rating:
(out of
4 stars)France, United States; 2004
Directed by Jonathan Mostow; produced by Dino De Laurentiis, Martha De Laurentiis; screenplay Jonathan Mostow, Sam Montgomery, David Ayer
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, Bill Paxton, Jon Bon Jovi, David Keith, Thomas Kretschmann
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
Do not watch 'U-571' as a plausible WW-II film. If you try to do that you
must compare it with the great 'Das Boot' and then this film is one of the
worse and most stupid films I have seen. It changes a British
accomplishment, stealing the Enigma code-machine from a German U-boat, into
an American tale of heroes. So let's review this film as your typical action
film; it becomes a lot better.
Basically this film can and probably will be liked by people who are able to
stop thinking too much and enjoy action films. I was able to do that most of
the time, although the comparison to 'Das Boot' (and 'The Hunt for Red
October') was inevitable at times. 'U-571' is filled with the usual
sub-marine scenes: a boat deeper than theoretically possible, exploding
bombs around the boat, everywhere, leaking holes, everywhere, failing
torpedoes that need to be fixed. Yes, start comparing and this film fails.
But now let's try to enjoy what we see and hear. Although the film is filled
with clichés it knows how to make the story, although very un-true,
interesting. We can guess what happens next every time, but those
predictable scenes look and especially sound so good a lot of people must be
able to enjoy this film. If you watch this the right way you might give it a
try.