U-571
Cast
Matthew McConaughey .... Lt. Andrew Tyler, Executive Officer
Bill Paxton .... Lt. Cmdr. Mike Dahlgren
Harvey Keitel .... CPO Henry Klough
Jon Bon Jovi .... Lt. Pete Emmett, Chief Engineer
David Keith .... Maj. Matthew Coonan, USMC, Office of Naval Intelligence
Directed by
Jonathan Mostow
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
5/10. U-571 is exactly the type of film that we don't need right now, but
would gross obnoxious amounts of dough. Fortunately, it only grossed
about $10 million more than their budget, but, watching the movie, I
can't really believe that the budget was actually over $60 million,
based on what I saw. Perhaps it was egged on because I had just
visited Universal Studios, and I saw how cheaply they
created "special effects" for this movie, and also the "magic" of
miniatures. All of this was evident, and it could have been created
with more realism in my bathtub.
The characters are mainly in jumbles, like most war movies. About the
only one we get to meet and know a little about is Matthew
McConaughey, as Andrew Tyler. He's itching for his own submarine, but
it's denied, which is supposed to account for behavior on the
submarine, but we don't see any pent-up anger or anything. And when
he gets his run at the ship later in the movie, does he seem glad?
Nope. McConaughey has never been touted as a great actor, and it
shows here.
Most shots of the submarine, a German U-Boat that is taken over by
the Navy, that were out on the sea were just miniatures, as I said
earlier. The water just looked like a puddle at a Universal backlot
with a child's toy boat floating in it. The blood, when it was in the
water, looked like food coloring, and when a person was shot, it was
most definitely orange. I've bled, and blood is not orange. Whenever
a shot was fired, it looked like, well, the laser rays at the end of
The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
However, it isn't all bad. Some scenes in the various submarines,
although not claustrophobic like the ones in K-19: The Widowmaker,
can be tense at times. I did, however, know who was going to live and
who was going to die. Also, since these are troubled times, would the
Germans beat the good ol' U.S. of A? It seemed that the enemies were
all stereotyped, like all war movies.
Do you like war movies? Do you like submarine movies? Do you like
mediocre submarine movies? If you answered yes to the first two, then
look somewhere else. If the third is what you say, then go for U-571.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #5
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated PG-13 for war violence.
Running time: 116 minutes
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