A water-logged shipwreck!

Rating: 3/10 (25 April 2000)

A dream cast. A great, exciting story. So why only 3 stars? 1- Misuse of cast. Harvey Keitel (the most serious casualty), David Keith, and Bill Paxton are all wasted, by either being given standard-issue dialogue or early departures. Mathew McConaghey manages to hold his head above water, however. Problem number 2 - Josh Mostow brings no sense of excitment to the material AT ALL. There is not one sequence that does not involve major special effects that instills a sense of 'wow' in the audience. Steven Spielberg and Terrence Malick have raised the bar (together with Oliver Stone) on war films that a run of the mill director has no chance of coming near it, much less surpassing it ... and Josh Mostow, being that he has NO sense of visual flair whatsoever, fails miserably. Finally, the third problem - THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, DAS BOOT, RUN SILENT RUN DEEP, and CRIMSON TIDE were all done by directors and producers who were way better than the team behind this shipwreck. So, why the three stars? They belong to Mr. McConaghey, Mr. Paxton, Mr. Keitel, Mr. Keith, the special effects crew, and the American men who actually did this (and deserve a MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better film.