On a dark and stormy winter night in 1952, a tiny USCG craft pulled 34 crewmen off a breaking-up tanker off Cape Cod. This is a wonderfully hokey fictionalization of the true event, an old-fashioned celebration of the endangered all-American hero. We know the outcome, but getting there is a hell of a ride.

The immersive (sorry) SFX seem to put you in peril. A nicely underplaying Chris Pine does the hero duty, with Casey Affleck his counterpart aboard the stricken ship. It’s a compelling story, but Disney felt obliged to pump up the drama, and a clichéd shore-bound romantic subplot almost sinks the film.

Japanese title: The Blizzard. (122 min)