Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGood movie combining some truths and some guesswork
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2022
If you're hoping this is like The Hunt for Red October, it's not.
Ed Harris is great, William Fichtner is good, and David Duchovny not so much.
This movie definitely lacks the sense of realism and theater that it could have had. The acting overall is not great. The action is even worse, and the special effects are very bad. I was surprised it was made in 2013. Looks more like 1974.
And yes it is mostly Americans acting as Russians, but I have zero problem with that. Either you hire Russians that speak English (which is very hard to do with that large of a cast), or your hire Russian actors, but use subtitles. Or you hire Americans to speak with a Russian accent (which is lame), or you hire American actors to speak their native tongue.
But it's the overall concept that I enjoy. The height of the Cold War, both sides are paranoid and assuming the other side has better technology, and one side wants to get the jump on the other. The crazy thing about the K-129 story, is that we may never know the truth about it.
The end is touching and the most genuine the movie gets.
The really sad thing is that we might be moving towards that era again, especially since China and Russia have recently both signed a pact against the US and the West.
