg has come so far as a director. He nailed that preciousness of life in his last feature, the also true tale Lone Survivor and he salutes real life heroes once again with his latest. Wahlberg is incredible, but so too is his co-stars, Dylan O’Brien, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich and Kate Hudson. In fact, let’s start this right now: Russell should be getting major buzz for a Supporting Actor Oscar.
Grade: A+
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children finds Burton back behind the camera shining his spotlight on the oddball world and having a ball doing so. It’s not his best film in his career, and lies somewhere in the middle.
Eva Green establishes herself firmly as the director’s new muse. He and she have impeccable chemistry and we hope that this film is the first of a long list of movies that these two make together. Also impressive is our main star, Asa Butterfield (soon to be seen in The Space Between Us). The film loses a bit of its momentum in the third act, but finds it again, right before the thrilling conclusion.
Grade: B
Masterminds is a long-delayed crime comedy starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Jones and scene-stealer Kate McKinnon.
The film is based on a true story of the largest heist in U.S. history. The comedy arises from how unrelentingly off all those involved are and how that fact plays into this unbelievable true story that these idiots actually managed to pull off this heist in the first place. The performances all around are superb, particularly Sudeikis, Jones and McKinnon. Unfortunately, Galifianakis turns in a performance that we’ve seen before – most recently in The Campaign.
Grade: C+
Check out my full length thoughts in the weekly movie review podcast below!