Jackson Booth-Millard
The title made it obvious it was some kind of dark movie, in the water, I knew the leading actor in it, and that critics gave it good reviews, so I was just hoping for something worthwhile, directed by Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void, The Last King of Scotland). Basically veteran sea captain Robinson (Jude Law) has recently divorced from his wife and is estranged from his son, he then receives the news that he is being made redundant, given £8,640 for his services and told to clean his desk. Later Robinson has drinks with former colleagues, he meets his friend Kurston (Daniel Ryan) and a Russian called Blackie (Konstantin Khabensky), Kurston tells Robinson they have an idea that could make them all a lot of money. A German Type VIIC U-boat from World War II that sank off the coast of Georgia, with a cargo of gold worth millions, their former colleague found its location, but it was never salvaged. Robinson agrees with Kurston to meet a backer named Lewis (Casino Royale's Tobias Menzies), who agrees to fund Robinson's expedition, on the grounds he receives a 40% cut on proceeds worth up to $40 million, a 20% cut on anything above that, and that his executive Daniels (Scoot McNairy) accompany the expedition. Robinson agrees to the deal, but then a young man named Tobin (Bobby Schofield) informs him that Kurston has committed suicide, Robinson decides to bring Tobin on the expedition, acquiring a Foxtrot-class submarine from the Port of Sevastopol. The crew is 50% Russian and 50% British, there are issues between the two groups almost immediately, only Blackie speaks both Russian and English, and Tobin is viewed as a bad omen, mistaken as a virgin, when in fact he is an expectant father. Tension begins to mount between the two crews due to the close confines of the submarine, and Robinson makes the decision that the take will be divided equally between each crewman. Due to mounting pressures the crew fall out, there is a fight, and Fraser (Ben Mendelsohn) loses his head, stabbing and killing Blackie, the ensuing scuffle causes a fire to break out, the sub is damaged, Robinson is knocked unconscious and at least two men are killed. Eighteen hours later, Robinson wakes to find tensions at breaking point, the Russians have taken over half of the boat, with the British in the other half, and with Blackie dead there is no way to speak to the Russians. The sub's drive shaft is damaged, they discover they are close to the old U-boat, they may be able to transfer its drive shaft and save the boat, but tensions continue to mount when it discovered Morozov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) speaks English. Robinson sends Tobin with Fraser and diver Peters (David Threlfall) to recover the drive-shaft and the gold, but on their way back, Peter perishes when his air hose gets cut. With Morozov translating the crew manage to get the Russians to install the drive-shaft and get the submarine moving again, at this stage, Daniels admits that they have been set up to do the dangerous job, his employer will seize the gold as soon as they surface. Robinson decides to remain submerged and travel to Turkey, to keep the gold and avoid arrest, he also decides, against the wishes of the crew, to attempt a risky journey through a narrow channel. Meanwhile Daniels persuades Fraser to murder Zaytsev (Sergey Puskepalis), there are no longer enough men to safely operate the submarine, and a second fire and explosion sends the boat back to the seafloor, and it begins taking on water. Fraser and the remaining crew members try to repair the leaks, but their efforts are futile, before the men can escape, a panicked Daniels locks the bulkhead behind him, three men are left to drown, but he traps himself snagging his clothing. Morozov closes the final bulkhead, Daniels if left to drown, and he, Robinson and Tobin are protected in the torpedo section, there are three hidden escape suits hidden. Robinson evacuates Tobin and Morozov, he explains he will follow using an emergency lever, the two men surface, but Morozov informs Robin there was no lever, Robinson chose to sacrifice himself, it ends with the thirs suit surfacing with some gold and Robinson's family picture inside. Also starring Jodie Whittaker as Chrissy, Karl Davies as Liam, Michael Smiley as Reynolds, Sergey Veksler as Baba and Sergey Kolesnikov as Levchenko. Law sports a strong Scottish accent and is good as the captain struggling to maintain control, the other cat members are fine as well, it is a simple enough story, westerners versus the Russians undersea, mixed with a desperate struggle to survive, and a treasure hunt, there is a fair amount of disaster to keep a pace going, overall it is a watchable thriller. Good!
Leon Smoothy
I'm an avid submarine fan and love these kind of movies, but though also a fan of some of the actors, this is a movie to avoid at all costs. I was baffled to see a 6.4 average for this on IMDb. It contains so many plot holes, not just for a person familiar with the operation of underwater vessels and diving (just 1 example: how about sonar pings from a 50's sub making no sounds?), but will most likely be unbearable to anyone because of this. Whole segments are just as if they were left out, and the whole concept was down right stupid on top of that, and the reasoning among the characters is amazingly weird, and not in a good way. I will not go into any more details, not to spoil it for those still wanting to waste almost 2 hours of a Saturday night as I did, but heed my advice - avoid it.
Robert J. Maxwell
Jude Law, older, balder, looking like a more thoughtful Jason Statham, is the recently fired captain of a salvage submarine. A shadowy private party informs him that a Nazi submarine, filled with gold, lies on the bottom of the Black Sea, and that he, the shadowy private party, will fund a recovery expedition that will bring back myriad millions of dollars worth of pelf. Law will have a rusty old Russian submarine, now waiting for him in Sebastopol, and a crew of a dozen men -- half Russian, half Brits. That's the predicate. Do they make it? Well, yes and no.It's a surprisingly tense movie, effectively done, despite the holes left in the script. All submarine movies are tense. They always have to sink below their designated maximum depth. The pressure hull must creak and the glass face of the instruments shatter. This movie is no exception. The conventions are followed.But since there is no war, the conflict must lie elsewhere -- and it does. The Brits and the Russians don't get along. They all look like they've been "living rough," as Law puts it, sleeping in alleys and dumpster diving, but it's not all warmed-over Cold War stereotypes. Two of the Brits in particular are moral idiots. One is a deliberate murderer, the other a cowardly traitor.It's not only exciting but it's colorful. This is some submarine. It's much larger than the World War II specimens we're used to. And the lights! What decorator colors -- amber glow, fuschia, chartreuse, Chinese red, and a soupçon of neon blue. You could throw some great parties in that place if the decor weren't so unaccommodating and abrasive.The scenes of disaster or near-disaster are hair raising but they have to stand on their own because they're embedded in a gloopy plot in which sometimes the Russians understand English and sometimes they don't. That's nothing. Removing a drive shaft from a sunken submarine and using it to replace a busted one in a newer Russian submarine is, I imagine, impossible outside of some fully equipped machine shop. But it's done in one brief jiffy here. There are at least two explosions that are never explained, as if the viewers were so stupid that they didn't see the need for an explanation. Who cares? It blows up, right? The characterizations are rudimentary. They're like cardboard cutouts. An affectionate bond is shown between Captain Law and his teen-aged raw recruit, without any time being given to its development. But all of this is hardly missed because the episodes of action overwhelm all other elements of the film. It's not an adult movie but, for what it is, it's pretty good.
