When it became known that Ron Howard with an illustrious cast around Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell would tell the drama about the rescue of twelve children and their football coach from a cave in Thailand as a major Hollywood drama, there were direct discussions about possible film prizes, everyone ahead of Oscar awards. After all, thanks to films like “Apollo 13” or “Rush – Everything for Victory”, Howard is a specialist for such dramas based on real events.
Then even the message made the rounds that his as “Thirteen Lives” or “Thirteen Lives“ titled drama was not only celebrated at test screenings, but even set a record: With “Thirteen Lives” achieved the best test screening result of any film in the long and glorious history of Hollywood studio MGM. There was direct talk of a possible masterpiece and the theatrical release of this record film was postponed to November 2022 in order to end up in the middle of the Oscar season.
But now “Thirteen Lives” can be seen a few months earlier on Amazon Prime Video instead of in the cinema – this not only has to do with the fact that the stamp “Masterpiece” was distributed a little prematurely.
» “Thirteen Lives – Thirteen Lives” at Amazon*
Then Hollywood studio MGM has meanwhile been bought by Amazon. There you can see all the film productions of the studio with the roaring lion in the logo as a first-class opportunity to push your own streaming service. As in “Samaritan”With Sylvester Stallone, which will be released later in August 2022, it was decided to bring “Thirteen Lives” to Prime Video instead of to the cinema.
Only in the USA were there advance cinema screenings in order to continue to meet the Oscar regulations and to maintain the chances of winning the coveted film award. But you shouldn’t have too big gold boy hopes anymore…
In “Thirteen Lives” Ron Howard tells the true story very closely to the well-known pictures that went around the world in the summer of 2018: Since the twelve boys and their coach are locked in a cave and the water keeps rising, a few British develop Taucher comes up with an absurd plan to get the children out. But it soon becomes apparent that this plan is probably the only option, despite the slim chance of success.
In our criticism we state that Ron Howard fails to “activate the full effect of this spine-chilling story”. He hangs too much on well-known pictures, he doesn’t succeed enough to fill the numerous figures with life and personality. Only in the final third, when it comes to implementing the rescue plan, does “Thirteen Lives” become really dramatic. This is where the film’s qualities come into play, which could most likely be considered for Oscar nominations – above all the sound.
However, “Thirteen Lives” is far from a masterpiece. We award a total of 3 out of 5 stars in the DashFUN review. Starting today, you can get your own picture on Amazon Prime Video.
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