13 Awesome 2016 Movies Everyone Thought Would Suck

Why It Should've Sucked: Peter Berg (Battleship, Lone Survivor) isn't exactly a director known for his subtle, tactful filmmaking craft, so the prospect of him covering something as prickly and emotionally fraught as the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, starring Marky Mark no less, kept expectations fairly low.

It'd be nothing more than a shallow, on-the-nose flag-waving exercise, right?

Why It Was Awesome: Firstly, there's barely any actual flag-waving in the movie, and secondly, Berg is working from a tight, intelligent script that balances technical detail with political pointedness and the sheer overwhelming human factor of the accident.

Wahlberg is great as the everyman protagonist (as usual), though Kurt Russell steals the movie as a rig manager, and John Malkovich is extremely entertaining as the sleazy BP douchebag responsible for the accident.

With outstanding set-pieces that nevertheless refuse to overtly exploit the real-life tragedy, Deepwater Horizon destroys pretty much all expectations to deliver sturdy, thoughtful entertainment.

And again, ironically, it bombed at the box office.