Germans are so dumb the war should have been over in 6 days.

Rating: 6/10 (22 November 2001)

Based on Collectors Edition DVD.
I looked forward to watching U-571 with relish, U-boats and the Enigma machine a story made in heaven. Alas the story is not about the Enigma machine and despite the very impressive sets it's not even about submarines or submariners it's a story about an XO coming of age.
A few irritating things about the movie (1) given a few hours and a little plaque the US Navy can make one of their "old" subs look like a U-boat (2) Germans are portrayed as ineffective unable to do anything with their own U-boat which the Yanks can then fix in a hour (3) Bad guys can't shot (4) lots of weary creaking metal (5) impersonating a German officer is OK (6) who actually sank the 1st sub and why (7) why not use marines (8) can you really whisper into a microphone and have a guy in an engine room hear you? Also the tension building scenes are imho overdone as are some of the fight scenes.
Despite the above the movie has very good sets which might add to the sense of being there, if you like sub movies you'll probably put up with the flaws.