Uncharted (2022)

Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) returned to consciousness to find himself dangling out of an airplane far above the ocean.  A string of crates connected by cargo straps swing from the loading ramp of a plane.  As Nathan sought to climb back toward the plane, he found enemies among the crates who he must overcome.  Finally, he gets onto the loading ramp.  Ha!  Then a red car hit him!

Days earlier, Nathan Drake arrived at his job as a bartender in NYC.  In addition to mixing drinks, he had light fingers for a lady's jewelry.  However, Sully (Mark Wahlberg) spotted his pilfering and did some counter pilfering.  He also left a business card.  It turned out that Sully was something of a thief himself and suggested they team up on a heist of Ferdinand Magellan's hidden cache of gold.  Sully already has a map, but there is need for a key.  They go to an auction where Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) plans to purchase the key, unless Drake and Sully can steal it first.

Next, they go to Barcelona to find Chloe (Sophia Ali) who has the second key.  With the two keys, they must traverse through ruins that are both part of a church, the sewer system, a subterranean bar, and a fast food joint.  Wow, all this stayed intact for four centuries.  Yeah, not buying that.  Amazingly, they acquire yet another map, this one being an island in the Philippines.  Time to stowaway on Moncada's cargo plane and we've caught up to the opening act.

Drake, Sully, and Chloe are not likable people.  Tom Holland's natural charm is carrying the character.  Only the fact that Moncada and his goon squad are murderous villains justifies the unscrupulous actions of our 'heroes.'  Many of the action scenes are beyond ludicrous and even look like something out of a video game.  The duel between two 16th century sailing ships being carried by helicopters was just too much.

Mindless popcorn fun.  Entertaining in its parts but disappointing as far as story and characters.

Flight Risk (2025)

Somewhere in rural Alaska, Winston (Topher Grace) was cooking a cup of noodles in his motel microwave when the door burst in.  Two local cops and US Marshal Madolyn Harris arrest him.  A couple of days later, Madolyn loaded Winston into a barebones charter plane.  The pilot, Daryl Booth (Mark Wahlberg) was a chatty fellow, who offered a history of how he found his way from Texas to Alaska.  Shortly after takeoff, Madolyn learned that both the radio and the GPS were offline.  Then Daryl talked about them going to Seattle; he's only taking them to Anchorage.  It turned out that Daryl was an assassin dispatched to kill Winston before he could testify against a mob boss.  Neither Mandolyn nor Winston can fly a plane.

There is a lot of inadequate securing of Daryl when he is subdued.  Repeatedly!  By the same token, Daryl had subdued Madolyn and then failed to secure her.  Everyone is needlessly reckless and it costs them again and again.  To add to the tension, it becomes clear that Daryl got information from within the Marshals, making her question her allies on the other end of the actually working radio.  Is she just flying into a trap?

A Mel Gibson film, it is just okay.  I'm sure that Wahlberg enjoyed the opportunity to play a bad guy and Michelle Dockery is a long way from Downton Abbey's Lady Mary here.  Far off type, which is cool and they are good in their roles.  No, it is the script that fails.  In order for the flight to have several fights, the characters must leave the opponent in a position to escape or fight back.  The characters must be dumb or the story would end after the first fight.  Meh.

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

In 2010, Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife, Felicia (Kate Hudson), drove together to the heliport.  He was leaving for a 3-week stint on the Deepwater Horizon.  At the heliport, he met James "Mr. Jimmy" Harrell (Kurt Russell) and Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez), who were also going to the Deepwater Horizon.  A pair of BP executives were included as well.  As the helicopter hove into view, Mr. Jimmy was surprised to see a ship near the platform.  That generally indicated that the well was ready and the platform would travel to a new site shortly.  When the helicopter landed, he briefly conferred with a test team who did not give satisfactory answers to Mr. Jimmy.  What was the situation?

Mike and Mr. Jimmy found Don Vidrine (John Malkovich), a BP Executive, in a good mood.  This particular site had been running over cost and beyond schedule, but he was now certain that the well was ready to hand off to an oil extraction platform.  They could move to a new site.  Mr. Jimmy was doubtful and wanted a test.  The test was inconclusive, but Vidrine was confident.  Though the Deepwater Horizon was owned by Transocean, it was currently leased to BP.  Jimmy deferred to BP's decision.

As it turns out, the well was not hunky dory.  In fact, it was a timebomb that exploded, sending pressure and oil into the platform with destructive force.  The oil soon caught fire and more explosions wracked the doomed platform.  Could they cap the well?  Could they even escape the platform?

The movie opens and closes with the testimony of the actual crew, including Mike and Mr. Jimmy, neither of whom look much like Wahlberg or Russell.  As with the investigation that followed the explosions, the movie pins the blame on BP.

Though true, this is a disaster movie right out of the 1970s.  I was reminded of The Towering Inferno as everything exploded and everyone fled the spreading fire.  Mike proves to be the central character who ties the story into a clean narrative.  Wahlberg does a great job.  Russell is excellent as Mr. Jimmy and Malkovich is terrific as the supercilious executive who is humbled when his claims are proved wrong.

Mostly good popcorn fun, but the conclusion is mostly a downer.  Is this a movie for entertainment or is it a documentary?

Scoob! (2020)

In Venice Beach, California, a stray dog steals a hunk of meat from a restaurant.  Fleeing from a bicycle cop, the dog hooks up with Norbert "Shaggy" Rogers, a lonely kid who eagerly adopts the dog and gives him a name: Scooby Dooby Doo.  Sometime later, Shaggy, dressed as Blue Falcon, and Scooby, dressed as Blue Falcon's dog Dynomutt, are out trick-or-treating when some bullies steal their candy and toss it into a haunted house.  Unwilling to risk the ghost, they are about to leave, but then Fred, Daphne, and Velma appear.  They insist on retrieving the candy, but do indeed find a ghost!  Well, not really.  The first case is solved and the team is formed.  Then follows a montage that repeats the events of the opening credits for the cartoon.  Present day, the now adult crew have a meeting with Simon Cowell, who wants to fund Mystery Inc. as a business, but he thinks Shaggy (Will Forte) and Scooby are deadweight.  The duo head to their favorite bowling alley to mope.  It is then that the bowling pins come to life and attack!

The movie isn't merely a return of the 'meddling kids.'  This is a Hanna-Barbera revival.  Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg) and Dynomutt come to rescue against the bowling pins.  Unlike the cartoon, Blue Falcon has a pilot for his jet: Dee Dee Skyes.  Dee Dee was one of the Teen Angels with Captain Caveman.  Does her appearance foreshadow the formation of the Teen Angels?  The bowling pins prove to be the minions of none other than Dick Dastardly (Jason Isaacs), who has a grand plan to recover his missing dog, Muttley.  Finally, all the groups converge in the bowels of a frozen mountain where an ancient race of cavemen still live, Captain Caveman (Tracy Morgan) among them.  Of course, I watched all these characters as a kid, so it was entertaining to see them all return.

Fred (Zac Efron) comes across as something of a doofus.  Though the leader in the cartoon, he has morphed into the butt of jokes.  Though described as the 'tank' of the crew, he fails every time he is called upon to be the tank.  Velma is the brains of the outfit, as is usual in her modern incarnation.  Like Fred, Blue Falcon is also a doofus, but that is in keeping with the cartoon.  All bluster and bumbling while Dynomutt, Dog Wonder saves the day.

Fun, especially for those who watched these shows on Saturday mornings back in the day.