From the 1950s until the latter part of the twentieth century, the United States and Russia have been on the brink of war with each other. Unfortunately, that time seems to be coming back after a number of incidents, and even though we do try to avoid politics on our show, but with this review the question has to be asked as to whether or not we could be headed to conflict with the country again.
“Hunter Killer” is the latest film from director Donovan (Spud), as the US military calls on Captain Joe Glass (Gerard Butler) to captain a submarine called the Arkansas to investigate the disappearance of another sub off of the coast of Russia. When the crew arrives to find it and another Russian sub destroyed, they are able to save a few men of the crew including Captain Andropov (the late Michael Nyqvist) just in time to help them on a second mission to rendezvous with a team sent to rescue the Russian President (Alexander Diachenko), who has been the victim of a coup by one of his top military men in Admiral Durov (Michael Gor) who wants to go to war with the United States.
There is a lot of CGI here (as one would expect), and it was a mixed bag of quality from good underwater scenes to badly green screened above water scenes. I am a fan of actors like Butler, Common (whose character works the operation from the Pentagon), and Nyqvist, and they are pretty much on par here. Nothing really blew me away, but it all worked for what was there.
This film reminded me of films like “U-571” and “The Hunt for Red October” in style, and at a solid two hours could have been cut back about ten to fifteen minutes. There are some good action sequences that had me on the edge of my seat with the normal level of suspension of disbelief for a film of it’s type. I did enjoy “Hunter Killer,” but it still felt short of the other films I mentioned at the top of this paragraph. That being said, I will still recommend it for a Saturday matinee showing in theaters.