Mediocre war drama.

Rating: 6/10 (7 December 2003)

This film is about a mission to capture an Enigma code machine from a disabled German U-boat and it has its moments. There are some exciting battle scenes and there are men acting bravely under duress, but the bottom line is it offers nothing that we haven't seen before in other movies.
Matthew McConaughey makes an unlikely senior officer of an American sub who takes over command when the captain (Bill Paxson) is killed. Harvey Keitel is the chief petty officer, an old salt who's seen action in WWI. Jon Bon Jovi plays one of the seamen. As you can see, this isn't John Wayne and Lee Marvin, it's MTV goes to war.
The true story of the capture of the Enigma and the code book in 1942 actually involved a British commando team, not an American one as shown in this film, and there wasn't any dramatic confrontation with a German destroyer. I know this is a bone of contention with the Brits, our stealing their thunder.
The producers could just as easily made this film with a British cast and stuck more closely to the truth, but I think the criticism coming from across the pond belies a bit of insecurity from our allies. It's only a movie. It's a dramatization, not a documentary. I've seen a number of British films where Americans are pointlessly made to look bad, so let's not make too big a deal on this point.
Decent entertainment once you accept the unlikely group of seamen.