U-won't believe how stupid this movie is

Rating: 4/10 (26 April 2000)

*MINOR SPOILER, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO GIVE ANYTHING SIGNIFICANT AWAY*
At one point during U-571, someone gets blown from the top of a submarine, having been hit in the head by some flying debris, lands a few hundred feet away in the middle of the ocean, then is still alive to yell something at another character hundreds of feet away on another submarine, who actually hears him, in the middle of a thunderstorm, while several other things go boom in the night around them.
But far be it from me to call U-571 unrealistic. Impossible is more the word. I would need no less than three hands to count how many times I said to myself, "Now that was stupid," during the course of this movie. In fact, there was one point when the entire audience, as an aggregate, basically screamed the words "Yeah, right!" at the screen.
The funny thing is, they actually had a military advisor for this film - a vice admiral, at that. Seems to me they couldn't have listened to him, though. I mean, granted, I don't know the first thing about military life, but I know enough about physics to realize that starting a diesel engine while underwater is a really bad idea.
True, the film could be worst. Parts of it are somewhat suspenseful, and the acting is passable. I wouldn't recommend you pay money to see it, though.
But, if you do, know this: there's no good reason to pay attention to anyone except McConaughey, Paxton, and Keitel. Anyone else in U-571 is important for maybe ten minutes - at best. In addition, this movie falls into the usual war movie trap of casting a whole bunch of people that look alike. And it doesn't help that they don't mention many names. For example, even knowing the name of Jon Bon Jovi's character from the credits, I can't place him in the film (granted, his fans will recognize him, I'm sure, but, no offense to the man, I'm not one of them).
Really, though, I should have known better than to go see U-571 in the first place. It's the type of movie that's usually rated "R" and usually released in the summer. So, if you think about it, the fact that it's "PG-13" and has come out in April speaks volumes in-of-itself. 4/10