blanche-2 Jude Law stars with Karl Davies and Daniel Ryan in "Black Sea" from 2014, directed by Kevin MacDonald and written by Dennis Kelly.Robinson (Law), does ocean salvage but is fired by his company. A friend, Kurston (Ryan) tells him about a Nazi sub that went down in the Black Sea that was carrying millions in Russian gold.The two find a backer who will take 40 percent. Robinson wants six Brits and six Russians for his crew. The backer wants Daniels, his banker (Scoot McNairy), to go along too. The end result is a bunch of low-lifes with different ideas about the gold and the trip.The sub is old with lots of problems. That, accompanied with the attitude of crew members makes for big headaches. While trying to salvage a driver from another downed sub, Daniels gives Robinson some devastating news and tells him to abort the operation. However, no matter what happens, Robinson insists that they continue.Suspenseful and claustrophobic film with a biting performance by Jude Law as the determined Robinson. Law has been a smooth leading man, a character actor (Road to Perdition), and now a tough character lead. He is very effective. The rest of the performances are very good, including Karl Davies as a near-eighteen-year-old who has a child on the way. Scoot McNairy, Daniel Ryan, Ben Mendelsohn, and Konstantin Khabenskiy give great support.I think the IMDb score is low. This film made me nervous and held my interest, and I loved the ending. To me those are indications that this film deserved more than 6.4.

robert-temple-1 There have been many submarine films in the past, but the genre seemed to have died out, until this one appeared. The two most famous submarine films ever made were DAS BOOT (1981, 293 minutes long in the original uncut version) and ON THE BEACH (1959, see my review). In the latter film, the submarine was incidental to the story but much of the time was spent in it. Of the many wartime submarine dramas of earlier years, I remember UP PERISCOPE (1959, with James Garner), SUBMARINE COMMAND (1951, with William Holden), and others the titles of which I have forgotten. Others include MYSTERY SUBMARINE (1963), SUBMARINE D-1 (1937), John Ford's SUBMARINE PATROL (1938), S.O.S. SUBMARINE (1941), SUBMARINE SEAHAWK (1958), SUBMARINE ALERT (1943), SUBMARINE BASE (1943), SUBMARINE WARFARE (1946), PIRATE SUBMARINE (1951), and so on. (I refrain from listing the many earlier films about World War I submarines, some of which were silent films.) Somebody ought to hold a submarine retrospective film festival one day. Claustrophobes, be warned! All the films could be watched through periscopes. Probably the last high-profile submarine film until now was THE HUNT FOR RED October (1990, with Sean Connery), which made a big splash at the time (pun intended). This new one stars Jude Law, who is excellent, and rather scary, in the lead role as a very rough Scottish character. I learn from IMDb's invaluable trivia that he affected an 'Aberdonian' accent, i.e. one from Aberdeen. It sounded like George Galloway to me, and he is from Dundee, but whatever it was it was entirely convincing, so well done, Jude. The film was directed by a Glasgow lad named Kevin Macdonald, well known for his earlier THE LAST KING OF Scotland (2006) and for STATE OF PLAY (2009, see my review). He certainly has directed a high-intensity film with this one. The story involves a group of treasure-hunters acquiring an old Soviet submarine to search for gold in a sunken Nazi U-boat in the Black Sea, and much of the film was shot inside a real one, the old Soviet submarine moored at Strood in Kent. So there is plenty of authenticity about the film. As for the gold, the film story is that Stalin ordered two tonnes of gold to be sent to Hitler during the Stalin-Hitler Pact, but the submarine carrying it sank in the Black Sea. The gang of desperadoes gathered together by Jude Law for his madcap expedition includes jailbirds, a homicidal psychopath, a boy of 18 with a subnormal IQ, and a shifty representative of a crooked business concern. Half the crew have to be Russians because the sub is Russian and only they can operate it. Jude Law is the commander, with a handy translator standing beside him. The Russians are all colourfully rough, grumbling characters cursing everyone and everything in Russian like disorderly Cossacks looting a town and arguing over who gets to rape which girl. So there is endless tension, conflict, and enough confined atmosphere to drive any claustrophobe crazy with anxiety. The good news is that they find the gold. But there is some bad news. Watch and sweat.

lemon_magic All right, this isn't "Das Boot" or "Red October", or even "Crimson Tide", but it's pretty darned good and well worth seeing if you are a fan of the "Submarine Suspense" movie. No longer a pretty boy (or at least no longer doing "pretty boy" roles), Jude Law is very impressive in this. At some point, he developed an amazing dynamic range and he is uses it here to good effect. In fact, there isn't a "flat tire" in the cast. Although I have to admit that the characters the actors played were somewhat predictable, once the movie established them. (It was obvious after the first 5 minutes in the sub who the weak link was and who the traitor would be).The story hits all the beats you expect in sub movies, and gives everyone in the cast room to shine. The special effects work well in the context of the movie, and the director keeps things moving as briskly as you can hope for. My only real complaint was the downbeat ending seemed unnecessary (if more believable - but if you are looking for "believable", why are you watching a submarine movie?) Your life won't be incomplete if you miss "Black Sea", but it's a fine piece of work and worth seeing.

Robert D. Ruplenas This movie looks like it's trying to be an aquatic version of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in its attempt to show us the corrupting effects of greed. However, there's no way this effort comes close to edging out John Huston's masterpiece. Considered purely as an action flick it has its good points, but there are too many contrivances along the way that strain credibility. First off is the idea that a dozen of so guys, half of whom don't speak or read Russian, can commandeer a rusted out Russian sub and effortlessly operate it is dubious at best, And in a subsequent scene, the idea that three guys can enter a sunken sub, remove its "driveshaft" and bring it back to replace the damaged one in their own sub is just beyond the pale. "We may have to machine it a little," says one. Yeah, sure. The other annoyance is the repetitious interjection of the income inequality theme, i.e. the rich bosses always get theirs and screw us so now it's our turn. The usual quasi-Marxist claptrap. The action is pretty good, and it has to be said the the acting is OK, especially Jude Law's performance, but that's not enough to redeem the movie.