Tense On Action, But Overall Disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (26 October 2009)

When it comes to the action scenes and the remarkable visuals, "U-571" is quite good in that area. I wish I could praise more about this movie, but then I would be lying. This movie had potential to be really good. As a fan of undersea war adventures this movie was a major letdown.For a movie to be remarkably good, you can't just depend on action to stand alone, and though this is high on entertainment, the holes in everything else is quite flabbergasting.
One of the biggest flaws about "U-571" is that it lacks in any kind of historical accuracy as facts are disjointed and the execution was banal. Once again the United States glorifies itself as the heroes of the undersea initiative, but the reality was that it was the British that accomplished the bulk of the task. Why does Hollywood try to fabricate the Americans as the only heroes during the 20th century wars and manipulates its audience by concocting false historical diatribe in order to sell ticket and promote patriotism like they really deserved it?
I was really letdown by the acting here. Such a terrific cast of characters like Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton and Harvey Keitel, I expected at least an emotionally charged film. Instead the acting was pure cardboard, they should have hired mannequins instead of performers to star in this movie.For a submarine water movie, emotions and identifying a character is mandatory, by the end of the movie I couldn't tell who's who because of the lack-luster emotions between the performers.
The directing put into this movie is absolutely shameful. The crew has no personality at all, it looks like as though they didn't put much heart into this movie. Where's the quality of this movie? The opening scenes are at a snail's pace and then it just drags on skimming over the important scenes which makes the movie very choppy and hard to get adjusted. I suppose the director just wanted a patriotic movie that will make the American audiences have something to be prideful about, which they did, but at the cost of them feeling naive because of the inaccurate story.
The visuals are what really saves the movie. The shots of the submarine were excellent and the explosions were quite enjoying to watch. However, it still never saves itself from the mess this movie possesses.
If you compare this movie to Wolfgang Petersen's "Das Boot", it's like comparing prime rib to puppy chow. It's clear that this movie is a sad waste, and had a lot of material to be really good. But with a lot of misery this story develops I can't score high in this review. The action just keeps coming along, but there's no story to tell with no tell with no lessons learn-ed. With poor historical accuracy, bad acting and abysmal direction, this movie should be seen once and then find something else to regain those near two hours you have lost.