We all live in a yellow submarine...

Rating: 6/10 (23 April 2000)

This movie has more in common with the "Guns of Navarone" than it does with "Das Boot," "the Bedford Incident" or "the Enemy Below." Technical and historical accuracy are sacrificed in the name of entertainment... so is any pretense of military discipline. It's an old-fashioned war movie in which the usual eclectic handful of Americans manage to beat the Axis villains (who have them out-gunned and outnumbered). If you're hungry for a mindless action-adventure movie, this is the fast-food "meal" to satisfy that need. If you want something substantial to digest, look elsewhere.
Matthew McConaughey's performance is decent, and Harvey Keitel manages to look good even though he's playing a cinematic cliche -- as are most of the enlisted men. Jon Bon Jovi appears too briefly for me to say whether he deserves that cameo on "the Sopranos" that he so desperately craves.

If you're expecting an interesting story about the Enigma code machine, wait for someone to adapt Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon for the screen. Of course that's about as likely to happen as "Gravity's Rainbow: the Movie."