Every sub movie cliche makes a cameo!!

Rating: Null/10 (28 April 2000)

Ignoring for a moment the historcial revisions U571 makes (which, in and of themsevles are pretty offensive), U-571 is a dull, predictable thriller that tries it's hand at dazzling viewers with age-old submarine thriller cliches and excuses to use modern special effects technology for shallow scenes. Everything U-571 tries to be, Das Boot did better, with a far better storyline. Of course, seeing as how Das Boot was about a German sub in WWII, in some way's it's been pushed aside in movie history since it's not plucky Americans doing brilliant things to save the red, white, and blue. While most people are praising the acting in U-571, great acting doesn't equate to a brilliant movie. Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman were convincing dolts in Ishtar, but that doesn't make the movie a grand spectacle. It all comes to down good writing...and this film has none. For a submarine thriller to be excellent, it needs to twist common elements of those films into something interesting. Hunt FOr Red October succeeded because of this....Das Boot succeeded because it was a hyper-realistic and incredibly powerful, dramatic portrayal of Nazi-sub life. U-571 is just actioneer stuff that recycles everything we've seen before in a glossy new package including a fake plot in which Americans do all these great things they never did. Not making the characters British was not simply dramatic license...it's just plain silly. GO rent the director's cut of Das Boot (preferably on DVD), tuck in for the evening and get blown away by a real thriller. Not some "look mommy, Hollywood can make period action movies!" thing.