THE FINEST HOURS (B)

More aptly titled: The Not Great But Still Pretty Darn Entertaining Hours, this harrowing, early 50’s Coast Guard rescue retelling is equal parts high seas heroics and old school charm.  A candy-coated, crowd-pleasing, fairly immersive maritime movie with strong doses of Greatest Generation swagger, captivating special effects and two terrifically against type turns from Affleck and Pine.  …and despite its fabricated melodrama, its gloss-over-grit mentality and an all-to-easy-to-forget-title, it still possesses a compellingly simplistic approach to the material that proves both gripping and good natured – a movie, I imagine, that would work for the entire family.  This good ol’ fashioned, page-out-of-history, courage-based disaster flick may not represent the finest hours you’ll experience in a theater – but spend the time and you’ll quickly learn it was all worth your while.
 

Starring: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Holliday Grainger, Ben Foster and Eric Bana

Directed by: Craig Gillespie (Million Dollar Arm and Lars and the Real Girl)
Rated: PG-13

Running time: 1hr. 57min.

Story: Despite overwhelming odds, four US Coast Guardsmen, set out in a wooden lifeboat with an ill-equipped engine and little, if any, means of navigation, facing frigid temperatures, 60-foot high waves and hurricane-force winds to attempt a daring rescue of a T-2 oil tanker crew. (Disney)

Watch the trailer: www.movies.disney.com/the-finest-hours