U-571



Starring: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, Jake Weber, David Keith

Directed by: Jonathan Mostow

Produced by: Universal Pictures, Canal Plus Image International

Distributed by: Universal

Genre: war

Xibo's grade:

C+

Average grade:

--

 


C+ C+ C+
Review by Xibo Date seen: April 22, 2000
Viewing Location: Newport Centre, NJ Grade: C+
Summary: Are you ready for a submarine movie?
This movie takes all of the basic plot elements of a submarine movie (nazis, depth charges, diving, surfacing, torpedo combat, leaks, more leaks, even more leaks, captain at periscope, crew dying bravely) and combines them into a typical WW II story. It tries to be "new" by including the elements about Enigma, the cypher machine; but that's just a plot device to get the crew in serious trouble and not involved in the story at all. So if you've read Cryptonomicon and heard that this movie involves Enigma, well, just throw all those happy thoughts out of your head, this is a very ordinary run-of-the-mill war movie. Blah!

On the plus side, we get to see Jon Bon Jovi act. It's amazing how he's transformed himself from a rock singer into an actor, and you won't be able to recognize him. Also on the plus side, there's not a lot of gore, so we're spared the gruesomeness of Saving Private Ryan knockoffs.

On the whole though, this whole movie would have been better as a single chapter in the story of one officer's life. But that would have involved a lot more creativity and this is all pretty much formula stuff. 

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