![]() This one adds another element of danger by blending a crew of Russians and Brits with the goal of bringing back millions of dollars in gold locked away on a sunken German U-Boat in the Black Sea waters. Inherent to a story based aboard a submarine is the immediate and constant threat of claustrophobia and death. This time he works with a script from playwright Dennis Kelly to deliver a gritty, tense thriller that is lacking any traditional Hollywood fluff it's a down and dirty look at greed, desperation and the survival instinct. Director Kevin MacDonald is best known for his excellent 2006 film The Last King of Scotland (with Forest Whitaker's Oscar winning performance as Idi Amin). Since then, count me in for just about any movie based aboard a submarine (Down Periscope being a rare exception). ![]() It wasn't until later that I discovered Irwin Allen's 1961 movie of the same name, and more importantly, Jules Verne's novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", which featured the wild exploits of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus. Each week I sat wide-eyed in front of the tube (yes, it was actually a cathode ray tube back then) anxiously awaiting underwater adventure. One of my first favorite TV shows as a little kid was "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". Black Sea is true to the deep nature of submarine film, sometime suspenseful and engaging, though most of the personality clashes are ridiculously forced. A couple of the twists are decent in creating more dilemmas to elevate the tension, excluding the rest which are the results of tragic human error. It takes advantage of the premise well, and produces occasional morale ambiguity for gritty effect. The acting isn't half bad, Jude Law does his best though the accent is a bit jarring. The visual is fitting for the theme, mostly shot in typical small corridor or halls, it is meant to be claustrophobic. I'm not an expert but surely when placed in crucial condition as submerged with actual chance of dying, one might need to cooperate instead of constantly picking a fight. Everyone is aggressive every time, there's barely any human interaction which doesn't lead in heated argument. Cue the crazy debacle where someone gets randomly stabbed or a few misclicks cause the submarine to nose dive, and the operation sinks faster than the submarine itself. His whole team consists of either inexperienced or slightly mad crew. Thus, he assembles his team of merry misfits and dives for the riches. The gig is to recover sunken World War II submarine which allegedly contains heaps of gold. Disgruntled and very keen on making money, he jumps at the first opportunity of big pay. Robinson (Jude Law) is recently fired from his job. One must wonder if the problems here could've been resolved with proper human interactions, such as conversations without violence undertone or not resorting to outright violence on a whim. Black Sea offers decent psychological thriller with its good set-up and claustrophobic cinematography, but the personalities often do stupid things just for the sake of drama. The very concept promises many characters sharing a mutual predicament while confined in the depths. There's always a niche appeal for submarine stories.
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