Thursday, June 13, 2013

U-571 (2000)

U-571 is probably about as historically correct as THE LAST STARFIGHTER, but I don't care.  If you go into a movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Jon Bon Jovi expecting historical accuracy you're gonna be in for a bad time.

Set in the early days of America's involvement in WWII, there's a German submarine containing a extremely important coding machine.  The Americans will do anything to get it so they dress up one of their own subs to look like a Nazi one and send it in under the disguise of being a Nazi rescue ship.  I'm not gonna give too much away, but things don't go quite as planned and non-Captain McConaughey has to commandeer the Nazi ship and limp this half-broken mother back to England through Nazi infested waters.

Revisionist history complaints aside U-571 is an mildly entertaining film.  The idea for the story is pretty gripping, but the execution is only average.  I can't really put my finger on it, but despite the tight situations these guys got themselves into I never had any doubt that they would get out of it...or really even care if they got out of it.  Bon Jovi, predictable story, average action scenes, Harvey Keitel underused, dated CGI, noble sailors sacrificing themselves, lots of yelling, nearly all male cast. Worth a watch, if you're into submarine films, but overall it's pretty forgettable.  I was hoping for more.