HUNTER KILLER – Review

Okay film fans, buy your ticket, settle into your seat, and grab the armrests as you prepare to submerge! Dive, dive, dive into the murky depths of another underwater adventure (and just hope you don’t become “Spam in the can”). This subset of the war film genre has been cruising the cinemas for well over 75 years, longer if you count the movie adaptations of Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo. The gold sub flick standard might have been the two torpedo blasts from 1958’s RUN SILENT RUN DEEP and 1961’s SF-themed VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (which spawned a weekly TV series soon after). Things were quiet beneath the waves (well after THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET scuttled the U-boat menace) until the Cold War set 1989 smash THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER which began a 13-year wave of ocean thrillers including CRIMSON TIDE, U-571, and K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER. After some time away, those atomic leviathons are churning up some more water-spouts in the new, post-U.S.S.R. northern oceans in HUNTER KILLER. Oh, the title designates the type of vessel, if you were wondering.

As the film begins, we’re zipping over some truly brutal snow-capped terrain. Ah, but the real story is in the Bering Straight, beneath the floating chunks of ice. A US submarine, the Tampa Bay, is silently following a Russian sub (they better be quiet since they’re in Russian territory). Without warning the Russian sub explodes. As the Tampa Bay scrambles, they realize that a missile is headed there way. The blast echoes all the way to Navy HQ in the states. CJCS Donnegan (Gary Oldman) wants an immediate rescue/investigation. RA Fisk (Common) informs him that the closest sub, the Arkansas is missing its usual Captain. However, an untested but fully cleared captain, Joe Glass, is nearby. Donnegan gives the OK, and Glass (Gerald Butler) cuts his hunting vacation short. Soon Fisk is briefed by NSA chief Norquist (Linda Cardellini) who informs him that a Navy seal team led by Bill Beaman (Toby Stephens) are parachuting into Russia to observe the meeting between President Zakarin and his main naval Admiral, Durov (Michael Gor). The Arkansas returns to the scene of the “incident”, and after evading a Russian sub, finds the remains of the Tampa Bay and the original sunken Russian sub. Video from a drone reveals that the explosion came from the inside. And just what’s that banging sound? Survivors? Glass brings aboard the nearly frozen Russian sub Captain Andropov (Michael Nyqvist) and two of his crew. Back on land, the Special Forces quartet observe more than a meeting. The images sent back to the states reveal Durov staging a coup and kidnapping Zakarin. Donnegen tells the US president that they should go to “Def-Con 4” which could lead to another world war. Fortunately, Fisk and Norquist sell her (that’s right) on another plan: the Seal Team rescues Zakarin and escapes with him via the Arkansas. But the plan hinges on whether Glass can persuade Andropov to guide them past the numerous mines that surround the naval base. Can they form an alliance and pull off this truly impossible mission before the crazed Durov lights the fuse to pulverize the planet?

Perhaps due to the confined sub set, Butler’s usual action flick swagger is thankfully subdued (not the case earlier this year, where his “mucho-macho” attitude stunk up a fairly decent “B” movie-style heist flick DEN OF THIEVES). Still, his growling, pre-mission “pep talk” (“I didn’t go to Annapolis, but I’ve done all of yer’ jobs”) is pretty grating. But he can still believably bark out commands as though he ‘s leading another 300-type charge into battle. And his glowering focus helps direct our attention from all the flashing monitors in the busy control room. In another screen-filled space, Oldman tosses away all his Churchill subtlety to give us another “angry man in command”, a star-studded bully who’s always throwing a tantrum along with insults when folks don’t see things his way (Yosemite Sam with his finger on the big red button). Much calmer (almost to the point of napping) is Common, who is far too tightly wrapped for, well, a rapper (his role in THE HATE U GIVE strikes a better balance in fewer scenes). It’s always a pleasure to see Cardellini pop up on screen (last time was just a few weeks ago as the tough artist in A SIMPLE FAVOR), though she has little to do besides sharing too many secrets and dazzling the guys with her computer skills. Stevens, so good in the Netflix reboot of “Lost in Space”, does more of that tough guy machismo as Beamen who’s a modern take on the Marvel Comics GI Sgt. Fury (minus several “howlers” and the half cigar jutting from the corner of his clenched jaw). The late Nuqvist, unfortunately, has little to do in one of his last screen roles, while Gor elicits a bit of Lugosi-like madness to his role as the power-hungry Durov.

Director Donovan Marsh checks off the list of submarine movie standards (playing all the “hits”) with workman-like proficiency. Steady-cam dashing POV through the tight, crowded corridors? Check. Multiple leaks with spraying bursts of water. Double check, augmented with sparks and sailors bounced from side to side. Plus there’s the “ping…ping’ off of sonar screens, along with countless count-downs (“20 seconds to impact…15”). In addition, we experience some solid tension as the sub navigates some narrow route while evading lotsa’ floating mines. Some of them are sound sensitive, so the crew must try to be silent (while sweating buckets, of course). Guess the mines don’t pick up on the “whirring” motors. Marsh tries to break up the undersea scenes with frequent cuts to US Navy HQ (mainly lots of arguing and staring at screens) and the quartet who can observe all of Durov’s schemes from a tower just a few hundred yards away, an unmanned tower that the bad guys either ignore or just forgot (sensors couldn’t warn of the activity). That’s not the least of the absurdities. Two different characters take bullets to the mid-section, then dive into the cold water, with little discomfort (one is up and about within minutes). These “war games” make for a bloated two hours, but the effects work is pretty solid, with CGI replacing the miniature work of most previous submarine sequences (underwater explosions are darned cool). If you’re a fan of the genre HUNTER KILLER should “float your boat”. For more discerning fans, well for undersea thrills, Mr. Curry AKA AQUAMAN will be making waves in a couple months.

2.5 Out of 5