There’s not much hunting, but a whole lot of killing in Hunter Killer; the subject is submarines in modern warfare, and Gerry Butler is the man with the answers. He’s Commander Joe Glass, a maverick who doesn’t play by the rules; he does things HIS way! Pretty much everything about Joe is a cliché, but Donovan Marsh’s thriller attempts to make up for in incident what it lacks in originality.
Glass takes command of the American USS Arkansas at the Faslane nuclear base in Scotland; he’s sent on a secret mission deep into the Arctic where another submarine has gone missing. Glass teams up with Russian sub Konek and captain Sergei Andropov (the late Michael Nvqvist) to foil a Russian coup d’etat and rescue the deposed Russian president, while back in the US, weasely Admiral Charles Donnegan (Gary Oldman) watches as the action escalates.
Oldman is playing a character who ducks responsibility, but he seems to take the role quite literally, rarely clearly in shot and usually scurrying out of frame; rarely has an actor looked like they didn’t actually want to be in a film. Given the big-sized manliness on show, that’s no surprise; Hunter Killer is a beefy Tom Clancy-type thriller that takes no prisoners. The action is decent when it comes, but unfortunately the star is stuck in a tin can for most of it.
Even before the pandemic, it was a modern phenomena that big, reality-based action movies (Mile 22, Patriot’s Day, Deepwater Horizon) were struggling to find an audience; Hunter Killer’s straightforward, gung-ho action should pick up a few fans on streaming, with Butler a gruff centre and plenty of passable entertainment to be drained from the hair-trigger plotline.
Saw this at the cinema when it came out. Certainly passable. Butler has carved out a niche for himself in the action field. Copshop was more than passable and the Angel films, while reliant on weird notions, certainly filled a gap.
The Lighthouse film aside, Butler generally hits the mark when it comes to action.
Surprising that he’s managed to do so well.
Nice clue. The Enforcer. I knew it was a captive workforce of mail order scammers, I just couldn’t place it. Well played.
So far I’ve been able to resist borrowing this. If Fraggle thinks it’s not doableagainable I’m wary that it’s not really doablethefirsttimeable either.
It’s weak sauce. The are other, more worthy movies awaiting you, I feel sure.
Starting to feel like the DVD library is a bit tapped out at present. Actually dropped in this morning hoping to score Dune but it wasn’t in and nothing else caught my eye. Might have to spend some time with a new series.
Dune is worth the wait.
I recognise the board as if from a film I’ve seen a few times. But what?
This is the guy to ask for a hint.
https://alexonfilm.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/hint2.jpg
If I had been driving that sub, THEN you would have had a real action movie. I think Gerry needs a couple of lessons about driving from Vin Diesel. Not to be rude, but Gerry drives like a grandma….
This was one of our Saturday Night Action movies a while back, passable but not dooableagainable.
U-571 is next submarine movie up…
Ah excellent. Alternative title ‘how the Americans won the war again by completely trashing history and pissing off the Brits and the Germans’. I just read my review of it and laughed my head off, but did say I enjoyed it, it was well done, great soundtrack (won oscars for it!) so I think you’ll enjoy it if you don’t take it seriously.
I paid 10p for it so the stakes are high.
Well worth it for the laughs and the great action sequences and the soundtrack. Just ignore the history!
I generally don’t expect history from films. Getting engagement with a subject is as much as I can hope for. And maybe a Jon Bon Jovi cameo.
No thanks. If I go to the theater this weekend, I’ll be watching “Romancing the Stone 2” with Gracie Hart and Magic Mike.
Yup, keen to see the Lost City! I’m sure it’ll be better than this…