Black Sea

Starring: Jude Law, Karl Davies, Konstantin Khabensky, Daniel Ryan, Scoot McNairy, Tobias Menzies, Michael Smiley, David Threlfall, Ben Mendelsohn
Directed by: Kevin MacDonald
Rating: R
Genre: Adventure, Thriller
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1


Summary: After losing his job, a former submarine captain (Jude Law) assembles a crew to search for a sunken submarine reputed to hold millions in gold.

Review:

Tim: I like submarine movies and I tried to like Black Sea, but there's just not enough here. This felt like one of those movies that is made on the cheap. It made only $1.1 million at the box office, so this is a film that no one saw. Now, with films like this, they can be hidden gems, or they can be misses, films that you lose out on nothing by skipping. Unfortunately, Black Sea proves to be the latter.

This isn't to say the movie is all bad. It's fun to see Jude Law, Scoot McNairy, and Ben Mendelsohn in a claustrophobic submarine. There's some really tense moments and some expected twists throughout the film. The movie keeps you guessing as to who will live, who will die, and whether or not they will be successful in finding the gold. These are all positive things and director Kevin MacDonald deserves some credit for bringing these aspects to the film.

The biggest problem I had is that I never cared about any of the characters. The movie certainly has no intention in developing the characters to the point where we'd be emotionally invested in them. Quite frankly, the whole sub crew is made up of unlikable people. We have a lot of selfish people. We have a psychopath, liars, terrible men who do bad things. This could work if the despicable characters were at least fun. They aren't. This is a pretty dark movie made up of flawed characters. Again, that can work if they are interesting to the point where we can overlook their sins. I couldn't do that here. I wasn't especially interested in any of the characters, so nothing I saw made much of a difference to me. I wasn't rooting for anyone, so the impact of everything that happened was muted. About halfway through the film, I was fighting hard to stay engaged. I didn't care about the movie nor the characters. Now, this never lasted for long periods of time. MacDonald would eventually throw something unexpected or intense at us and I was able to reengage. That would last for a while, before I started getting antsy again. That doesn't make for the most enjoyable viewing experience. When you add up all the positives and all the flaws, the negatives certainly outweigh the positives. I didn't hate watching this movie, but I have no desire to ever see it again. It's too forgettable, too much of a chore to sit through the too-long 1 hour, 54 minute run time.

The budget of the film also hurt it. This film was obviously made on the cheaper side of things and there are moments where that shows. There are a few scenes outside the sub that show it moving through the water. These are so obviously CGI, it takes you out of the movie. I'm not saying hundreds of millions needed to be invested, but the small budget does hurt the viewing experience.

Jude Law is pretty good as the morally questionable captain. He did some terrible things, but the movie makes a point to show he has a heart as well. It's not a great performance, but it's a solid one. I like Scoot McNairy and thought he did a good job here. He's best in a supporting role and was able to leverage that here to make the movie better. Ben Mendelsohn can play these dark, frightening character so well. I disliked him so much in this film, which is a testament to his very strong performance. The rest of the cast was fine, but there weren't enough true standouts.

Black Sea is an okay movie. There's enough here that you won't completely want to give up on it, although there are some trying stretches to sit through. This is an okay movie, but you can easily skip it and you truly won't be missing much.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Das Boot, U-571