A suspensful roller coaster ride that does not disappoint

Rating: 10/10 (19 April 2000)

*Warning - slight plot details revealed....*
It isn't often you enter a cinema and instead of checking your watch you have to check a calendar instead. Now that doensn't mean U-571 was even more boring than usual, it just means I had to make sure I wasn't in the 50's or 60's watching a film, so effective is this flick in transporting the viewer back to the era of war films, espionage, Cold War shennanigans and so forth.
The plot concerns the retrieval of the Enigma machine, a small typewriter like device that German U-boats used to communicate, using an encryption that the Allies had failed to crack. Upon hearing that a U-Boat lies crippled after a blistering attack, the Americans disguise one of their own subs as a german u-boat, and attempt to get to the german sub before the enemy can send their own resupply and repair ship to aid the distressed tub.
Their goal is to grab the machine and scupper the ship before the repair ship gets there. Of course it wouldn't be a film of this nature without the whole thing going wrong, and some of the crew end up on the German U-Boat, fighting for their lives to get home with the precious "typewriter".
U-571 is quite simply an excellent film, full of suspense and excitement. The cast are totally top-drawer, with McConaughey giving what is probably the performance of his career, in a role that seems tailor made for him. After years of floundering around with horrible roles that demanded little of him, this film allows McConaughey the scope and range he needs, and he does not disappoint.
The special effects are also very well done, with some fantastic underwater photography and digital hokery-pokery adding to the suspensful moments very well.
This one is a definite must for the big screen. Make sure you find a cinema with the biggest speakers possible, cause those depth charges sure sound great!
10 out of 10. It's that good.