[yasr_overall_rating]
In order to make good with his former employers, a submarine captain takes a job with a shadowy backer to search the depths of the Black Sea for a submarine rumored to be loaded with gold.
It feels like an old sailor’s tale. “Arr, let me tell ya a story of a group out at sea. A tale of greed and desperation, while looking for lost gold.” “Black Sea” is one of those cautionary tales at sea. In this film, Jude Law plays Captain Robinson. After a lifetime of service at sea, he has been given walking papers. Upset, he goes to the local watering hole to drink his sorrows. There he meets up with other former ruffians of the sea who complain about their lives, and what was. One of the lot has an idea how to turn the tides and make them all some money. He says he saw what looked like a lost U boat in the Georgian depths of the Black Sea during one of their runs.
This brings us back full circle to the opening of the movie. It starts off with old film footage of Nazis and Russia. We eventually find out that Russia was asked to bring money to Hitler to keep war from happening. The submarine that supposedly carried the gold was sunk and never heard of again.
In “Ocean’s 11” style, a team is put together to get the gold from the Russian sub. Each member is introduced, maps are circled and plans are hatched. After securing the money for the mission, they get a view of the submarine they’ll use to look for the lost treasure, and it’s a piece of junk that has seen better days. Certain wheels don’t turn and someone says to add just a little oil. They are missing some radios in case they need to call for help, there are no means to escape in sight and there’s rust just about everywhere. They reluctantly agree to take it and go on with their mission.
So, a group of disgruntled roughnecks are crammed into a claustrophobic inducing, leaky sub deep into the sea, with no means for escape to look for gold. Oh, and by the way, they have to do it without being spotted by the Russian Navy, which might be nearby. What could go wrong? Before too long, we find out.
When Jude Law’s character tells the crew they will divide their gold shares equally, this creates a slight stir. Someone explains to him it’s just a matter of time before the crew realizes if there are less of them, their share of the gold increases.
Before long, fights break out, accidents happen and people die. Grudges and betrayals happen. Water valves break. Whatever can go wrong in a submarine, happens. Will they get the gold? Will they get out alive? I’m not going to give away spoilers, but I’ll just say it’s not a feel-good movie.
Unfortunately for director Kevin MacDonald, best remembered for his acclaimed “The Last King of Scotland,” this genre has been well mined and there isn’t too much here that hasn’t been explored in other films. The one difference however, is the focus on the social and cultural differences of classes. The theme seems to be the story of the working man, trying to right after being wronged by the wealthy class that they worked for.
The submarine set was amazing. And the mannerisms of the actors made it feel like they’ve been running a submarine for years. Little subtle things added for the realism throughout. There were also some nice cinematic shots. The acting overall was good, but the accents sometimes were hard to understand. It didn’t matter though, because a lot said really wasn’t important…just lots of ship jargon.
Some folks are going to love this movie. I didn’t. It’s an okay movie. It’s a little clichéd and somewhat predictable. It feels like an homage to other at sea classics that did it first and better. If you love underwater movies (“The Hunt for Red October,” “The Abyss,” “Das Boot), then this is worth giving a chance. My biggest challenge was I didn’t really like the characters from the beginning, so who cares if they get their gold or not. There are attempts to make us care, showing glimpses of what they had and families lost but in the end, their losses are of their own making. The characters don’t have any redeeming qualities, until maybe at the very end but by then, it may be too late.
In theaters now
