User Reviews

There's always a niche appeal for submarine stories. The very concept promises many characters sharing a mutual predicament while confined in the depths. 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. 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.

Robinson (Jude Law) is recently fired from his job. Disgruntled and very keen on making money, he jumps at the first opportunity of big pay. The gig is to recover sunken World War II submarine which allegedly contains heaps of gold. Thus, he assembles his team of merry misfits and dives for the riches. His whole team consists of either inexperienced or slightly mad crew.

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. Everyone is aggressive every time, there's barely any human interaction which doesn't lead in heated argument. 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.

The visual is fitting for the theme, mostly shot in typical small corridor or halls, it is meant to be claustrophobic. The acting isn't half bad, Jude Law does his best though the accent is a bit jarring. It takes advantage of the premise well, and produces occasional morale ambiguity for gritty effect. 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.

Black Sea is true to the deep nature of submarine film, sometime suspenseful and engaging, though most of the personality clashes are ridiculously forced.

The title of the film – Black Sea – is both descriptive and geographic.

Jude Law plays Robinson, a submarine captain put out to graze by his salvage company who finds an audacious way to get back at his old bosses and make some money at the same time. The "MacGuffin" in this movie is a wartime German U-Boat that disappeared without trace in 1941 along with a fortune in Russian gold. Robinson pulls around him a team of divers and submariners – some less mentally stable than others – together with a reluctant banker (evil, naturally) and they set off from Sevastopol in an old hulk of a sub in search of the loot.

They find the treasure, split the loot and all live happily ever after. Well, no, obviously not. This claustrophobic drama pits man against man as ethnic tensions and greed collide in the pursuit of the spoils.

The movie starts with the feel of a low budget UK film. Surprising given Kevin Macdonald of "Last King of Scotland" fame directs. However my lowered expectations were then progressively raised by an interesting albeit belief-suspending story, some decent acting and a modicum of suspense. Jude Law gives one of his better performances of recent years and also noteworthy is the youngster on board – Tobin played by Bobby Schofield – who you end up really caring about far more than most of the rest of the cast.

Followers of the Fad may recall my comments about the unsuitability of this year's "Under the Skin" to US audiences due to the impenetrable Glaswegian accents: here Jude Law gives non-British ears a similarly challenging Scottish accent, ably supported by tricky Liverpudlian and Russian dialects! This is not helped by a less than crisp vocal audio track, often drowned out by the music and foley work. #subtitles=on.

Bits of just about every submarine and underwater movie ever made – including Das Boot, K19: The Widowmaker, The Hunt for Red October, Run Silent Run Deep and The Enemy Below – are put into the movie blender, mixed with a dash of The Abyss and spiced with a soupçon of the finale of Caine's Italian Job. As such this has the feel of a film you have seen before, and its release timing – a thriller in the first week of December – suggests a studio view of this being cannon fodder: not good enough for the summer blockbuster season and not Oscar worthy either.

It is also not exactly a chick-flick with – from memory – only one female line (Jodie Whittaker, in flashback) throughout the whole film.

All that being said, on the plus side the moderately feel-good ending is quite innovative and surprising: I didn't see it coming.

Not a film that I will be hunting out on DVD, but not bad for a diverting rainy afternoon viewing.

(If you enjoyed this review, please see my archive of previous reviews at bob-the-movie-man.com and sign up for future notifications. Thanks).

It's an interesting little film to say the least as it seemingly throws aside any character development or emotional complexity to jump to what…the next underwater blunder? Anyhow,for this type of movie you pretty much already know the routine. It's a treasure hunting movie in a submarine that unfortunately takes itself a little too seriously. Basically Jude Law plays a crusty sea-captain named Robinson that gets fired from his salvage job for some shadowy corporation. After finding himself at the bottom of a healthy looking pint of beer, he is told a salty tale by his matey that there's Nazi gold resting peacefully at the bottom of the Black Sea. You'll forgive me if I skip all the montages and build-up of the first act but you've no doubt see the same thing dozens of times by now. Robinson has his Ocean's Eleven (sea puns FTW) moment and puts together his crack team of sea-thieves comprised of a half Russian, half English crew. They take some old rust-bucket submarine out to look for the sunken submarine and naturally shenanigans ensue. Like any other good sub movie you get the usual claustrophobic drama mixed with the already elevated levels of tension that go with being 90 meters under the sea. Throw in a little greed-induced hysteria and that fact that the crew can't understand one another except through a handful of translators and you've got yourself a good ol' fashioned treasure hunt. I was thoroughly pleased to see Jude Law attempt a transformation from a fired blue-collar worker to an 'at-all-cost', obsession- driven treasure hunter. Unfortunately writer Dennis Kelly doesn't really give him enough depth as a character to make you care one way or the other. If I'm being honest you won't really care about any of the characters, or the submarine, or the sea, or the lack of any distinguishable threat, or the scientific and historical inaccuracies. We're all watching this movie for one reason and one reason only. Because there's Nazi freaking gold in it.

Why is it so hard for various producers to create storylines that even remotely pass muster of believability?

Sure, we'll just hop in a "vintage" Soviet submarine, that's been sitting around for however many decades, and off we go! No fuel polishing, taking on fresh fuel, servicing systems, batteries, etc- nope we're just going to grab some food and go!

How many times can we crash said vintage submarine and it not suffer structural damage/ implode?

Escaping in an "escape suit" (which looks like a red Tyvek painter's suit) from ~300 meters depth? Sure, why not! (the pressure from equalizing the tubes would kill you in 2 seconds)

"Sonar" with no pings but a dude can create a 3D map of the surrounding area via banging on the hull?

Speaking of sonar, if anyone thinks it's possible to just slither around underwater in a submarine without various Navies realizing that you're there, it just doesn't work that way.

My absolute favorite though, is the "driveshaft" mumbo jumbo. First of all, ships/ submarines don't have "driveshafts," they have "propeller shafts." I used the plural of the word "shaft" since the Russians have favored twin screw designs for their subs, and all of the exterior scenes in the movie show a twin screw vessel.

Diesel/ electric subs are exactly that. The diesels (again, more than one) turn generators which produce power to charge the batteries. The screws are turned by DC electric motors. They can either run continuously while surfaced, or within periscope depth (where the snorkel allows for engine and cabin air exchange and also hydrogen gas venting from battery charging). When submerged deeper than this, they secure the diesel engines, and everything draws off the batteries (including the propulsion motors). The norm was to run surfaced at night to charge the batteries, and submerged during the day. During combat, they could conserve power and remain submerged for, at most, a few days.

Back to the "driveshaft." Steel shafts don't "shatter" during a fire (especially ones there are 5" - 8" thick, which is what they'd be). What's far more comical to anyone who knows anything about mechanical things, is that what's pictured is a crankshaft from a car sized engine. The auxiliary generator engines on a vessel like that have a crankshaft that weighs over 1000 pounds. The main diesel engine cranks weigh several thousand pounds.

A propshaft for a vessel the size of a submarine is also several thousand pounds.

Even if we ignore the nomenclature, and substitute "prop shaft" for "driveshaft," there would be two of them (one for each screw). So, even if one "shattered," they can limp along on a single screw.

"Oh, we'll just machine it to make it fit." Sorry, but you can't "just machine" a BMW crank and make it fit into a Honda motor!

I seriously laughed out lout at the scene that shows the "driveshaft" spinning away with the throws (which are what the rods attach to in a piston engine) connected to nothing. Oh, the sparks flying were a nice touch too.

I get that this isn't a documentary, but is it really THAT difficult to keep things remotely within reason?

The title made it obvious it was some kind of dark movie, in the water, I knew the leading actor in it, and that critics gave it good reviews, so I was just hoping for something worthwhile, directed by Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void, The Last King of Scotland). Basically veteran sea captain Robinson (Jude Law) has recently divorced from his wife and is estranged from his son, he then receives the news that he is being made redundant, given £8,640 for his services and told to clean his desk. Later Robinson has drinks with former colleagues, he meets his friend Kurston (Daniel Ryan) and a Russian called Blackie (Konstantin Khabensky), Kurston tells Robinson they have an idea that could make them all a lot of money. A German Type VIIC U-boat from World War II that sank off the coast of Georgia, with a cargo of gold worth millions, their former colleague found its location, but it was never salvaged. Robinson agrees with Kurston to meet a backer named Lewis (Casino Royale's Tobias Menzies), who agrees to fund Robinson's expedition, on the grounds he receives a 40% cut on proceeds worth up to $40 million, a 20% cut on anything above that, and that his executive Daniels (Scoot McNairy) accompany the expedition. Robinson agrees to the deal, but then a young man named Tobin (Bobby Schofield) informs him that Kurston has committed suicide, Robinson decides to bring Tobin on the expedition, acquiring a Foxtrot-class submarine from the Port of Sevastopol. The crew is 50% Russian and 50% British, there are issues between the two groups almost immediately, only Blackie speaks both Russian and English, and Tobin is viewed as a bad omen, mistaken as a virgin, when in fact he is an expectant father. Tension begins to mount between the two crews due to the close confines of the submarine, and Robinson makes the decision that the take will be divided equally between each crewman. Due to mounting pressures the crew fall out, there is a fight, and Fraser (Ben Mendelsohn) loses his head, stabbing and killing Blackie, the ensuing scuffle causes a fire to break out, the sub is damaged, Robinson is knocked unconscious and at least two men are killed. Eighteen hours later, Robinson wakes to find tensions at breaking point, the Russians have taken over half of the boat, with the British in the other half, and with Blackie dead there is no way to speak to the Russians. The sub's drive shaft is damaged, they discover they are close to the old U-boat, they may be able to transfer its drive shaft and save the boat, but tensions continue to mount when it discovered Morozov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) speaks English. Robinson sends Tobin with Fraser and diver Peters (David Threlfall) to recover the drive-shaft and the gold, but on their way back, Peter perishes when his air hose gets cut. With Morozov translating the crew manage to get the Russians to install the drive-shaft and get the submarine moving again, at this stage, Daniels admits that they have been set up to do the dangerous job, his employer will seize the gold as soon as they surface. Robinson decides to remain submerged and travel to Turkey, to keep the gold and avoid arrest, he also decides, against the wishes of the crew, to attempt a risky journey through a narrow channel. Meanwhile Daniels persuades Fraser to murder Zaytsev (Sergey Puskepalis), there are no longer enough men to safely operate the submarine, and a second fire and explosion sends the boat back to the seafloor, and it begins taking on water. Fraser and the remaining crew members try to repair the leaks, but their efforts are futile, before the men can escape, a panicked Daniels locks the bulkhead behind him, three men are left to drown, but he traps himself snagging his clothing. Morozov closes the final bulkhead, Daniels if left to drown, and he, Robinson and Tobin are protected in the torpedo section, there are three hidden escape suits hidden. Robinson evacuates Tobin and Morozov, he explains he will follow using an emergency lever, the two men surface, but Morozov informs Robin there was no lever, Robinson chose to sacrifice himself, it ends with the thirs suit surfacing with some gold and Robinson's family picture inside. Also starring Jodie Whittaker as Chrissy, Karl Davies as Liam, Michael Smiley as Reynolds, Sergey Veksler as Baba and Sergey Kolesnikov as Levchenko. Law sports a strong Scottish accent and is good as the captain struggling to maintain control, the other cat members are fine as well, it is a simple enough story, westerners versus the Russians undersea, mixed with a desperate struggle to survive, and a treasure hunt, there is a fair amount of disaster to keep a pace going, overall it is a watchable thriller. Good!

All right, this isn't "Das Boot" or "Red October", or even "Crimson Tide", but it's pretty darned good and well worth seeing if you are a fan of the "Submarine Suspense" movie.

No longer a pretty boy (or at least no longer doing "pretty boy" roles), Jude Law is very impressive in this. At some point, he developed an amazing dynamic range and he is uses it here to good effect. In fact, there isn't a "flat tire" in the cast. Although I have to admit that the characters the actors played were somewhat predictable, once the movie established them. (It was obvious after the first 5 minutes in the sub who the weak link was and who the traitor would be).

The story hits all the beats you expect in sub movies, and gives everyone in the cast room to shine. The special effects work well in the context of the movie, and the director keeps things moving as briskly as you can hope for. My only real complaint was the downbeat ending seemed unnecessary (if more believable - but if you are looking for "believable", why are you watching a submarine movie?)

Your life won't be incomplete if you miss "Black Sea", but it's a fine piece of work and worth seeing.

After a former submarine captain Robison (Jude Law) loses his job, he is recruited by a questionable backer to lead a deep-sea mission in the Black Sea in search of lost treasure. Robison gathers former out of work friends and old cronies to take on the task. But the hard-bitten crew argue over getting a rattle-trap submarine to make the dive in with little or no security of returning to the surface. Half of the crew will be Russians and the only thing temporarily holding them together is equal shares of the payday. But are they really diving for salvage or the rumored gold bricks? Things become perilous when the sub sinks to the bottom. Quarrels break out and the mission is in dire straits.

Moody and tense. Law is really good in this role. A lot of the characters are not worth caring for their survival. If you have a thing for submarine flicks, BLACK SEA (not really filmed there) is worthy of a watch.

Also in the cast: Karl Davies, Daniel Ryan, Konstantin Khabenskly, Tobias Menzles, Michael Smiley and Scoot McNairy.

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.

Jude Law's new film Black Sea, directed by Kevin Macdonald, starts promisingly before its script and realism falter. Macdonald is a Scottish filmmaker, who started his career making documentaries including most famously Touching the Void. He has ventured into political dramas and adventure movies such as The Last King of Scotland, State of Play and The Eagle. Black Sea fuses a sociopolitical drama with a heist, man on a mission style film and also a cautionary story about greed. The director cites the greed aspect as being inspired by a film like John Huston's Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948). Foremost, it is a submarine drama about the claustrophobia of men stranded together, which inevitably draw comparisons with the German film Das Boot (1981).

While writer Dennis Kelly has penned several episodes of the television show Utopia, this is his first feature film script. The most interesting component he uses is motivating the characters through class struggle and redundancy. In this contemporary story, Captain Robinson (Law) is a submarine captain who's been made redundant by his salvaging company. He's also frustrated by being separated from his wife and son, who left him because he was absent from them. He's approached by his friends, some who haven't worked in years, about an assignment. He's invited to join Daniels (Scoot McNairy), who organises a meeting with a wealthy benefactor that is willing to fund a mission to locate some Nazi gold under the ocean. Robinson assembles a mixture of British and Russian crewmen to locate the treasure, assuring them that every man will receive an equal share. Boarding a creaking, old submarine and the social inequality is felt within the vessel as the tempers flare over bringing in the gold.

One technical miscalculation is how Kevin MacDonald has photographed the early scenes, prior to entering the submarine. The film's aesthetic flaw is shooting them in extensive close-up shots, paired with tight framing and grey colour tones, which is supposed to impose a fly-on-the-wall brand of realism. However, these are techniques which could have been reserved strictly for the submarine scenes to enhance the sense of claustrophobia and the tension levels. Some of the film was shot on-board a real submarine called the Black Widow using small cameras, while the rest of the movie was filmed on a set and also a massive water tank. Except for the odd jolt, the tight spaces of the submarine aren't as palpable or effective as you might be anticipating or dreading from a submarine drama.

The film also struggles with character development and upholding the realism of its situations and narrative. Jude Law's solid leading presence conveys the aggression and determination of a character trying to escape his working class boundaries, sometimes at the expense of the crew. With his head shaved, it is a physically and emotionally tense performance but the arc feels uncertain about whether he is growing greedy and mad or prolonging his working class resilience by continuing the mission. Late in the film he risks lives to bring in the gold but at the very end he has a late change in his motives and attitudes. With a large number of crewmen, there are no women in the film besides briefly flashes of Robinson's wife, it is hard to develop the side characters in much detail. Instead, they only represent archetypes or emotions like cowardice, the loose cannon (Ben Mendelsohn's thick Australian accent stands out too sharply in this role), and inexperience. The youngest crew member is Tobin (Bobby Schofield), a young man who has a pregnant girlfriend and is bullied by the other sailors, while also drawing Robinson's sympathies as he thinks about his own estranged son. Sometimes the story feels indecisive about how to treat these characters, switching directions between a horror style elimination game as bodies pile up (the director cited Alien as a comparison) and taking them on blockbuster style adventures when the crew board the abandoned ship containing the gold.

Believability was going to be problematic when combining social realism with a fictitious premise like assembling a team to find Nazi gold. The realism and attention to detail feels most lacking in the diving scenes. A small group of the men exit the submarine and dive out to find the Nazi ship. They reach a wall and they believe they're in the wrong area. With a swipe of the hand, a character erases the dust off the wall to reveal the swastika on the side of the Nazi ship for which they were searching. The camera then retracts to reveal the enormous war ship. Were the characters temporarily blind to miss this? In this sequence, not only are the crew allowed to dive without a mini submarine but they also have technology which allows them to talk under water. How handy and fortunate given the creaking state of their submarine. There are also jumps in the editing and continuity. After find the gold openly scattered in the ship, not locked away, the film jumps forward to the gold being neatly stacked up on a trolley under the water. How did they have enough air to move all that gold? The worst lapse in believability is a rushed plot twist, which explains in implausible terms how Robinson's working class friend was connected to a wealthy benefactor. It's a stupid and nonsensical twist, compounded by the film's sentimental ending and defiance of the weight of gold. While Black Sea starts promisingly with its sociopolitical topics and Jude Law's effective work as the captain, the film disappoints due to its lack of tension and gaffes in realism, which should have been airtight.