Potent history into bog-standard actioner.

Rating: 4/10 (4 February 2001)

When an opportunity arises for a US Navy submarine to capture the Nazi's most potent weapon - The Enigma Coding Device - Lieutenant Tyrell (Matthew McConaughey) knows he, and his crew, cannot let the Allies down!
Aside from the fact that the British Navy captured most of the pivotal Enigma information (a point ignored until a brief mention at the end of this so-so actioner), this film lets it's public down on several levels long before the truth! Jonathan Mostow's bland attempt allows far too many good plot twists to dissolve (being hunted by another u-boat; having a captive German officer let loose on board the sub.; a conflict of interests between a sub. commander and a Marine Major [David Keith; killed off far too early!]) in place of a hackneyed, 'Destroyer chases sub.' drama in which - awfully predictably - the crippled sub. manages to sink the mighty destroyer with it's solitary torpedo!?! Not that these action sequences aren't handled well; but when they're as unbelievable (and therefore as undeserved) as this, who cares? The acting is as efficient as the film; that is to say - they do what what they can with an undemanding, profoundless script, and - at the end of it all - it becomes unfortunately apparent that we have discovered precious little about the nature of war and, tragically, even less about the nature of men under fire: Surely an unforgiveable flaw in a sub-genre as potent and as definitive as the submarine movie. Then again, when you care more about flare-ups than facts, you're never really going to produce much else - are you?