Hunter Killer

I was invited to catch an advanced screening of Hunter Killer Wednesday night. Not your usual advanced screening though as it was just one day before paid showings premiered. The advanced screenings that I typically get to are for movies that come out in the next few weeks or even months. I’ve even been to screenings before for movies that weren’t released in theaters until over a year after it. A screening that close to an official release is usually done to get word of mouth out for a film. I’m here to say that good word of mouth for this film is absolutely worthy.

A movie mostly set in and around a submarine is a very specific genre. Most people will say that Das Boot is the best of this type of movie, but I have never seen that one. To me, the greatest submarine based movie is U-571. Yes, I believe it’s better than The Hunt for Red October. My initial reaction to Hunter Killer is that there’s a new top dog here. Hunter Killer completely exceeded my expectations!

A quality submarine movie will have a way of putting you inside the tin can underwater, which this movie does quite well. A great attention to minute details will always impress me in a movie and director Donovan Marsh showed me that on the first time they dove down underwater. I’m not one to give away much in a movie, but you’ll see what I mean for yourself if this review coerces you to watch it.

The basic gist of this film involves a sunken U.S. submarine in Russian waters that we have to investigate what happened, while avoiding a potential start to WWIII. To accomplish this while a potential coup d’etat is happening gives an extremely narrow margin of error.

Hunter Killer has a great assortment in their casting. The headliner is Gerard Butler as Captain Joe Glass, a first time submarine captain sent on this dangerous mission to Russian waters. Is this the best movie or even the most intense movie he’s been in? In a word, no. To me his best movie will always be the 2004 version of The Phantom of the Opera and his most intense is still Olympus Has Fallen, but this movie is definitely up there on both lists. Side note: I have yet to see 300, so that’s why that movie was not named as Butler’s best or most intense, in case you ask.

The biggest name in the supporting cast is easily last year’s Academy Award winner for Best Actor, Gary Oldman, as Charles Donnegan, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Oldman plays this role with the perfect amount of fire and intensity that would be required if he actually were the CJCS in this situation. Other impressive supporting roles in this film were played by Common (who is becoming one hell of a great actor lately), Linda Cardellini, Toby Stephens (who played a similar character in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi), and the late Michael Nyqvist in his last film role.

If you’re looking for an escape movie, one that will keep your chest pounding, make sure to go see Hunter Killer. Although this movie actually uses real life scenarios that are possible as to how this situation could play out, so in that sense, it may not be as much of an escape from our current world as you’d like.