not like the old days

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2000)

I looked forward to this movie for two reasons; the first is that I immensely enjoyed Jonathan Mostow's last film, Breakdown and so, looked forward to his next, and the second is my great and abiding love for submarines, both books and movies. My favorite sub films are the old WW2 ones, like Destination Tokyo and Run Silent, Run Deep and this seemed to head in the vein of those. The first 45 minutes is gripping and exciting action, with the stock sub characters overblown as usual. But as the action moves to the German sub, the movie takes a nosedive and never ascends (haha). How much of sitting underwater listening to depth charges is too much? This much! The truly interesting characters, Bill Paxton's and David Keith's, are killed off leaving us with personality-challenged Matthew Mconaughey and 'he's in this movie, too?!' Harvey Keitel and the other faceless actors populating the screen. After Breakdown, I know Jonathan Mostow is capable of suspense on a extended level but he demonstrates very little of it here. Overall, a big disappointment.
By the way, why do the characters relentlessly whisper throughout the latter half of this movie although the screws on the sub never stop, creating the very noise they wish to quell? Just asking!