Black Sea (2015)

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This really is the kind of theme that can justify an excellent movie, If done right.Black Sea really is done right.If Crimson Tide is the officers submarine film, this is one for the guys slopping the grease.It's a tale of the down trodden trying a last attempt at fighting back against "the man". It's the Miners Strike of '84. It's a workforce made redundant trying to fight the power.The camera work is down low at parts almost as if the cast are being filmed by a peeping tom. As the pressure cranks up the lights are predominantly neon blues and reds aboard the sub. The atmosphere achieved is almost alien.Gold is the aim. And gold is surely achieved in this supreme film. Pretty much faultless.A buoyant 9 out of 10 for me

I'm an avid submarine fan and love these kind of movies, but though also a fan of some of the actors, this is a movie to avoid at all costs. I was baffled to see a 6.4 average for this on IMDb. It contains so many plot holes, not just for a person familiar with the operation of underwater vessels and diving (just 1 example: how about sonar pings from a 50's sub making no sounds?), but will most likely be unbearable to anyone because of this. Whole segments are just as if they were left out, and the whole concept was down right stupid on top of that, and the reasoning among the characters is amazingly weird, and not in a good way. I will not go into any more details, not to spoil it for those still wanting to waste almost 2 hours of a Saturday night as I did, but heed my advice - avoid it.

Black Sea is a disappointing and tepid thriller not helped because it is too by the numbers and clichéd.Submarine thrillers are hard to do hence why so few succeed. Director Kevin Macdonald has lot his footing in this plodding film.Jude Law (Robinson) plays an experienced submarine captain now made redundant. A friend gets him snared into a scheme with some financial backers to head off to the Black sea in some rickety submarine to search for a sunken treasure of Nazi gold.The crew are of half British and half Russian and they mutually distrust each other. It is not helped that Law's accent moves from being Scots to Russian and South African.However the script does not help because in a film like this there has to be tension, chicanery and people acting like stock film characters who do things almost expected from two dimensional characters. So the characters do stupid things to drive the story along.Law despite his wavering accent does his best to keep this submarine steady, as someone whose desperation for the loot makes you uncertain whether he cares for the safety of his fractious crew. Overall a disappointing film.

There's a fabled Nazi U-Boat down in the depths of the ocean, aboard is gold, lots of gold. So it's time for a not so motley crew of submariners to go forth - in an antiquated submarine - and try to set themselves up for life. Naturally nothing goes as planned, there are hidden agendas, rival factions within, claustrophobia reigns supreme, will anyone survive? Will you want any of them to survive?Black Sea is not without problems, though the complaints about credibility and believability not being available? Well these are surely from folk who don't watch enough of, or understand the workings of, genre cinema of this ilk. Kevin Macdonald (director) and Dennis Kelly (writer) have crafted a tight and efficient submarine thriller. Characterisations are clichéd, with nods to other genre type of films evident, but the group dynamics pulse with danger and the inevitable peril sequences strike the requisite suspenseful chords.Black Sea doesn't define or reinvent the submarine thriller wheel, it just keeps the rotor shafts turning. Strong casting and earthy photography help matters, to make this - ropey accents aside - better than a time waster of a viewing. 6.5/10