Deepwater Horizon
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: September 30, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 52 Critic Reviews
Positive:
39
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonSep 29, 2016
This is very much an ensemble film, with Wahlberg, Hudson and Russell turning in performances that get the job done without begging for attention. Read full review
85
NPRBob MondelloSep 30, 2016
An action flick entertaining enough to justify the more than $100 million it took to make it come alive on-screen. And come alive, Deepwater Horizon does, in 107 minutes of terse, tight storytelling, a good 95 of which are white-knuckle tense. Read full review
83
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonOct 9, 2016
It’s a hero story for wonks and scientists, people who spend their days surrounded by dry-erase boards inked with numbers and grids and yet go to work in a jumpsuit, their faces smeared with muck. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 30, 2016
Their chief adversary is the greedy, heedless BP executive played by John Malkovich in his finest slinky-slimy mode. At its best, the movie is like “The Towering Inferno” but without all the sudsy subplots that doused that film’s fires. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 29, 2016
What works almost disturbingly well is the way Berg calibrates his delivery of the disaster while still holding on to the human scale of it. Read full review
83
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanSep 26, 2016
Berg offers a visceral experience that overwhelms with startling humanity. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekOct 1, 2016
Malkovich sure isn’t subtle, either, but that’s the point: his job is to get your blood boiling, and boy, he’s good at it. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 1, 2016
My only serious complaint about Deepwater Horizon is that it’s not quite the muckraker I’d hoped for. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 29, 2016
Berg’s favourite subject...is heroism at the brink, but the rescue efforts here aren’t pushed to the outsize or sentimental extremes they might have been. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Sep 28, 2016
It's an impressive achievement, and even Berg's taste for the obvious — like shots of Old Glory, still waving through the worst of it — can't overwhelm the humanity behind the drama. Real people, real danger — and real self-sacrifice. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 28, 2016
With Deepwater Horizon, Berg strikes an unlikely but impressively delicate balance. On one hand, his film honors the men and women killed and injured in the explosion off Louisiana's coast. At the same time, it works just as well as a fast-moving and absorbing disaster drama. Read full review
80
Village VoiceBilge EbiriSep 24, 2016
[Berg] keeps things simple, tight and taut, and does right by the folks who were there for the real thing. He’s made them the heroes of a genuinely exciting action movie. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoSep 19, 2016
Deepwater Horizon is effective, efficient and furiously paced. Read full review
80
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Sep 16, 2016
An efficient and no-nonsense depiction of the worst disaster in US oil drilling history, buoyed by excellent performances. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 13, 2016
Director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg deliver the goods again with a rugged drama about an incident that created an environmental disaster and a worldwide scandal. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 13, 2016
When all hell breaks loose, Berg stages the action horribly well, capturing the panic and gruesome mayhem without the film ever feeling exploitative. It’s spectacularly constructed, yet it doesn’t forget about the loss of life, ensuring that, despite thin characterisation, the impact is felt. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniSep 30, 2016
I've rarely encountered such pure poetry of action as in the opening minutes of Deepwater Horizon, director Peter Berg's exciting and emotionally wrenching thriller. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickSep 29, 2016
What we’ve got is a highly entertaining nautical version of “The Towering Inferno’’ (still my favorite guilty pleasure of all time). Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 29, 2016
The overall product is so tightly assembled, and so emotionally satisfying, that any complaints end up being inconsequential. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 29, 2016
Berg does a tremendous job of throwing us into the action with the help of dizzying handheld camerawork from Enrique Chediak. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 29, 2016
Although engaging, Deepwater Horizon ultimately offers a mixed bag of an experience. The setup is considerably better than the payoff, front-loading the experience. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 29, 2016
When disaster strikes, about an hour into the movie, we’re put in the uncomfortable position of admiring the fiery spectacle that Berg has created with sophisticated visual effects, cinematography and editing, while being aware that unspeakable real-life suffering has been packaged for mass entertainment. Berg does a good job of maintaining a thoughtful balance between those somewhat uneasy stances. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 29, 2016
Berg sticks to the job at hand, imagining what it is was like to be there, and to be the victim of sloppy, deadly safety practices in the name of a good day on Wall Street. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanSep 29, 2016
The film’s well-paced and well-acted, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it most of the way. I faltered as projectile followed projectile and explosion topped explosion, yet even then the excitement held up. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittSep 28, 2016
While Deepwater Horizon effectively shows its mettle as a proper action film, it goes the extra mile and drills a little deeper to unearth a lot of heart as well. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 27, 2016
Deepwater Horizon is a brawny hybrid of technical expertise and real-life tragedy, with neither quality getting shortchanged. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 27, 2016
It’s a well-made, sometimes horrifyingly realistic re-creation of events — but it often feels like a formulaic disaster film. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 26, 2016
Berg reminds us that even in the worst disaster, people can be selfless, heroic, and in the case of Aaron Dale Burkeen, professional even if those who gamble with their fates are not. Read full review
75
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 14, 2016
Outside of the Berg’s incredible depiction of the Deepwater’s destruction and the escape of a majority of its crew, the picture also benefits from two fantastic performances by Wahlberg and Rodriguez. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 3, 2016
In short, Peter Berg has done it again. You come out shaken with excitement, but with a touch of shame, too, at being so easily thrilled. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 29, 2016
Swift, no-nonsense and pummelingly intense, this is the big-budget Hollywood disaster flick on a CrossFit regimen and a Paleo diet — a hellish cataclysm that never risks overstaying its welcome. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 29, 2016
The film itself is as much a feat of engineering as a work of art, an efficient machine for delivering intricate data and blunt emotions. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 29, 2016
Berg keeps the story personal, which is certainly one way to tell it, though it would have been nice to see a little more about the devastating effects of the massive oil spill triggered by the rig's destruction. Read full review
70
ScreenCrushMatt SingerSep 28, 2016
As a director, Berg is known for his brutal action scenes, and while Deepwater Horizon’s second half is full of intense sequences, the film’s first half is just as exciting thanks to the wonderfully uncomfortable dynamics between Wahlberg, Russell, and Malkovich. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 13, 2016
For a movie in which you can’t follow what’s going on for 75% of the time, Deepwater Horizon proves remarkably thrilling. Read full review
65
The VergeBryan BishopSep 21, 2016
There’s no question that Deepwater Horizon delivers thrills, but you may feel awfully empty afterward. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenSep 29, 2016
The picture’s pyrotechnics are first rate, and the acting by the principals is more than serviceable. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 29, 2016
A taut, engrossing action movie about real-life heroes, so why is it a disappointment? Because director Peter Berg is telling the wrong story. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedSep 28, 2016
This is a movie about action, not acting, and although, under the circumstances, the cast does yeoman work in roles that can only be called generic, in the long haul they can’t save the script and direction from being sometimes boring and always predictable. Read full review
60
SlateRebecca OnionSep 29, 2016
I left the film moved to tears, and still feeling like something huge was missing. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithSep 28, 2016
As crude as the oil it revolves around, Deepwater provides combustible entertainment without leaving the shallows. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonSep 26, 2016
Accusations of tastelessness are bound to arrive, with some justification. If your priority is to respect the dead, why hire the director of Battleship? Read full review
60
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganSep 13, 2016
If nothing else, Deepwater Horizon makes a case for going back to basics with action films. It’s classically framed, executed, and feels like the real deal, and while it clearly boasts some fine effects work, it manages to lose the cartoonish aspect of so many recent tentpoles. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskySep 28, 2016
As entertainment, it works in the most rote way: the star power of Wahlberg, Russell, and Kate Hudson, who plays Mike’s worried wife; Malkovich’s predictable sliminess; the minor pleasure of seeing the good guys get out; the slight kick of watching something big crumble and burn while knowing that it’s only a special effect, real-world basis be damned. Read full review
58
The Film StageJordan RuimySep 15, 2016
Deepwater Horizon reminds us just how talented an action director Berg is and how often substance becomes a second thought for the director. Read full review
55
TheWrapSam FragosoSep 13, 2016
It’s a thrilling film with impressive set pieces, solid acting and a pulse-pounding climax. Movie-wise, mission mostly accomplished. But to experience Deepwater Horizon and ignore the external circumstances surrounding its creation is a difficult task. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 29, 2016
It’s ultimately a genre film with all that implies, meaning omissions, simplifications, conventional heroics, dramatic banalities and, given the narrative’s limited scope, little sense of the event’s complex causes or its environmental cost. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSep 29, 2016
It has scale, spectacle and a cast of good actors who seem to believe in what they’re doing. But the movie springs to life only in spurts. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 14, 2016
As is often the case with Berg’s films, it’s technically accomplished, but it’s lacking the depth of a project that comes from a creative spark. Everything here feels routine—more like an inevitability than a work of art or even a piece of entertainment. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnSep 13, 2016
It turns a major tragedy into a minor disaster movie. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiSep 28, 2016
That Berg and writers Matthew Carnahan and Matthew Sand stick strictly to the day of that explosion and subsequent fire that sank the Deepwater Horizon certainly presents a narrative opportunity, but the lack of any resonance to larger issues is troubling (the end-credit coda is woefully thin). Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJake ColeSep 18, 2016
The film should have been a cautionary tale, but in Peter Berg's hands, it's a hollow account of the resilience of the human spirit. Read full review
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