Deepwater Horizon

If you admired Sully's tribute to the competence and can-do spirit of everyday people doing their jobs, but thought Clint Eastwood's movie would have benefited from many, many more explosions, you'll happily hand over your hard-earned dough for Deepwater Horizon.

Part pyrotechnic disaster movie, part tribute to the blue-collar heroes who manned the offshore drilling rig of the movie's title, Deepwater Horizon — based on actual events — walks a fine line between enthusiastically and respectfully depicting the 2010 'blowout' that killed 11 people and led to the worst oil spill in American history.

The Lone Survivor team of director Peter Berg and leading man Mark Wahlberg reunite for a film that, like their previous collaboration, aims for a documentary-like realism and authenticity (and often succeeds) but can't help but succumb to a few Hollywood conventions.

Still, this combination of styles and tones isn't a deal-breaker in Deepwater Horizon's case - for the most part, there's good, solid integrity to the storytelling and the performance.

A well-cast Wahlberg plays Mike Williams, a chief technician on Deepwater Horizon, which doesn't pump oil but instead digs the wells and lays the pipes that will bring the oil to the surface.

With all the pressure under the earth, it's a hazardous job for Mike, crew chief Mr Jimmy (Kurt Russell, every inch the bloke you can trust) and the many staff members working 21-day shifts off the coast of Louisiana.

And it's made even harder by oil company BP, represented here by reptilian executive Don Vidrine (John Malkovich, with a Cajun accent so thick it crawled out of the bayou itself), insisting on cutting corners and cutting costs.

It all comes back to bite them, though, as the seabed begins to bubble and shudder, putting too much pressure on equipment that can't handle it.

And when the pressure gets too much, the result is an outright catastrophe that causes quite a bit of damage. And then quite a lot of damage.

After a first half that gradually ramps up the tension and gets us invested in the well-being of a handful of rig personnel, the second half of Deepwater Horizon is a descent into hell as Mother Nature's mean streak results in an offshore inferno that sets the water surrounding the platform ablaze.

Berg is in his element here, keeping the action coherent in the midst of the chaos and keeping the audience hoping that Wahlberg's Williams and his colleagues are able to escape intact.