U-Boat

His bad acting and dbag personality just tanked this movie for me

This movie is a watchable one. It's not really a memorable one though but when you decide to watch it, it won't bore you.

When the movie began I was kind of worried. The editing was poor and the acting horrible B-movie like and it had a made-for-TV kind of look. But thankfully all those things improved later as the movie progressed.

It's obvious that the budget wasn't very big since they had to use stock footage from movies like "U-571" and even "Down Periscope". They also used stock footage from real WW II Destroyers and other boats which was pretty obvious at times, it was kind of amateur-like and unrealistic the way it was edited into the movie.

The story is pretty solid, despite some awfully weak dialog at times. It was at first kind of weird that the movie focused on both the Americans and Germans in the same way but later in the movie it becomes obvious why. The movie mostly fails to become tense but still its perfect good entertainment to watch all.

Not a must see by any means but when you decide to see it nevertheless, you will be fairly entertained. And hey it has got William H. Macy and Thomas Kretschmann and some other well known actors in small roles in it, which makes this movie absolutely, very well watchable.

7/10

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This movie slipped by in the U.S. theaters, with DVD release only, so I found out about it from a U-Boat movie recruit friend. With William H. Macy, Til Schweiger, and Thomas Kretschmann (the latter now well known for his role in "The Pianist" there is no excuse for no release.

The details are well documented in other reviews. I have seen many such films, in German and English. After watching half in English, I purchased a copy in German (well-dubbed). I tend to find such films more convincing (easier to suspend disbelief), although the down side there is seeing American actors speaking perfect German. Well, perhaps there will come a copy someday with appropriate subtitles.

Of course, the film that really shows U-Boat conditions is the film Das Boot. I do not know the budget of this film, but the cramped quarters, filth, and unseemly conditions were not part of the budget.

However, the decision of the Kaleun (Kapitän-Leutnant) Schweiger to take on American prisoners (against Oberkommando des Kriegsmarines orders), deal with the inevitable conflict--American soldiers and sailors were well-indoctrinated to hate Germans--after the certain death of his daughter to Allied bombing is more than touching.

Kretschmann's performance is especially noteworthy. Although he once wanted an American Hollywood acting career, and has most frequently been cast as a German military man, all of these performances have been quite different, a testimony to some real acting skill. He has it in spades. Til Schweiger is, as I have read, a "matinee idol"--he does not have to act.

To war film afficionados, most highly recommended, to those who wish to see some great German actors, also highly recommended, and finally, to fans of William H. Macy, a guaranteed pleasure. There is enough WW2 period ambiance to keep this film in suspense.

It has an interesting story executed poorly. I couldn't figure out if this was supposed to be a serious drama or light camp. Acting was average with standouts William H Macy carrying the film as well as the German executive officer. Still it actually moved well for me and I was entertained by it. I have a keen interest in U-boats having traveled the world to see them as well as the US fleet subs. The feats performed in this movie by the submarines underwater is essentially science fiction in pre-1945 submarine warfare. Loads of other technical errors as well in the production, but in a quick and dirty film who cares. It was made on a budget and that's that. So if you want to really see reality, Das Boot still stands alone. I give it 5 starts, for sloppy production, but still recommend it over most of the garbage on Netflix.

I just rented this film (on DVD) because I liked the cast. In the case of William H Macy, I just trust his choice in scripts. Whatever he chooses to play, should I choose to watch. We seem to have the same taste somehow. So I hoped it would work again with this film.

I'm not interested in submarines, I'm not eager to watch films set in any war, I'm not even particularly fond of Til Schweiger, our German heartthrob, although Thomas Kretschmann is definitely an interesting actor. One to watch, believe me. But still this film fascinated me. So trusting Macy's choice worked once again.

The story had a couple of twists which I always like, dialogue in two languages (one third German, two thirds English) which is even better, and quite well developed (main) characters. All this makes a good film, not brilliant, but good. Good craftsmanship. I liked the German actors's "natural" accents, thankfully they were not forced to have worse accents than they normally have. And I liked in particular that at least in the leading roles it were Germans the filmmakers hired and not some Swedes, Americans or Britons replacing them like in other films like Ronin (Swede= Stellan Skarsgard) or Die Hard (Briton= Alan Rickman).

So, I think I can recommend this film, even to people outside the probable target group of young men. This film is not so much about war and fighting, but about the possibility of enemies working together and even becoming friends if you get the chance to get to know each other better and realizing, we are all humans after all.

8 out of 10.