decent movie, but it's all been done before.....better!

Rating: Null/10 (1 May 2000)

I would never want to serve on a submarine. The claustrophobia combined with the fact that you're in a metal tube submerged beneath the ocean would be too disconcerting. Add combat conditions, and I'd really be inclined to stay on dry land. Maybe that's why many good movies have been set in submarines. No personal space, no way to see the surrounding dangers, nowhere to escape, and constantly fearful of a torpedo, a depth charge, or a mechanical breakdown. Perfect opportunities for good film-making. See "Das Boot" (1981), "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), "Crimson Tide" (1995), or "The Enemy Below" (1957) to prove my point. Those are all excellent films that I personally recommend.
Now Writer/Director Jonathan Mostow (1997's "Breakdown") brings us "U-571", but unfortunately it's not in the league of those films. It's a pretty good movie, but nothing more than that. It has intensity, drama, and action, but I found myself constantly thinking that each of the above-mentioned films had already done it......better. Most of the characters were poorly developed, so I ended up as a detached observer rather than really caring for the men onboard U-571. As a result, I was interesting in the dramatic scenes, but not in a 'white knuckle' sort of way. And that's what makes a great action film--submarine or no submarine.
McConaughey and Keitel are very solid in the two best-written roles. McConaughey has cooled off since his big hot streak in 1996 and 1997 ("Lone Star", "A Time To Kill", "Contact", and "Amistad"), but he's in good form here. Keitel's Klough reminds me of Sean Connery's role in "The Untouchables"--the grizzled veteran instructing/teaching the higher-ranking but much younger and less experienced Tyler. Their conversations are the highlights of the non-action scenes. The other roles are quite thankless--a character will shine for a moment, then you won't see him for a long time. Or he'll die. Suffering the most is well-known actor Bill Paxton ("A Simple Plan", "Twister", "Apollo 13"). His lines are so cheesy and stereotypical that I found myself knowing what he was going to say before he opened his mouth!
I don't mind suspending disbelief for 2 hours and accepting that these men (and this ship) could do these things. But most of the characters are paper thin, and I knew within the first few minutes whether each one would live or die. No surprises at all! The action scenes are fairly well-done, but nothing I hadn't seen before. The depth charge scenes are very intense, but by the third time they lose most of their drama. The "we're in a sub we've never seen before....how do we operate it?" was done better in "The Hunt for Red October". The "we're sinking and the hull is about to be crushed" was done better in "Crimson Tide". And the overall "we're trapped in a leaky WW2 U-boat with enemies all around us" was done MUCH better in "Das Boot".
If you're looking to grab some popcorn and be entertained for 2 hours, you could do MUCH worse than "U-571". It will entertain you, but you'll come away wishing that it had delivered more bang for your bucks.