Robinson, an ex-Navy former submarine captain, gets fired from his salvage company job, and given a pittance of a pay off.
Divorced from his wife, estranged from his son, his luck is sinking faster than a stricken sub.
On hearing of a potential stash of Nazi gold in a sunken U-boat off the Georgian coast, he assembles a team to steal the treasure and strike back against a system rigged against him and his blue-collar crew......
I was really looking forward to this movie. I love Macdonald, his films are so realistic, yet touching, and Law is a fine actor, even if he is channelling Phil Collins in this. But as soon as he took pity on the homeless lad, and got him a job on the submarine, despite his insistence on having only a solid crew on board, I knew it would narratively sink.
Law is fine, and despite a couple of dodgy moments, his Aberdonian brogue is pretty good. The man carries the film.
But the rest of the film is so mundane, and despite it being in such an enclosed space, the important element of claustrophobia that should heighten the tension, as evident in Das Boot, Crimson Tide, even U-571, just isn't there.
So we just wait to see who will snap first, because any idiot would know that the less people there are, the more gold is there to share.
Smiley is the best of the support, but even he's relegated to gushing monologues about the dangers of submarines and spends the majority of the film freaking out the already freaked out Mcnairy, who is basically this films Burke from Aliens.
People start dying, people leave gasoline near engines, and come the end of the film, there's only enough suits for a few to survive.
It feels suitably cold, but that element of claustrophobia is sorely missing.
If this film were an album, it'd be 'No Life Jacket Required'
Disappointing stuff.
Divorced from his wife, estranged from his son, his luck is sinking faster than a stricken sub.
On hearing of a potential stash of Nazi gold in a sunken U-boat off the Georgian coast, he assembles a team to steal the treasure and strike back against a system rigged against him and his blue-collar crew......
I was really looking forward to this movie. I love Macdonald, his films are so realistic, yet touching, and Law is a fine actor, even if he is channelling Phil Collins in this. But as soon as he took pity on the homeless lad, and got him a job on the submarine, despite his insistence on having only a solid crew on board, I knew it would narratively sink.
Law is fine, and despite a couple of dodgy moments, his Aberdonian brogue is pretty good. The man carries the film.
But the rest of the film is so mundane, and despite it being in such an enclosed space, the important element of claustrophobia that should heighten the tension, as evident in Das Boot, Crimson Tide, even U-571, just isn't there.
So we just wait to see who will snap first, because any idiot would know that the less people there are, the more gold is there to share.
Smiley is the best of the support, but even he's relegated to gushing monologues about the dangers of submarines and spends the majority of the film freaking out the already freaked out Mcnairy, who is basically this films Burke from Aliens.
People start dying, people leave gasoline near engines, and come the end of the film, there's only enough suits for a few to survive.
It feels suitably cold, but that element of claustrophobia is sorely missing.
If this film were an album, it'd be 'No Life Jacket Required'
Disappointing stuff.