Saw it today

Saw it in theaters today. Money's tight for me like everyone else these days, so I tend to be picky with what I see in the theater.

Also I once worked on a low budget submarine movie with Michael Dudikoff in it and it kind of ruined sub/underwater flicks for me. I'll still watch 'em, though. I love Das Boot, The Abyss, K-19, etc.

So I plunked down $13 for a late matinee, went with a buddy of mine and we both dug it. It's pretty damn good. It's like the John Wick of sub movies. It knows what it wants to do and just does it.

Scottish accents from the English leads aren't as bad as the Scots would have you know.

The Russians aquit themselves admirably, in particular the Sonar operator and the fella who was in A Most Wanted Man.

The old Foxtrot Class submarine they wind up using is deliciously analog grimy. Every outdoor surface coated in rust, every indoor surface coated in oil, every fusebox quaint with galvanized tin and ceramic insulation, every room and cabin reeking and redolent with the farts and body odor of men long since dead, or about to die themselves.

Crew/group dynamics manage to suffer from previous situations found in similar genres, however the dichotomy between the Russians and the Scots helps a great deal and brings something new to the table.

Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn are in a movie together again after Killing Me Softly which is a bonus.

Cinematography is top-notch. You want hi-def hi-contrast closeups of sweaty faces tensely peering at depth gauges about to crack? Check. Unsettling underwater photography? Check.

And the tension is spot on. Plot is kept to a fairly high degree of both geopolitical and geographical realism. And any scientific realism is refreshingly free of being used as exposition. Everything is believable, rather than made to be believable.

I dug it a lot. Well worth the money. All I could think of while watching this film was that If I'd spent the same amount of money to see Interstellar in Imax, I would have probably gotten about half the claustrophobic knuckle-biting tension for twice the length and also would be having to deal with Anne Hathaway and Matthew McLaconictexan.

I'm interested to see what this guy will do next. Loved The Last King Of Scotland.