e [Music] e e e e e e Hello friends you are watching the very famous and super hit English movie hunter killer 2018 in this video we will inform you about the main characters actors and various interesting effects shot in the movie and complete details of the movie friends if you are new to our Channel then don't forget to subscribe the channel and like the video and support us to watch more interesting videos so that we can be motivated and bring you better videos so let's move on to the movie hunter killer is a 2018 American action thriller film directed by Donovan Marsh written by Arin Schmidt and Jamie moss and based on the 2012 novel firing Point by Don Keith and George Wallace the film stars Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman with Michael nickfest in one of his final film roles common Linda calini and Toby Stevens in supporting roles and follows a submarine crew and a group of United States Navy Seals who rescue the captured Russian president from a coupe hunter killer was released in the United States on October 26th 2018 by Summit premere the film bombed at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics who saw it as an undemanding by the Numbers actioner the US Los Angeles class Submarina Tampa Bay disappears while shadowing the Russian Acula class submarine conak in the Arctic rear Admiral John Fisk orders the newly promoted and unconventional Commander Joe glass to lead the investigation on board the Virginia class submarine us Arkansas at the same time Lieutenant Bill Bean leads a Navy SEAL Team on a covert mission to observe a Russian naval base in in poar merman a blast at the base the seals witnessed defense minister admiral of the fleet Dimitri durov staging a coup toat and capturing Russian president Nikolai zacharin they quickly realized that durov's intention is to instigate a war the seals narrowly avoid detection during a radio intercept check by the Russians but Martinelli is shot in the leg by a Russian officer who blindly Fires at their concealed position consequently the team is forced to leave leave him behind meanwhile Arkansas makes a distressing discovery as they come across the wreckage of Tampa Bay with no survivors found additionally they stumble upon the sunken Russian submarine kek which appears to have been damaged from within indicating possible internal sabotage rather than an external attack their situation takes a turn for the worse when they are unexpectedly attacked by another Russian submarine volov which had been concealed beneath an iceberg it becomes was evident that volkov was responsible for the unprovoked torpedoing of Tampa Bay however Arkansas manages to retaliate and successfully rescues the Russian survivors from kek including their commanding officer captain second ranked Sergey androv the US government uncovers the coupe leading Admiral Charles donagan to recommend War preparations however Fisk suggests that Arkansas should Rendevous with Bean's team once they rescue zacharin glass persuades the hesitant andropov to provide assistance and must also convince his crew to accept Andrea's presence and trust him utilizing Andrea's expertise in navigating the challenging underwater terrain and the Minefield guarding the base glass successfully guides Arkansas near the base undetected Bean's team manages to save olig an agent of the Russian presidential security service who was previously shot while protecting zacharin by durov's men they work together to infiltrate the base and successfully retrieve president zacharin but lose OLG Devin Hall and Matt jstone in the process with Martinelli providing sniper cover Beaman brings the injured president to Arkansas's deep submergence rescue vehicle and then returns alone to rescue Martinelli as the S and Russian fleets prepare for battle Arkansas suffers more damage when it is attacked by RFS Yenko Andrea's Old Ship which is now under the command of Captain vade surif a member of durov's conspiracy however andropov manages to convey a message to the evchenko that President zacharin is on board the submarine when durov instructs his forces at the base to fire missiles at the surfac Arkansas glass refuses to take action realizing that retaliating could initiate the war he is trying to prevent in the final moments Andrea's former crew disobey orders and successfully destroys the incoming missiles with their close weapon system before they can hit the Arkansas they then proceed to destroy the Naval Base headquarters with their own missiles killing durov with a war avoided glass docks the Arkansas at the Russian naval base to return zacharin and the surviving KET crew members to their country the Arkansas picks up bean and Martinelli and leaves poar escorted by the Russian Navy relativity media first purchased the spec script written by Arn Schmidt and adapted from the novel firing point in 28 Pierre moral was in talks to direct in February 2011 variety reported that Philip no was hired to direct the film John Kovach and Jamie Moss provided rewrites to the script the latter's rewrites was what interested noise to direct production was set to begin at the end of the year before no left the project citing similarities between other films that he previously helmed and moved on to films like above suspicion antoan fuka was later hired to replace him and a release date was set for December 21st 2012 Gerard Butler was cast as Joe glass and Sam Worthington was considered for Bill Beaman fuga and Butler later left production to work on Olympus Has Fallen and the film remained in development hell as directors like MCG and Steven quall passed on the film Gerard Butler eventually returned to the film as Martin Campbell was chosen to direct common and Billy Bob Thornton were added to the cast and Peter Craig provided uncredited rewrites on November 12th 2015 it was announced that a deal between producers of the film had been made that relativity Neil H morit and Toby Jeff's original film would now produce the film along with Millennium films which would also co-finance and distribute on March 3rd 2016 it was announced that Donovan Marsh would direct the film and Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman would star with original films Neil H morritz and Toby jaff producing the film along with Butler Tuli Productions Tucker Tuli Allan seel and millenniums Mark Gil John Thompson mat tul and Les Weldon on June 23rd 2016 Taylor John Smith was cast in the film to play a sonar man on the sub on July 6th 2016 Gabriel choria joined the film to play a Navy SEAL aboard the US sub Marine next day Zayn Holtz also joined the film to play Martinelli a brave and skilled member of the elite unit on July 13 2016 Michael truo and Ryan mcpartland also came aboard to play a weapons specialist Devon Hall and an ex seal and CIA medic Matt Johnstone respectively on July 19th 2016 Michael nickfest was added to the cast to play Captain Sergey andropov on July 21st 2016 David gasi joined the film to play the chief of the boat of the submarine s Omaha with Toby Stevens cast to play Lieutenant Bean Head of the Black Ops squad on August 4th 2016 Linda calini joined the cast principal photography on the film began on July 25th 2016 in London and in Bulgaria interior sets of a Virginia class hunter killer submarine were built at eling Studios using blueprints approved by the US Navy with a space expanded slightly to allow Freer camera movement the sets were mounted on a gimbal to simulate the movement of the sea eling also hosted a pentagon set from where US military personnel track the submarine action the former legal and general building in Kingswood Sur UK was also utilized as a part of the Pentagon although the heroes of the movie are portrayed as US Navy Seals the costuming department for the movie used commercially available uniforms in a tax f G camouflage which is not a pattern in use by the US Navy an exterior set of the main hunter killer submarine was built in Pinewood studi 86 Zen gallon exterior water tank while underwater scenes were shot using a separate water tank at Warner Bros Studios leeston also just outside London Interiors of the Russian base were built as sets at new buana film studios in Bulgarian Capital sopia the film was released released in the United States on October 26th 2018 by Lionsgate through the summit premiere label it was released in several territories including the United Kingdom the week before on October 19th 2018 in Ukraine the film was scheduled to premiere on October 25th but the Ukraine Ministry of culture denied it an exhibition license based on a 2012 law on cinematography that banned the distribution and screening of films the goal of which is to popularize the bodies of an aggressor State Andor Soviet state security organs according to a representative of the Ukrainian State film agency d Kino screening the film would be illegal because it contains a positive image of the Russian president and admiral of the Russian army Ukrainian Russian relations have deteriorated since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea in Russia the film was scheduled to premiere on November 1st but the film failed to obtain an exhibition and license from the culture Ministry the ministry stated that the copy of the movie submitted by the distributor for review was of poor quality and the replacement was submitted too late for the ministry to review it in time hunter killer was released on digital on January 15th 2019 and on Ultra HD Blu-ray Blu-ray and DVD on January 29th 2019 by Lionsgate home entertainment hunter killer grossed $15.8 million in the United States and Canada and $15.9 million in other territories for a total worldwide gross of $31.7 million in the United States and Canada hunter killer was released alongside indivisible and Johnny English strikes again and was projected to gross $59 million from 2720 theaters in its opening weekend the film made $2.6 million on its first day including $420,000 from Thursday night previews it went on to debut to $6.7 million finishing fifth at the box office and marking the worst debut for Butler since playing for keep's $5.8 million in 2012 the film made $3.5 million in its second weekend falling to 9th on Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 37% based on 114 reviews with an average score of four 710 the website's critical consensus reads much like the submarine in its story hunter killer cruises the murky action depths following a perun course into territory that's been charted many times before on Metacritic the film has awaited average score of 43 out of 100 based on 28 critics indicating mixed or average reviews audiences pulled by cinemascore gave the film an average grade of a on an A plus to f scale while postra reported filmgoers gave it four out of five stars bill jabiri of vulture.com wrote hunter killer won't win any awards for originality but it may win a couple for the brazenness with which it Stacks cliche as upon cliche basically its Crimson Tide meets Lone Survivor meets Under Siege meets a Russian variation on Olympus Has Fallen with a bit of geostorm thrown in at least three of those movies are pretty good so the overall math works in the film's favor Norman Wilner of Toronto's now accused Marsh for ripping off John mcan's The Hunt for Red October and stated that the constant agitation and bone deep respect for all things military is straight out of Clancy's Playbook but there's no Jack Ryan figure to humanize it all review of hunter killer film Gerard Butler caught my attention back when I was a young theater nerd going through her The Phantom of the Opera stage since then Butler's acting seems to have aifi gone are his more limber moments of intensely singing or Screaming as he did in Phantom and 300 now he acts stoically for almost every part in recent memory most notably The Fallen series where he saves government officials from showy acts of terrorism Butler will Furrow his brow to feain deep thinking the sound of his voice will drop to show some newly found resolve for whatever he's going to do next explosions and action happen around Butler but he will not be phased or forced to emote in essence hunter killer shares some similarities to Olympus Has Fallen and London has fallen Butler also saves government officials and by extension averts geopolitical chaos in this movie instead of facing off against terrorists as he does in the Fallen movies the threat to Pax Americana is a Russian Coupe that topples that country's president this infighting could not come at a worst time for the Americans who have a submarine unaccounted for in enemy territory so the powers to be in the states send Captain Joe glass Butler for a top secret search mission between tense exchanges shared by rear Admiral John FIS common and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles donnag and Gary Oldman the two senior officials are at odds with how to proceed with the operation glass ship may need to defend itself which in viably would start another cold war but unless someone doesn't rescue the deposed Russian president soon the Cold War may already be underway by Russia's Rogue military leader tacked on to an already busy plot is the land component to the sea rescue of the Russian president almost Midway through the movie The Audience is introduced to a group of ragtag Marines training up their newest member when they get the call for an impossible mission to spy on the enemy they're the ones who report back to DC about the coupe and in a last ditch effort to Stave off an allout War Fisk asks them to step in and rescue the president and bring him to the subglass is commanding so they can all Escape sound like a good plan I didn't think so another anchor weighing down hunter killer are the occasional serious moments that Veer into parody like when senior officials hold top secret conversations in the center of a busy government building instead of a private office it's also laughable how the movie portrays glass the merciful as a non-violent Man At Heart by showing how he spares the life of a deer when he sees it has a family glass also spends ample time reminding everyone around him that he's just like his workingclass crew and not one of those Annapolis guys from the Naval Academy channeling the conservative attitude against people who went to college it's those kinds of forgettable scenes that are only memorable because they're so odd but there is no inner life for Butler's character no moment where he shows doubt or reflects on his choices no shot of a family back home glass mentions some kind of an incident that marks his Naval career but then it's never referred to again or shows how the experience changed him although he's supposed to be the sympathetic one fighting to save lives on both sides it's the other members of his crew who shows emotions fear Panic uncertainty Joy you name it while Butler looks robotically on almost as if he's phoning his performance in until the paycheck clears even a Russian prisoner of war taken by the Americans shows more emotions in his eyes than Butler can muster with his body Butler's performance or lack thereof keeps hunter killer from breaking any ground in the field of war movies it's also an odd time to release a movie that Embraces collaborating with the Russians and painting bad and good guys with such broad strokes this puts hunter killer in murky geopolitical Waters I don't think it knows how to navigate neither the movie or Butler is nearly entertaining enough to distract us here is a thing that I am increasingly dealing with in the latter years of the second decade of the 21st century when it comes to Studio Movie making which awful aspect of the movie itself and everything in its orbit casting production marketing Etc should I be most angry at or do I have enough rage to spread it around spoiler I have a lot of rage I mean for starters hunter killer is like a remake of The Hunt for Red October if Michael Bay directed it except not even Michael Bay who at least evinces a certain level of technical flare even if it is almost always deployed in the most painfully jingoistic and propagandistic ways the only noticeable reaction hunter killer provokes apart from extreme boredom punctuated by moments of laugh out loud ridicule is a strong desire to watch The Hunt for Red October again so as to remind oneself what what real submarine suspense feels like how was this allowed to come to pass for this is Red October as made by a Michael Bay wannabe who can't even be bothered to rise to the level of giving a if only in a terrible way that propaganda represents who is this Donovan Marsh who directed hunter killer and who isn't even trying to make us feel anything he's not actively engaging and unthinking patriotism he's not riling up a testosterone fueled action gasm he does doesn't give us characters to care about on even the basic hay they're marginally human so I should feel something scale he's definitely not arousing an intellectualism surrounding the Preposterous geopolitical situation his story exists in how did this guy with only a few micro-budget projects in his home country of South Africa to his name score this sweet Studio gig is this yet another example of a white man who somehow makes the leap to Major projects with big stars and big budgets on the basis of almost nothing while non-white men and women of all colors with serious track records cannot get their projects made only to give us a movie this screamingly mediocre it sure looks that way I could also Hulk out about the fact that hunter killer star Gerard Butler held a press conference at the Pentagon this week was allowed to hold a press conference at the Pentagon this week in order to promote this movie the US military has a long tradition of supporting Hollywood as long as the movie movie product makes it looks good but I've never before heard of anything like this is the US government literally nothing more than celebrity reality entertainment now Jesus Christ of course the Pentagon wholly approves of hunter killer which partnered with US Navy in nearly every aspect of the production according to the film's production notes quoted at indu I was not permitted to attend a press screening I did ask so I didn't snag production notes which are typ ially made available to critics and other film journalists in connection with such events based on the Apparently subt Clancy novel firing Point by George Wallace and Don Keith which I have not read but just look at the movie version hunter killer positively Fates the US Navy with its depiction of Butler's newly promoted sub Captain Joe glass who ain't no fan ofin Anapolis grad but a grunt who worked his way up through the ranks to the level of badass Renegade Patriot to whom the rules don't apply that he is now he doesn't trust the suits in their plush offices back in Washington but the grunts under him shouldn't think he's going to let them get away with anything either anyone who doesn't love and respect him already will love and respect him by the end of the movie he's just that great he loves the smell of whatever submarines smell like in the morning which probably isn't very nice but is very manly there is one woman on his boat the US Alabama who gets to speak very occasionally and extremely briefly she is basically Lieutenant Yura and doesn't say anything other than the sub equivalent of hailing frequencies open sir better that they hadn't bothered with a token woman at all anyway the fantasy land alt reality that us Alabama takes place in is one in which the American president is a woman Caroline Goodall a street cat named Bob the dress maker who appears in one scene and seems to be a reasonable leader and the Russian president Alexander diachenko is definitely not Putin but he's also not American and hence must be depicted as pretty ineffectual he gets cooped over by his military Minister Admiral Dimitri durov Michael Gore The hitman's Bodyguard Bridge of spies and has to be rescued by American elite soldiers secretly on Russian soil in order to avert the world war Roman 3 that durov wants to start for some inexplicable reason this is some America rules everybody else drools the likes of which we have not seen from Hollywood since the Cold War and should have stayed dead but it's like subtle as if the lack of Bayes stars and stripes in the slow M Breeze at the golden hour makes it any less pure agpr that's far from the only embarrassing crap here there's also a lot of bad effects pretty much every time we see the exterior of the Alabama on the surface it looks like Butler and his determined Grimace have been green screened in next to it pretty much every time we see the exterior of the sub underwater it looks miniature still that would be forgivable if there were any excitement or tension in the submarine action such as the let's navigate the impossibly dangerous underwater terrain using only our intuition scene that insults the Red October sequence it is kind of sort of lifted from one bit in which the officers of the Alabama are trying to determine whether another sub was torpedoed involves some physical evidence that wouldn't stump Encyclopedia Brown yet the film acts like glass's deconstruction of it is proof of his Naval genius every line of dialogue is painfully awkward Exposition roaring bombast mostly delivered by a scenery chewing Gary Oldman Darkest Hour Child 44 as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or utter cliche sometimes the cliches aren't spoken but are conveyed by mere meaningful looks between hack excuses for characters I gofa at one knot of the head that could be taken to mean go on without me only if everyone involved somehow meta knew precisely what sort of story they were in the middle of that nod could have meant by the guy nodding it oh cool I see you've got my back which is great because I need some help here who was then quite surprised to be abandoned by his friend Michael nikist Frank and Lola John Wick as a Russian sub Captain does his dignified best to channel Shan Canary but he doesn't have a lot to work with nor does poor Linda Cardellini a simple favor Daddy's home too as an NSA honcho whom the script seems to be continually demanding that she justify the expertise and Authority it has allegedly imbued her with they both should have just given a tur little nod of go on without me and left hunter killer to fend for itself related information it's no trick for even the most hamfisted Global action thriller to achieve a ripped from the headlines topicality just throw in a terrorist from the right enemy Nation or an American president with a right haircut so it's a weird and musty Twilight Zone indeed that one enters to watch hunter killer a grindingly ponderous and bombastic neoc Cold War submarine Thriller how ponderous is it it stars Gerard Butler and he's the most light-hearted thing about it that in every relevant detail seems three years if not two decades behind the times consider its take on the US president the character played by Caroline Goodall is transparently modeled on Hillary Clinton as a result one watches her scenes utterly removed from the drama I use the term loosely and preoccupied instead with thoughts like was this film really shot that long ago it was principal photography on hunter killer began in July 2016 and the producers clearly based their script on the presumption that a certain Democratic candidate would end up as Madame President arriving in the thick of The Madness of the Trump era however the film intentionally or not seems to say who cares if she didn't win even reality won't make us budge the movie's version of the Russian leadership is if anything even more jarringly out ofd hunter killer which is named for its lead submarine is about an underwater Faceoff between the S and Russia but the plot hinges on an attempted coupe the Russian leader president zachar and Alex Ander danchenko is no autocratic Putin figure he's a decent diplomatic dude who seems to have graduated from the Gorbachev School of constructive engagement he's taken down in a military sabotage led by durov miky gorvo the runt bully Minister of Defense who comes off as sort of Soviet he's like the joyless Communist version of a bond villain from the mid 60s there's a lot to be scared of in the world today but hunter killer summons all the topical urgency of a night spent rewatching The Hunt for Red October on Netflix it's a cold war Nostalgia movie like something based on a Tom Clancy novel that long ago passed its cell by date mostly though hunter killer will make you nostalgic for the era when people who made movies like this one actually knew what they were doing it takes an entire hour for the movie to get to the coupe attempt and by the time that happens you realize that everything that led up to it has been a meaningless and over extended setup which is why it's so dull instead of launching the kind of countdown to Doom excitement that has marked submarine Thrillers like Crimson Tide Das Boot or U 571 hunter killer shifts over to a generic team of Navy SEALs your heart will sink with Tedium each time the film cuts to them who have to bust into the Russian military compound where durov has taken over it's their job to extract the Russian president which they ultimately do it's then up to Butler's tight jaw hardcore battle creas Captain Joe glass commanding the Us Omaha to give him safe haven and to defeat the Russian villain by refusing to get sucked into his game of chicken the twist to the extent the movie has won is that Butler for all his tur Swagger is playing a good liberal he's the biggest Bruiser on the submarine but he's got to teach the other men like the ship's fanatical Z Carter McIntyre to get their torpedo happy impulse is under control if the movie has a message it's this tough guys stand down but hunter killer with its combination of wrote action and responsible out of time schlock geopolitics just left me wishing that it was a Steven seagull movie Butler showed flashes of unruly life in his last picture The Heist drama den of Thieves but here he's back to his old Granite scowl he's like the face of PJ oor carved into a Wooden Nickel G Oldman in a performance given before he won the Oscar shows up and goes blowhard hysterical as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and common who seems to be carving out a career playing the kind of conservative establishment honchos you'd never expect common to play exudes a likable Authority as a rear Admiral in The Situation Room Michael nickus in one of his last roles has a mournful Grace as a fallen Russian submarine Captain hunter killer has good enough actors but it never never figures out what to do with them they're stuck in an underwater vacuum a submarine movie that submerges anything of interest when we last encountered Gerard Butler in the semi- enjoyably derivative den of Thieves he was rerunning Al Pacino's old heat moves tonight Matthew Cinema's loudest Scotsman will be impersonating The Hunt for Red October era Alec Baldwin swerving any lawsuit that might have followed from calling his character say Jack bran Butler's Maverick subc Commander has been assigned the no less No Nonsense name of Joe glass Joe has an intense rep he never went to Annapolis a pentagon functionary gasp I heard he once punched his Co gossips a passing Seaman glass is first seen tracking elk with manly bow and arrow you're surprised the filmmakers didn't go the whole Alpha hog and have a shirtless Butler best the poor creatures in an arm wrestle yet as with much else in this muddled disjoint pointed nonth that intro proves misleading glass actually turns out to be a thinker and boat lover two parts cowo one part porot who finds himself plunged into choppy diplomatic Waters while investigating the simultaneous torpedoing of us and Russian Subs could it be the Russians themselves as represented by Noble Seadog Captain andropov the late Michael nickfest or might it relate to Baraka swilling Chief of Staff Gary Oldman who Bellows something Gruff about chest to his female president then goes suspiciously quiet for an hour don't invest too much for all the military hardware this long loud game of battleships will result in a terrible fudge Butler's convoluted clap trap phase remains preferable to his Louch Bachelor period yet at 2 hours hunter killer is carrying a lot of undue Timber not least a very boring Michael Bay B plot involving a squadron of Marines doing the on the ground chesting the star usually does elsewhere indifferent cutting only heightens the weird artificiality of the subscenes the off-kilter footage of Captain Jerry's sternly relaying orders seems to Bear scant relation to the model shots of metallic fallaces running silent and deep through the studio fish tank toning down his usual act in a manner that suggests he's finally read his reviews Butler gives it handfuls of dramatic ballast but this vessel has been badly compromised any interest SE deeps out by the frame more details of hunter killer film all it takes is one evil madman to ruin it for everyone then again it only takes one hero to save the day Joe glass spends most of his time hunting and living a low-key life Off the Grid he's very good at what he does stalking his prey but when the US military calls he's ready to respond glass is the government's somewhat unconventional choice to command the US Arkansas a hunter killer submarine the kind of vessel that stealthily stalks others of its kind his mission discover what became of an American sub that vanished in the Arctic that task is hard enough but glass and his crew soon swim into a much bigger Mission as this substory unfolds and it's not long before they're working with Navy Seals to extract the embattled Russian president from a coupe risking everything to prevent the next World War when we first met meet Joe glass it's clear that he's considered a nobody a loner but the choice to promote him to commander of the US Arkansas proves a wise one glass has what it takes to get the job done character loyalty resilience and tactical smarts glass is brave determined and capable calling difficult shots when others won't take necessary risks he gradually wins his crew's trust even though some of his choices seem Reckless glass also models what it means to serve sacrificially when confronted with difficult choices involving the enemy he admirably seeks to preserve human rights and to tear down racially charged barriers we see other sailors and soldiers who risk their lives to accomplish their increasingly complex Mission that's especially obvious when some characters return for men who are left behind at one point and at least some members of the United States and Russian governments are willing to work together and seek peace though that's not true of all of them hence the rest of the movie Sailors are briefly seen shirtless and in their boxers as they rush to prepare for battle someone jokes about incest as you'd expect in a movie like this we see quite a bit of combat and warfare submarines military vehicles and buildings get blown up Torpedoes reverberate through the ocean bullets tear through surfaces bombs and mines detonate at one crucial Point battles ensue on land and in water simultaneously with both sailors and soldiers involved we also hear death threats and witness standoffs that threaten to unleash an apocalyptic nuclear configration US Navy Seals practice with firearms for a top secret mission when the actual Mission begins they kill and injure many Russian soldiers multiple soldiers and officials die in combat blood splatters as men are killed and some of that brutal combat is depicted quite realistically and graphically an evil Russian warlord has his own people executed we see them shot in the head from afar and their bodies are then dumped into the water dead bodies float in the ocean as well a paratrooper Soldier is injured during his jump a sailor is nearly crushed as a torpedo Falls onto his body and traps him underwater some Sailors suffer from hypothermia an evil Admiral attempts to dispose of any Russian operatives who stand in his way executing violent orders and trying to kill his own Sailors in order to spark a war Sailors admit that they're afraid to die and feel isolated as they engage in underwater battles cmdr glass talks to his crew about missing his father's funeral and working alongside many men who have died in an attempt to control and frame the Russian president an evil Admiral blocks all means of communication and sequesters various officials cmdr glass technically makes some decisions that violate his orders that said the film also invites us to see those choices as necessary to prevent War have you ever thought that a movie was both too long and Too Short as this one got underway I wanted more backstory more details more understanding of what motivated these guys especially cmdr glass played by Gerard Butler but about halfway through something else happened I started to think about when Hunter Killer was going to be over that's because once the main plot pieces are set in motion you wonder how many explosions and expletives you're going to have to endure before the credits finally roll don't misunderstand me Gerard Butler his crew and the enemies are fairly compelling tangible suspense hangs in the air and characters make heroic praiseworthy and sacrificial choices and it's nice that the filmmakers chose not to toss in any gratuitous sexual content either as so often happens in R-rated films overall the film gave me a renewed sense of thankfulness for those who fiercely protect our country but the plot wasn't as convincing as I would have liked and this underwater actioner definitely didn't need to be rated R if the movie makers could have dialed back the harsh language and bloody violence just a couple of notches perhaps more potential viewers would consider taking the plunge with hunter killer am I the only one waiting for Gerard Butler to have that Matthew mcanoy like Renaissance you know where he lands that one movie that Taps back into the talent that we once saw glimpses of before the Cavalcade of hard to digest slop started churning out well I hate to say it but hunter killer ain't it Jerry Butler's movies have almost become an absurd event for me I would be lying if I didn't admit to getting some type of weird entertainment value out of them they're routinely bad and always offer some level of goofiness to laugh at most of the time unintentionally hunter killer take a different approach it nearly drowns in its own self-seriousness that being said here's something funny hunter killer isn't as bad as it has every right to be now let's not get carried away this isn't the movie that puts Butler back on track simply put it's impossible to take any part of this three-prong story seriously and the further you go the more you realize that it's doing nothing that you haven't seen many many times before after a United States submarine suspiciously disappears in Arctic Waters first time Commander Joe glass Butler is ordered to investigate he takes the US Arkansas and his new crew to do some deep seas super sleuthing not only does he discover the fate of the US sub but he stumbles upon a sunken Russian sub that has been sabotage from the inside among its lone survivors is a dignified Russian Admiral played by Mich nickfest meanwhile a four-man Navy SEAL Team covertly Air drops into Russia where they are to secretly observe the goings on at a suspicious Russian naval base their reconnaissance uncovers a coupe led by a Wildey defense minister mik gorvo so cartoony he could have been pulled from a late 80s comic book the third thread of this story takes place at the Pentagon where government officials scramble to make sense of all the Intel pouring in from the Arkansas and the Seal team Gary Oldman grabs a quick paycheck as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs while a stone-faced common plays an admiral with the emotional depth of a block of wood Linda calini gets a thankless role as a security adviser their roles consist of expressing various levels of concern as highly dramatic music Looms in the background nothing in this three-story structure works particularly well on its own you'll have a hard time finding an original idea or interesting character in any of the scenarios but when they all come together it does offer up some mindless entertainment the pacing is good which is probably a smart thing and there are a handful of good action sequences that injects a little welcomed energy we also get another good performance from the late Michael nickfest it's one of his final roles but despite my ability to squeeze a little enjoyment out of hunter killer it's still a movie that sinks more than swims pretty much everything it does is by the numbers and while some of the casting may catch your eye they're more or less doing the same checking boxes and offering up the best super serious mugging they can muster few information about this film considering all the ludicrous moments in Hunter Killer I was longing for the film to lean into Roland emeres self-awareness but through po-faced monologues intense ey acting and gung-ho theatrics hunter killer remains resolutely serious and misses the opportunity to have a little fun in among the action based on the 2012 novel firing Point by Don Keith and George Wallace hunter killer centers on a mission commandeered by us submarine Commander Joe glass Gerard Butler to rescue the Russian president held hostage by his own defense minister Dimitri dof miky gorvo on Russian soil aiding the central Mission are a group of Navy SEALs on the ground led by Bill Beaman Toby Stevens and National Security Agency senior analyst Jane norest Linda Cardellini rear Admiral John FIS comman and Admiral Charles donagan Gary Oldman at the Department of Defense back in the USA hunter killer spends most of its time flitting between the three American groups giving only a cursory glance toward the Russians who are mostly short-handed as evil thanks to gorvo scarred red in face that is however until commander of a Russian submarine Captain Sergey Andrea the late Michael nikist inadvertently joined joins the mission and the Americans and Russians have to learn to work together in a sort of uneasy truce primarily dictated by intense eye contact between Nick Fist and Butler and vague hand gestures that serve as experts submarine navigation it's unintentionally funny in its sincerity it's not all a tonal misfire despite the fact his character gets a ridiculously on the nose save the cat moment early on in proceedings Butler makes the wearied gruff sub Captain who has seen some some stuff his own and Carries much of the silliness on his shoulders by committing wholeheartedly to it he leads some great moments of genuine tension in the sub itself to especially during a sequence where he and bik fists andropov must navigate through Russian Waters peppered with Naval mines and devices tripped by sound the underwater stuff in general is great there's a real sense of thundering impact whenever Torpedoes make contact and the Interiors of the subs look real and lived in full of knockabout rituals that will inevitably be destroyed this is where hunter killer shines in a PlayStation game being interrupted by a collision in the powerful Spurt of a broken pipe in a wrench that almost hits the floor before being caught at the last second Stevens and his Navy SEALs team are also very endearing and add a rough knockabout charm to the otherwise sincere proceedings calini is far too good for the material but does a lot with a role that could have been Sleepwalk through and though I'm not sure what Oldman is doing in this movie he brings the requisite authoritarian angry guy vibe to heighten the stakes despite the good stuff though hunter killer doesn't ever really justify its existence conceived in 2011 viewing it through any other lens than today's political climate is impossible is it a gung-ho patriotic action movie in the vein of that other Butler vehicle Olympus Has Fallen is it a morality tale or or does it simply reflect the quip spouted by Beeman I don't know sh asteris T about politics without that sense of fun it falls through the gaps of all of these movies about the US military tend to fall into two categories triumphant stories focusing on hardship that is overcome and tales that focus more on the evils of war and that which comes after I say 10 to because every once in a while we come across a movie like Hunter Killer which is directed by Donna van Marsh and based on the novel firing Point starring Gerard Butler hunter killer doesn't fit into either of the above two categories not remotely no hunter killer is a tale without glory and without weight it is a slog certainly but it doesn't show War to be won Butler Stars his firsttime submarine Captain Joe glass you wouldn't know that it's his first time captaining a sub though because he does absolutely everything right in order to prevent World War Roman 3 from breaking out when the Russian defense minister Admiral durov Michael Gore kidnaps Russian President zacharin Alexander da chenko in order to Stage a coupe glass doesn't know that's what's happening at first nor does the chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gary Oldman or rear Admiral John FIS common who order glass and his new sub to Waters near Russia instead they are out there looking for answers about what sunk another a sub in the area and finding a sunk Russian one as well the captain of that sub andreo Michael nikist is still alive and rescued by glass's crew Hunter Killer plays out like a rejected Jack Ryan script it shifts from Washington DC where the politicians and operatives who also include Linda cardellini's NSA agent Jane norquist argue and dither and debate to glass's sub to the Russian base where androff is being held to a small unit of US soldiers on the ground at the same base due to these perspective shifts the audience is able to put together the puzzle while each individual group in the film wonders about what exactly is taking place however there is no sense of magnitude about any of this the end result of the operations could indeed be a nuclear Holocaust but not for a single moment does it feel as though that might actually come to pass and it is laughable when Oldman starts yelling about it all this is a sense made worse as glass has this pratal ability to SU everything out and do what's right Carter McIntyre plays glasses zo Brian Edwards a distinctly unenviable role whether glass is obeying or ignoring Washington's orders or doing anything else at all it is McIntyre's Edwards who stands there and takes the opposite point of view this is done so we understand just how far outside the norm glass operates with how often it happens however it is also more than a little silly one could easily imagine a scene on The Cutting Room floor where Edwards yells at glass for putting one spoon of sugar into his coffee instead of two while it might not be classified as a straight action movie hunter killer does feature a number of action sequences none of which will successfully raise the blood pressure of those in the audience the most tense sequence features glasses sub navigating a mind Channel but as with the rest of the movie this portion of the film goes on far too long and becomes a parody before it ends this is not even a movie that is saved or merely boyed by its computer effects these regularly disappoint offering up images that only look somewhat better than the plane crash in Air Force One a couple of green screenshots are particularly poor beyond that characters in Hunter Killer are not deep and sometimes rather ridiculous action in hunter killer is dull the logic behind what is going on is rarely discussed and even more rarely coherent sadly this is a dull slog of a film that in no way justifies it 2hour running time it is a war movie that has no message Pro or con about the military and the people who make decisions that affect us all it grows ever more foolish as it progresses taking what might be a promising scenario and utterly squandering it hunter killer is a movie best avoided imagine that you are a Russian submarine captain and you are stranded on the ocean floor then you get rescued by an American submarine and thrown into the brig and the American captain who looks like Gerard Butler visits you and says look I know you speak English I need you to tell me how to enter a Russian military Harbor because we need to save the Russian president he's kidnapped by traitors yeah so think about it and then leaves what would your reaction be I would guess that your reaction would not be to swallow this story immediately and at The crucial time to show up on the bridge to guide the Americans through the Russian minefields no questions asked this is however that kind of movie this scene illustrates everything that is wrong with the movie's idea of reality it is essentially a completely nonsensical action thriller in which the only elements of importance are the American Military the Russian adversary and Gerard Butler's desired status as Action Hero especially that last point is rather divorced from reality even more so than its geopolitics Butler tries so hard in Gods of Egypt 2016 and London has fallen 2016 and geostorm 2017 and now this he doesn't have the Charisma and his movies suck Captain glass Butler is introduced to us in a scene that should just say it all Butler is walking through the Scottish Highlands with a sniper rifle and he is ready to shoot a beautiful innocent deer right in the face but then he sees sees that the deer has little babies walking behind it so he refrains thus illustrating that Butler is a hard ass with a heart of gold who only feels empathy when his dear victim has baby deer I cannot watch scenes like these with any feeling of immersion I can just see the writer superimposed on the screen thinking how should we illustrate Butler's character oh right I got it then a helicopter picks him up and dumps him next to a submarine he takes command and F seconds later they are suddenly 2,000 M away submarines do speak to the imagination though and the underwater scenes look nice but the film feels really long and feels like PR material for the American Military and Butler's ego after 2 hours World War Ren 3 is about to break out and more and more military hardware is shoved onto the screen many of the Russian ships are clearly computer generated but the shots from American fighters and ships must have all been made in an agreement between Hollywood and the military meanwhile American snipers in what is supposed to be Northern Russia keep on making head shot after headshot while the Russians miss the Russian President addresses his countrymen in fluent English at the end so if you like non-stop action and are not bothered by very transparent moral grandstanding lack of political realism and possible external reasons behind the production of the movie you might still have a good time hunter killer is not going to challenge Das Boot for the title of best submarine warfare film of all time by tossing aside the reliable characteristics of the genre claustrophobic atmosphere sense of isolation simmering tension director Donovan Marsh's movie strives to be more of a standard order action war production in terms of pacing and narrative thrust it recalls the defunct kefir southernland TV show 24 at its best 24 was often Preposterous occasionally idiotic and always compulsively watchable the same is true of hunter killer which won't win any awards for acting or writing but generates suspense when it needs to and tells an engrossing tall tale Gerard Butler who has been making a living in B movies with a budgets plays submarine Captain Joe glass he and his new crew are sent on a rescue mission an American sub has disappeared near Russian Waters and is feared sunk no sooner has glass discovered the down boat than he is fired upon after evading the enemy's Torpedoes he execute some clever Maneuvers that allow him to locate and eliminate the sneaky Russian hidden just under the ice this is all part of a larger power play by the Russian defense minister Admiral durov Michael Gore to rest power from President zacharin Alexander diachenko with a coupe underway zacharin becomes durov's prisoner while the latter begins orchestrating plans for World War Roman 3 the hawkish as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles donik and Gary Oldman appears all too ready to fall into durov's trap before agreeing to combat however the US president authorizes a daring rescue mission sending glass sub to support a ground team charged with extracting zacharin whatever praise hunter killer receives little is likely to be reserved for the acting the role of Captain glass is well suited to Gerard Butler who has become typ cast as this sort of character glass is more subdued than some of Butler's recent assignments he never yells at the top of his lungs and there's minimal physicality he gets to play the strong silent type the most emotive he gets is when having a spirited argument with his zo Gary Oldman who filmed this around the same time as his Oscar winning part in Darkest Hour reminds us that even the best actors need to pay the bills and they rarely give their all for paycheck performances everyone else is either lifeless or inept although Michael nickfest as Russian submarine Captain andropov had an excuse he was dying at the time the actor passed away in mid 2017 more than a year before hunter killer reached theaters an indication of how long it was sitting around hunter killer doesn't exist to provide insight into modern submarine warfare or how today's Hightech underwater boats play into geop politics this is pure escapism intended to give audiences a nicely mixed adrenaline and testosterone cocktail with a strong Macho leading man and enough action both on land and in the water to justify the 2hour running length in transparent attempts to Plate female viewers Linda Cardellini is on hand as a high ranking NSA liaison and US president is a woman the movie works on its own cartoonish terms the extraction rescue is suspenseful and the under Water Combat while not well choreographed is exciting there's also a big crowd-pleasing moment that Drew cheers from the audience when I saw the film hunter killer is that kind of movie it's easy to point out all the things it does wrong and poke fun at its mistakes but in the end it's an absorbing way to pass 2 hours not everything released at this time of the year has to enrich The Cinematic I cast directed by Donovan Marsh screen play by AR Schmidt Jamie Moss produced by Neil H Moritz Matt ool Les Welden starring Gerard Butler Linda cardini Toby Stevens cinematography Tom Marise edited by Michael J giffy music by Trevor Morris production companies Summit per Premier Millennium Media Tucker Tuli entertainment distributed by Lionsgate release date October 26 2018 running time 121 minutes country United States languages English Russian budget $40 million box office $31.7 million hunter killer is a 2018 American action thriller film directed by Donovan Marsh written by AR Schmidt and Jamie moss and based on the 2012 novel firing Point by Don Keith and George Wallace the film stars Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman with Michael nickfest in one of his final film roles common Linda Cardellini and Toby Stevens in supporting roles and follows a submarine crew and a group of United States Navy Seals who rescue the captured Russian president from a coupe hunter killer was released in the United States on October 26th 2018 by Summit Premiere the film bombed at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics who saw it as an undemanding by the Numbers actioner the US Los Angeles class Submarina Tampa Bay disappears while shadowing the Russian Acula class submarine conak in the Arctic rear Admiral John Fisk orders the newly promoted and and unconventional Commander Joe glass to lead the investigation on board the Virginia class submarine us Arkansas at the same time Lieutenant Bill Bean leads a Navy SEAL Team on a covert mission to observe a Russian naval base in po Arney mermans a blast at the base the seals witness defense minister admiral of the fleet Dimitri durov staging a coupe toat and capturing Russian president Nikolai zacharin they quickly realized that durov's intention is to instigate a war the seals narrowly avoid detection during a radio intercept check by the Russians but Martinelli is shot in the leg by a Russian officer who blindly Fires at their concealed position consequently the team is forced to leave him behind meanwhile Arkansas makes a distressing discovery as they come across the wreckage of Tampa Bay with no survivors found additionally they stumble upon the sunken Russian submarine conek which appears to have been damaged from within indic ating possible internal sabotage rather than an external attack their situation takes a turn for the worse when they are unexpectedly attacked by another Russian submarine volov which had been concealed beneath an iceberg it becomes evident that volov was responsible for the unprovoked torpedoing of Tampa Bay however Arkansas manages to retaliate and successfully rescues the Russian survivors from kek including their commanding officer captain second ranked Sergey Andrew the US government uncovers the coupe leading Admiral Charles donigan to recommend War preparations however Fisk suggests that Arkansas should Rendevous with Bean's team once they rescue zacharin glass persuades the hesitant andropov to provide assistance and must also convince his crew to accept Andrea's presence and trust him utilizing Andrea's expertise in navigating the challenging underwater terrain and the Minefield guarding the base glass success y guides Arkansas near the base undetected Bean's team manages to save olig an agent of the Russian presidential security service who was previously shot while protecting zacharin by durov's men they work together to infiltrate the base and successfully retrieve president zacharin but lose OLG Devin Hall and Matt jstone in the process with Martinelli providing sniper cover Bean brings the injured president to Arkansas's deep submergence rescue vehicle and then returns alone to rescue Martinelli as the S and Russian fleets prepare for battle Arkansas suffers more damage when it is attacked by RFS Yenko Andrea's Old Ship which is now under the command of Captain vade Suri a member of durov's conspiracy however andropov manages to convey a message to the Yenko that President zacharin is on board the submarine when durov instructs his forces at the base to fire missiles at the surface Arkansas glass refuses to take action realizing that retaliating could initiate the war he is trying to prevent in the final moments androp off's former crew disobey orders and successfully destroys the incoming missiles with their close and weapon system before they can hit the Arkansas they then proceed to destroy the Naval Base headquarters with their own missiles killing durov with the war avoided glass docks the Arkansas at the Russian naval base to return zacharin and the surviving kak crew members to their country the Arkansas picks up bean and Martinelli and leaves po Arne escorted by the Russian Navy relativity media first purchased the spec script written by Arn Schmidt and adapted from the novel firing point in 28 Pierre moral was in talks to direct in February 2011 variety reported that Philip noise was hired to direct the film John koven Bach and Jamie Moss provided rewrites to the script the latter rewrites was what interested noise to direct production was set to begin at the end of the year before noise left the project citing similarities between other films that he previously helmed and moved on to films like above suspicion antoan fuka was later hired to replace him and a release date was set for December 21st 2012 Gerard Butler was cast as Joe glass and Sam Worthington was considered for Bill Beaman fua and Butler later left production to work on Olympus Has Fallen and the film remained in development hell as directors like MCG and Steven qu passed on the film Gerard Butler eventually returned to the film as Martin Campbell was chosen to direct common and Billy Bob Thornton were added to the cast and Peter Craig provided uncredited rewrites on November 12th 2015 it was announced that a deal between producers of the film had been made that relativity Neil H more and Toby Jeff's original film would now produce the film along with Millennium films which would also co-finance and distribute on March 3rd 2016 it was announced that Donovan Marsh would direct the film and Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman would star with original films Neil H Moritz and Toby jaff producing the film along with Butler Tuli Productions Tucker Tuli Alan seel and millennium's Mark Gil John Thompson mat TL and Les Welden on June 23rd 2016 Taylor John Smith was cast in the film to play a sonar man on the sub on July 6th 2016 Gabriel choria joined the film to play a Navy SEAL aboard the US submarine next day Zay Holtz also joined the film to play Martinelli a brave and skilled member of the elite unit on July 13 2016 Michael truo and Ryan mcpartland also came aboard to play a weapons specialist Devin Hall and an ex seal and CIA medic Matt Johnstone respectively on July 19th 2016 Michael nickv was added to the cast to play Captain Sergey andropov on July 21st 2016 David gasi joined the film to play the chief of the boat of the submarine s Omaha with Toby Stevens cast to play Lieutenant Beeman head of the Black Ops squad on August 4th 2016 Linda Cardellini joined the cast principal photography on on the film began on July 25th 2016 in London and in Bulgaria interior sets of a Virginia class hunter killer submarine were built at eling Studios using blueprints approved by the US Navy with the spaces expanded slightly to allow Freer camera movement the sets were mounted on a gimbal to simulate the movement of the sea eling also hosted a pentagon set from where US military personnel tracked the submarine action the former legal and general building in Kingswood Sur UK was also utilized as a part of the Pentagon although the heroes of the movie are portrayed as US Navy Seals the costuming department for the movie used commercially available uniforms in a tax FG camouflage which is not a pattern in use by the US Navy an exterior set of the main hunter killer submarine was built in Pinewood Studios 86 Zen gallon exterior water tank while underwater scenes were shot using a sep separate water tank at Warner Bros Studios leston also just outside London Interiors of the Russian base were built as sets at new buana film studios in Bulgarian Capital Sofia the film was released in the United States on October 26th 2018 by Lionsgate through the summit premiere label it was released in several territories including the United Kingdom the week before on October 19th 2018 in Ukraine the film was scheduled to premiere on October 25th but the Ukraine Ministry of culture denied it an exhibition license based on a 2012 law on cinematography that banned the distribution and screening of films the goal of which is to popularize the bodies of an aggressor State Andor Soviet state security organs according to a representative of the Ukrainian State film agency desino screening the film would be illegal because it contains a positive image of the Russian president and Admiral of the Russian army Ukrainian Russian relations have deteriorated since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea in Russia the film was scheduled to premiere on November 1st but the film failed to obtain an exhibition license from the culture Ministry the ministry stated that the copy of the movie submitted by the distributor for review was of poor quality and the replacement was submitted too late for the ministry to review it in time hunter killer was released on digital on on January 15th 2019 and on Ultra HD Blu-ray Blu-ray and DVD on January 29th 2019 by Lionsgate home entertainment hunter killer grossed $15.8 million in the United States and Canada and $15.9 million in other territories for a total worldwide gross of $31.7 million in the United States and Canada hunter killer was released alongside indivisible and johnie English strikes again and was projected to gross $59 million from 2720 theaters in its opening weekend the film made $2.6 million on its first day including $420,000 from Thursday night previews it went on to debut to $6.7 million finishing fifth at the box office and marking the worst debut for Butler since playing for keep's $5.8 million in 2012 the film made through $3.5 million in its second weekend falling to 9th on Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 37% based on 114 reviews with an average score of four 710 the website's critical consensus reads much like the submarine in its story hunter killer cruises the murky action depths following a perfunctory course into territory that's been charted many times before on Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100 based on 28 critics indicating mixed or average reviews audiences pulled by cinemascore gave the film an average grade of a on an A plus to f scale while postra reported filmgoers gave it four out of five stars bill jabiri of vulture.com wrote hunter killer won't win any awards for originality but it may win a couple for the brazenness with which it Stacks cliche as a cliche basically its Crimson Tide meets Lone Survivor meets Under Siege meets a Russian variation on Olympus Has Fallen with a bit of geostorm thrown in at least three of those movies are pretty good so the overall math works in the film's favor Norman Wilner of Toronto's now accused Marsh for ripping off John mcan's The Hunt for Red October and stated that the constant agitation and bone deep respect for all things military is straight out of Clan 's Playbook but there's no Jack Ryan figure to humanize it all review of hunter killer film Gerard Butler caught my attention back when I was a young theater nerd going through her The Phantom of the Opera stage since then Butler's acting seems to have aifi gone are his more limber moments of intensely singing or Screaming as he did in Phantom and 300 now he acts stoically for almost every part in recent memory most know notably The Fallen series where he saves government officials from showy acts of terrorism Butler will Furrow his brow to feain deep thinking the sound of his voice will drop to show some newly found resolve for whatever he's going to do next explosions and action happen around Butler but he will not be phased or forced to emote in essence hunter killer shares some similarities to Olympus Has Fallen and London has fallen Butler also saves government officials and by extension averts geopolitical chaos in this movie instead of facing off against terrorists as he does in the Fallen movies the threat to Pax Americana is a Russian Coupe that topples that country's president this infighting could not come at a worst time for the Americans who have a submarine unaccounted for in enemy territory so the powers to be in the states send Captain Joe glass Butler for a top secret search mission between tense exchanges sh Ed by rear Admiral John FIS common and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles donnag and Gary Oldman the two senior officials are at odds with how to proceed with the operation glass ship may need to defend itself which invariably would start another cold war but unless someone doesn't rescue the deposed Russian president soon the Cold War may already be underway by Russia's Rogue military leader tacked on to an already busy plot is the land component to the sea rescue of the the Russian president almost Midway through the movie The Audience is introduced to a group of ragtag Marines training up their newest member when they get the call for an impossible mission to spy on the enemy they're the ones who report back to DC about the coupe and in a last ditch effort to Stave off an allout War Fisk asks them to step in and rescue the president and bring him to the subglass is commanding so they can all Escape sound like a good plan I didn't think so another anchor weighing down hunter killer are the occasional serious moments that Veer into parody like when senior officials hold top secret conversations in the center of a busy government building instead of a private office it's also laughable how the movie portrays glass the merciful as a nonviolent Man At Heart by showing how he spares the life of a deer when he sees it has a family glass also spends ample time reminding everyone around him that he's just like his workingclass crew and not one of those anap guys from the Naval Academy channeling the conservative attitude against people who went to college it's those kinds of forgettable scenes that are only memorable because they're so odd but there is no inner life for Butler's character no moment where he shows doubt or reflects on his choices no shot of a family back home glass mentions some kind of an incident that marks his Naval career but then it's never referred to again or shows how the experience changed him although he's supposed to be the sympathetic one fighting to save lives on both sides it's the other members of his crew who shows emotions fear Panic uncertainty Joy you name it while Butler looks robotically on almost as if he's phoning his performance in until the paycheck clears even a Russian prisoner of war taken by the Americans shows more emotions in his eyes than Butler can muster with his body Butler's performance or lack thereof keeps hunter killer from breaking any ground in the field of war movies it's also an odd time to release a movie that Embraces collaborating with the Russians and painting bad and good guys with such broad strokes this puts hunter killer in murky geopolitical Waters I don't think it knows how to navigate neither the movie or Butler is nearly entertaining enough to distract us here is a thing that I am increasingly dealing with in the latter years of the second decade of the 21st century when it comes to Studio Movie making which awful aspect of the movie itself and everything in its orbit casting production marketing Etc should I be most angry at or do I have enough rage to spread it around spoiler I have a lot of rage I mean for starters hunter killer is like a remake of The Hunt for Red October if Michael Bay directed it except not even Michael Bay who at least evinces a certain level of technical flare even if it is almost always deployed in the most painfully jingoistic and propagandistic ways the only noticeable reaction hunter killer provokes apart from extreme boredom punctuated by moments of laugh out loud ridicule is a strong desire to watch The Hunt for Red October again so as to remind oneself what real submarine suspense feels like how was this allowed to come to pass for this is Red October as made by a Michael Bay wannabe who can't even be bothered to rise to the level of giving a if only in a terrible way that propaganda represents who is this Donovan Marsh who directed hunter killer and who isn't even trying to make us feel anything he's not actively engaging and unthinking patriotism he's not riling up a testosterone fueled action gasm he doesn't give us characters to care about on even the basic hey they're marginally human so I should feel something scale he's definitely not arousing an intellectualism surrounding the Preposterous geopolitical situation his story exists in how did this guy with only a few micro-budget projects in his home country of South Africa to his name score this sweet Studio gig is this yet another example of a white man who somehow makes the leap to Major projects with big stars and big budgets on the basis of almost nothing while non-white men and women of all colors with serious track records cannot get their projects made only to give us a movie this screamingly mediocre it sure looks that way I could also Hulk out about the fact that Hunter killer star Gerard Butler held a press conference at the Pentagon this week was allowed to hold a press conference at the Pentagon this week in order to promote this movie the US military has a long tradition of supporting Hollywood as long as the movie product makes it looks good but I've never before heard of anything like this is the US government literally nothing more than celebrity reality entertainment now Jesus Christ of course the Pentagon wholly approves of hunter killer which partnered with US Navy in nearly every aspect of the production according to the film's production notes quoted at indu I was not permitted to attend a press screening I did ask so I didn't snag production notes which are typically made available to critics and other film journalists in connection with such events based on the Apparently subt Tom Clancy novel firing Point by George Wallace and Don Keith which I have not read but just look at the movie version hunter killer posit POS ly Fates the US Navy with its depiction of Butler's newly promoted sub Captain Joe glass who ain't no fan ofin Anapolis grad but a grunt who worked his way up through the ranks to the level of badass Renegade Patriot to whom the rules don't apply that he is now he doesn't trust the suits in their plush offices back in Washington but the grunts under him shouldn't think he's going to let them get away with anything either anyone who doesn't love and respect him already will love and respect him by the end of the movie he's just that great he loves the smell of whatever submarines smell like in the morning which probably isn't very nice but is very manly there is one woman on his boat the US Alabama who gets to speak very occasionally and extremely briefly she is basically Lieutenant Yura and doesn't say anything other than the sub equivalent of hailing frequencies open sir better that they hadn't bothered with a token woman at all anyway the fantasy land reality that us Alabama takes place in is one in which the American president is a woman Caroline Goodall a street cat named Bob the dress maker who appears in one scene and seems to be a reasonable leader and the Russian president Alexander diachenko is definitely not Putin but he's also not American and hence must be depicted as pretty ineffectual he gets coped over by his military Minister Admiral Dimitri durov Michael Gore The hitman's Bodyguard Bridge of spies and has to be rescued by American elite soldiers secretly on Russian soil in order to avert the world war Roman 3 that durov wants to start for some inexplicable reason this is some America rules everybody else drools the likes of which we have not seen from Hollywood since the Cold War and should have stayed dead but it's like subtle as if the lack of Bayes stars and stripes in the slow M Breeze at the golden hour makes it any less pure agpr that's far from the only embarrass embarrassing crap here there's also a lot of bad effects pretty much every time we see the exterior of the Alabama on the surface it looks like Butler and his determined Grimace have been green screened in next to it pretty much every time we see the exterior of the sub underwater it looks miniature still that would be forgivable if there were any excitement or tension in the submarine action such as the let's navigate the impossibly dangerous underwater terrain using only our intuition SE that insults the Red October sequence it is kind of sort of lifted from one bit in which the officers of the Alabama are trying to determine whether another sub was torpedoed involves some physical evidence that wouldn't stump Encyclopedia Brown yet the film acts like glass's deconstruction of it is proof of his Naval genius every line of dialogue is painfully awkward Exposition roaring bombast mostly delivered by a scenery chewing Gary Oldman Darkest Hour Child 44 as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or utter cliche sometimes the cliches aren't spoken but are conveyed by mere meaningful looks between hack excuses for characters I goof at one knot of the head that could be taken to mean go on without me only if everyone involved somehow meta knew precisely what sort of story they were in the middle of that nod could have meant by the guy nodding it oh cool I see you've got my back which is great because I need some help here who was then quite surprised to be abandoned by his friend Michael niist Frank and Lola John Wick as a Russian subcap does his dignified best to channel sha Canary but he doesn't have a lot to work with nor does poor Linda Cardellini a simple favor Daddy's home too as an NSA honcho whom the script seems to be continually demanding that she justify the expertise and Authority it has allegedly imbued her with they both should have just given a tur little nod of go on without me and left hunter killer to fend for itself related information it's no trick for even the most hamfisted Global action thriller to achieve a ripped from the headlines topicality just throw in a terrorist from the right enemy Nation or an American president with a right haircut so it's a weird and musty Twilight Zone indeed that one enters to watch hunter killer a grindingly ponderous and bombastic Neo Cold War submarine Thriller how ponderous is it it stars Gerard Butler and he's the most light-hearted thing about it that in every relevant detail seems 3 years if not two decades behind the times consider its take on the US president the character played by Caroline Goodall is transparently modeled on Hillary Clinton as a result one watches her scenes utterly removed from the drama I use the term loosely and preoccupied instead with thoughts like was this film really shot that long ago go it was principal photography on hunter killer began in July 2016 and the producers clearly based their script on the presumption that a certain Democratic candidate would end up as Madame President arriving in the thick of The Madness of the Trump era however the film intentionally or not seems to say who cares if she didn't win even reality won't make us budge the movie's version of the Russian leadership is if anything even even more jarringly out ofd hunter killer which is named for its lead submarine is about an underwater Faceoff between the s in Russia but the plot hinges on an attempted coupe the Russian leader president zachar and Alexander dieno is no autocratic Putin figure he's a decent diplomatic dude who seems to have graduated from the Gorbachev School of constructive engagement he's taken down in a military sabotage led by durov miky gorvo the runt bully Minister of Defense who comes off as sort of Soviet he's like the joyless Communist version of a bond villain from the mid 60s there's a lot to be scared of in the world today but hunter killer summons all the topical urgency of a night spent rewatching The Hunt for Red October on Netflix it's a cold war Nostalgia movie like something based on a Tom Clancy novel that long ago passed its cell by date mostly though hunter killer will make you nostalgic for the era when people who made movies like this one actually knew what they were doing it takes an entire hour for the movie to get to the coupe attempt and by the time that happens you realize that everything that led up to it has been a meaningless and overextended setup which is why it's so dull instead of launching the kind of countdown to Doom excitement that has marked submarine Thrillers like Crimson Tide Das Boot or U 571 hunter killer shifts over to a generic team of Navy SEALs your heart will sink with Tedium each time the film cuts to them who have to bust into the Russian military compound where durov has taken over it's their job to extract the Russian president which they ultimately do it's then up to Butler's tight jaw hardcore battle creased Captain Joe glass commanding the Us Omaha to give him safe haven and to defeat the Russian villain by refusing to get sucked into his game of chicken the twist to the extent the movie has won is that Butler for all his tur Swagger is playing a good liberal he's the biggest Bruiser on the submarine but he's got to teach the other men like the ship's fanatical zo Carter McIntyre to get their torpedo happy impulses under control if the movie has a message it's this tough guys stand down but hunter killer with its combination of wrote action and responsible out of time schlock geopolitics just left me wishing that it was a Steven Eagle movie Butler showed flashes of unruly life in his last picture The Heist drama den of Thieves but here he's back to his old Granite scowl he's like the face of PJ oor carved into a Wooden Nickel Gary Oldman in a performance given before he won the Oscar shows up and goes blowhard hysterical as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and common who seems to be carving out a career playing the kind of conservative establishment honchos you'd never expect common to play exudes a likable Authority as a rear Admiral in The Situation Room Michael nickf in one of his last roles has a mournful Grace as a fallen Russian submarine Captain hunter killer has good enough actors but it never figures out what to do with them they're stuck in an underwater vacuum a submarine movie that submerges anything of interest when we last encountered Gerard Butler in the semi- enjoyably derivative den of Thieves he was rerunning Al Pacino's old heat moves tonight Matthew Cinema's loudest Scotsman will be impersonating The Hunt for Red October era Alec Baldwin swerving any lawsuit that might have followed from calling his character say Jack Brian Butler's Maverick subc Commander has been assigned the no less No Nonsense name of Joe glass Joe has an intense rep he never went to Annapolis a pentagon functionary gasps I heard he once punched his Co gossips a passing Seaman glass is first seen tracking elk with manly bow and arrow you're surprised the filmmakers didn't go the whole Alpha hog and have a shirtless Butler best the poor creatures in an arm wrestle yet as with much else in this muddled disjointed non- Thriller that intro proves misleading glass actually turns out to be a thinker and boat lover two parts cowo one part porot who finds himself plunged into choppy diplomatic Waters while investigating the simultaneous torpedoing of us and Russian Subs could it be the Russians themselves as represented by Noble Seadog Captain andropov the late Michael nickfest or might it relate to baraca swilling Chief of Staff Gary Oldman who Bellows something Gruff about Chess to his female president then goes suspiciously quiet for an hour don't invest too much for all the military hardware this long loud game of battleships will result in a terrible fudge Butler's convoluted clap trap phase remain ains preferable to his Louch Bachelor period yet at 2 hours hunter killer is carrying a lot of undue Timber not least a very boring Michael Bay B plot involving a squadron of Marines doing the on the ground chesting the star usually does elsewhere indifferent cutting only heightens the weird artificiality of the subscenes the off-kilter footage of Captain Jerry sternly relaying orders seems to Bear scant relation to the model shots of metallic fallaces running silent and deep through the studio fish tank toning down his usual act in a manner that suggests he's finally read his reviews Butler gives it handfuls of dramatic ballast but this vessel has been badly compromised any interest seeps out by the frame more details of hunter killer film all it takes is one evil madman to ruin it for everyone then again it only takes one hero to save the day Joe glass spends most of his time hunting and living a low-key life Off the Grid he's very good at what he does stalking his prey but when the US military calls he's ready to respond glass is the government's somewhat unconventional choice to command the US Arkansas a hunter killer submarine the kind of vessel that stealthily stalks others of its kind his mission discover what became of an American sub that vanished in the Arctic that task is hard enough but glass and his crew soon swim in to a much bigger Mission as this substory unfolds and it's not long before they're working with Navy Seals to extract the embattled Russian president from a coupe risking everything to prevent the next World War when we first meet Joe glass it's clear that he's considered a nobody a loner but the choice to promote him to commander of the US Arkansas proves a wise one glass has what it takes to get the job done character loyalty resilience and tactical smart glass is brave determined and capable calling difficult shots when others won't take necessary risks he gradually wins his crew's trust even though some of his choices seem Reckless glass also models what it means to serve sacrificially when confronted with difficult choices involving the enemy he admirably seeks to preserve human rights and to tear down racially charged barriers we see other sailors and soldiers who risk their lives to accomplish their increasingly complex Mission that's especially obvious when some characters return for men who are left behind at one point and at least some members of the United States and Russian governments are willing to work together and seek peace though that's not true of all of them hence the rest of the movie Sailors are briefly seen shirtless and in their boxers as they rush to prepare for battle someone jokes about incest as you'd expect in a movie like this we see quite a bit of combat and warfare submarines military vehicles and buildings get blown up Torpedoes reverberate through the ocean bullets tear through surfaces bombs and mines detonate at one crucial Point battles ensue on land and in water simultaneously with both sailors and soldiers involved we also hear death threats and witness standoffs that threaten to unleash an apocalyptic nuclear configuration US Navy Seals practice with firearms for a top SE secret mission when the actual Mission begins they kill and injure many Russian soldiers multiple soldiers and officials die in combat blood splatters as men are killed and some of that brutal combat is depicted quite realistically and graphically an evil Russian warlord has his own people executed we see them shot in the head from afar and their bodies are then dumped into the water dead bodies float in the ocean as well a paratrooper Soldier is injured during his jump a sailor is nearly crushed as a torpedo Falls onto his body and traps him underwater some Sailors suffer from hypothermia an evil Admiral attempts to dispose of any Russian operatives who stand in his way executing violent orders and trying to kill his own Sailors in order to spark a war Sailors admit that they're afraid to die and feel isolated as they engage in underwater battles cmdr glass talks to his crew about Miss ing his father's funeral and working alongside many men who have died in an attempt to control and frame the Russian president an evil Admiral blocks all means of communication and sequesters various officials cmdr glass technically makes some decisions that violate his orders that said the film also invites us to see those choices as necessary to prevent War have you ever thought that a movie was both too long and Too Short as this this one got underway I wanted more backstory more details more understanding of what motivated these guys especially cmdr glass played by Gerard Butler but about halfway through something else happened I started to think about when Hunter Killer was going to be over that's because once the main plot pieces are set in motion you wonder how many explosions and explo lives you're going to have to endure before the credits finally roll don't misunderstand me Gerard buck his crew and the enemies are fairly compelling tangible suspense hangs in the air and characters make heroic praiseworthy and sacrificial choices and it's nice that the filmmakers chose not to toss in any gratuitous sexual content either as so often happens in R-rated films overall the film gave me a renewed sense of thankfulness for those who fiercely protect our country but the plot wasn't as convincing as I would have liked and this underwater action definitely didn't need to be rated R if the movie makers could have dialed back the harsh language and bloody violence just a couple of notches perhaps more potential viewers would consider taking the plunge with hunter killer am I the only one waiting for Gerard Butler to have that Matthew mcanoy like Renaissance you know where he lands that one movie that Taps back into the talent that we once saw glimpses of before the Cavalcade of hard to digest slop started churning out well I hate to say say it but hunter killer ain't it Jerry Butler's movies have almost become an absurd event for me I would be lying if I didn't admit to getting some type of weird entertainment value out of them they're routinely bad and always offer some level of goofiness to laugh at most of the time unintentionally hunter killer take a different approach it nearly drowns in its own self-seriousness that being said here's something funny hunter killer isn't as bad as it has every right to be now let's not get carried away this isn't the movie that puts Butler back on track simply put it's impossible to take any part of this three-prong story seriously and the further you go the more you realize that it's doing nothing that you haven't seen many many times before after a United States submarine suspiciously disappears in Arctic Waters first time Commander Joe glass Butler is ordered to investigate he takes the US Arkansas and his new crew to do so from deep seas super sleuthing not only does he discover the fate of the US sub but he stumbles upon a sunken Russian sub that has been sabotaged from the inside among its lone survivors is a dignified Russian Admiral played by Michael nickfest meanwhile a four-man Navy SEAL Team covertly airdrops into Russia where they are to secretly observe the going on at a suspicious Russian naval base their reconnaissance uncovers a coupe led by a Wildey defense minister mik gorvo so cartoony he could have been pulled from a late 80s comic book the third thread of this story takes place at the Pentagon where government officials scramble to make sense of all the Intel pouring in from the Arkansas and the Seal team Gary Oldman grabs a quick paycheck as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs while a stone-faced common plays an admiral with the emotional depth of a block of wood Linda calini gets a thankless role as a security adviser their roles consist of of expressing various levels of concern as highly dramatic music Looms in the background nothing in this three-story structure works particularly well on its own you'll have a hard time finding an original idea or interesting character in any of the scenarios but when they all come together it does offer up some mindless entertainment the pacing is good which is probably a smart thing and there are a handful of good action sequences that injects a little welcomed energy we also get another good performance from the late Michael nickfest it's one of his final roles but despite my ability to squeeze a little enjoyment out of hunter killer it's still a movie that sinks more than swims pretty much everything it does is by the numbers and while some of the casting may catch your eye they're more or less doing the same checking boxes and offering up the best super serious mugging they can muster few information about this film considering all the ludicrous moments in Hunter kill killer I was longing for the film to lean into Roland emeres self-awareness but through po-faced monologues intensi acting and gung-ho theatrics hunter killer remains resolutely serious and misses the opportunity to have a little fun in among the action based on the 2012 novel firing Point by Don Keith and George Wallace hunter killer centers on a mission commandeered by us submarine Commander Joe glass Gerard Butler to rescue the Russian president held hostage by his own defense minister Dimitri durov mik gorvo on Russian soil aiding the central Mission are a group of Navy SEALs on the ground led by Bill Bean Toby Stevens and National Security Agency senior analyst Jane norest Linda Cardellini rear Admiral John FIS common and Admiral Charles donagan Gary Oldman at the Department of Defense back in the USA hunter killer spends most of its time flitting between the three American groups giving only a cursory glance toward the Russians who are mostly short-handed as evil thanks to gorvo scarred red and face that is however until commander of a Russian submarine Captain Serge Andrea the late Michael nickfest inadvertently joins the mission and the Americans and Russians have to learn to work together in a sort of uneasy truce primarily dictated by intense eye contact between Nick vist and Butler and vague hand gestures that serve as experts submarine navigation it's unintentionally funny in its sincerity it's not all a tonal misfire despite the fact his character gets a ridiculously on the nose save the cat moment early on in proceedings Butler makes the wearied gruff sub Captain who has seen some stuff his own and Carries much of the silliness on his shoulders by committing wholeheartedly to it he leads some great moments of genuine tension in the sub itself too especially during a sequence where he and bike fists andropov must navigate through Russian Waters Ed with Naval mines and devices tripped by sound the underwater stuff in general is great there's a real sense of thundering impact whenever Torpedoes make contact and the Interiors of the subs look real and lived in full of knockabout rituals that will inevitably be destroyed this is where hunter killer shines in a PlayStation game being interrupted by a collision in the powerful Spurt of a broken pipe in a wrench that almost hits the floor before being caught at the last second Stevens and his Navy SEALs team are also very endearing and add a rough knockabout charm to the otherwise sincere proceedings calini is far too good for the material but does a lot with a role that could have been sleepwalked through and though I'm not sure what Oldman is doing in this movie he brings the requisite authoritarian angry guy vibe to heighten the stakes despite the good stuff though hunter killer doesn't ever really justify its existence conceived in 2011 viewing it through any other lens than today's political climate is impossible is it a gung-ho patriotic action movie in the vein of that other Butler vehicle Olympus Has Fallen is it a morality tale or does it simply reflect the quip spouted by Beeman I don't know sh asteris T about politics without that sense of fun it falls through the gaps of all of these movies about the US military tend to fall into two categories triumphant story is focusing on hardship that is overcome and tales that focus more on the evils of war and that which comes after I say tend to because every once in a while we come across a movie like Hunter Killer which is directed by Donovan Marsh and based on the novel firing Point starring Gerard Butler hunter killer doesn't fit into either of the above two categories not remotely no hunter killer is a tale without glory and without weight it is a SLO certain but it doesn't show War to be won Butler Stars his firsttime submarine Captain Joe glass you wouldn't know that it's his first time captaining a sub though because he does absolutely everything right in order to prevent World War Roman 3 from breaking out when the Russian defense minister Admiral durov Michael Gore kidnaps Russian President zacharin Alexander da chenko in order to Stage a coupe glass doesn't know that's what's happening at first nor does the chairman of the joint Chief's Gary Oldman or rear Admiral John FIS common who order glass and his new sub to Waters near Russia instead they are out there looking for answers about what sunk another a sub in the area and finding a sunk Russian one as well the captain of that sub andreo Michael niist is still alive and rescued by glass's crew Hunter Killer plays out like a rejected Jack Ryan script it shifts from Washington DC where the politicians and operatives who also include Linda cardini's NSA agent Jane norquist argue and dither and debate to glasses sub to the Russian base where andropov is being held to a small unit of US soldiers on the ground at the same base due to these perspective shifts the audience is able to put together the puzzle while each individual group in the film wonders about what exactly is taking place however there is no sense of magnitude about any of this the end result of the operations could indeed be a nuclear Holocaust but not for a single moment does it feel as though that might actually come to pass and it is laughable when old men starts yelling about it all this is a sense made worse as glass has this pritter natural ability to sus everything out and do what's right Carter McIntyre plays glasses zo Brian Edwards a distinctly unenviable role whether glass is obeying or ignoring Washington's orders or doing anything else at all it is McIntyre's Edwards who stands there and takes the opposite point of view this is done so we understand just how far outside the norm glass operates with how often it happens however it is also more than a little silly one could easily imagine a scene on The Cutting Room floor where Edwards yells at glass for putting one spoon of sugar into his coffee instead of two while it might not be classified as a straight action movie hunter killer does feature a number of action sequences none of which will successfully raised the blood pressure of those in the audience the most tense sequence features glasses sub navigating a mind Channel but as with the rest of the movie this portion of the film goes on far too long and becomes a parody before it ends this is not even a movie that is saved or merely boyed by its computer effects these regularly disappoint offering up images that only look somewhat better than the plane crash in Air Force 1 a couple of green screen shots are particularly poor beyond that characters in Hunter Killer are not deep and sometimes rather ridiculous action in hunter killer is dull the logic behind what is going on is rarely discussed and even more rarely coherent sadly this is a dull slog of a film that in no way justifies it 2hour running time it is a war movie that has no message Pro or con about the military and the people who make decisions that affect us all it grows ever more foolish as it progresses taking what might be a promising scenario and utterly squandering it hunter killer is a movie best avoided imagine that you are a Russian submarine captain and you are stranded on the ocean floor then you get rescued by an American submarine and thrown into the brig and the American captain who looks like Gerard Butler visits you and says look I know you speak English I need you to tell me how to enter a Russian military Harbor because we need to save the Russian president he's kidnapped by traitors yeah so think about it and then leaves what would your reaction be I would guess that your reaction would not be to swallow this story immediately and at The crucial time to show up on the bridge to guide the Americans through the Russian minefields no questions asked this is however that kind of movie this scene illustrates everything that is wrong with the movie's idea of reality it is essentially a completely nonsensical action thriller in which the only elements of importance are the American Military the Russian adversary and Gerard Butler's desired status as Action Hero especially that last point is rather divorced from reality even more so than its geopolitics Butler tries so hard in Gods of Egypt 2016 and London has fallen 2016 in geostorm 2017 and now this he doesn't have the Charisma and his movies suck Captain glass Butler is introduced to us in a scene that should just say it all Butler is walking through the Scottish Highlands with a sniper rifle and he is ready to shoot a beautiful innocent deer right in the face but then he sees that the deer has little babies walking behind it so he refrains thus illustrating that Butler is a hard ass with a heart of gold who only feels empathy when his dear victim has baby deer I cannot watch scenes like these with any feeling of imers I can just see the writer superimposed on the screen thinking how should we illustrate Butler's character all right I got it then a helicopter picks him up and dumps him next to a submarine he takes command and 5 seconds later they are suddenly 2,000 M away submarines do speak to the imagination though and the underwater scenes look nice but the film feels really long and feels like PR material for the American Military and Butler's ego after 2 hours World War Ren 3 is about to break out and more and more military hardware is shoved onto the screen many of the Russian ships are clearly computer generated but the shots from American fighters and ships must have all been made in an agreement between Hollywood and the military meanwhile American snipers in what is supposed to be Northern Russia keep on making headshot after headshot while the Russians missed the Russian President addresses his countrymen in fluent English at the the end so if you like non-stop action and are not bothered by very transparent moral grandstanding lack of political realism and possible external reasons behind the production of the movie you might still have a good time hunter killer is not going to challenge Das Boot for the title of best submarine warfare film of all time by tossing aside the reliable characteristics of the genre claustrophobic atmosphere sense of isolation simmering tension Direct director Donovan Marsh's movie strives to be more of a standard order action war production in terms of pacing and narrative thrust it recalls the defunct kefir Southerland TV show 24 at its best 24 was often Preposterous occasionally idiotic and always compulsively watchable the same is true of hunter killer which won't win any awards for acting or writing but generates suspense when it needs to and tells an engrossing tall tale Ard Butler who has been making a living in B movies with a budgets plays submarine Captain Joe glass he and his new crew are sent on a rescue mission an American sub has disappeared near Russian Waters and is feared sunk no sooner has glass discovered the down boat than he is fired upon after evading the enemy's Torpedoes he executes some clever Maneuvers that allow him to locate and eliminate the sneaky Russian hidden just under the ice this is all part of a larger power play by the Russian defense minister Admiral durov Michael Gore to rest power from President zacharin Alexander diachenko with a coupe underway zacharin becomes durov's prisoner while the latter begins orchestrating plans for World War Roman 3 the hawkish as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles donik and Gary Oldman appears all too ready to fall into durov's trap before agreeing to combat however the US president authorizes a daring rescue mission sending glass sub to support a ground team charged with extracting zacharin whatever praise hunter killer receives little is likely to be reserved for the acting the role of Captain glass is well suited to Gerard Butler who has become typ cast as this sort of character glass is more subdued than some of Butler's recent assignments he never yells at the top of his lungs and there's minimal physicality he gets to play the strong silent type the most emotive he gets is when having a spirited argument with his zo Gary Oldman who filmed this around the same time as his Oscar winning part in Darkest Hour reminds us that even the best actors need to pay the bills and they rarely give their all for paycheck performances everyone else is either lifeless or inept although Michael nickfest as Russian submarine Captain andreoff had an excuse he was dying at the time the actor passed away in mid 2017 more than a year before hunter killer reached theaters an indication of how long it was sitting around hunter killer doesn't exist to provide insight into modern submarine warfare or how today's Hightech underwater boats play into geopolitics this is pure escapism intended to give audiences a nicely mixed adrenaline and testosterone cocktail with a strong Macho leading man and enough action both on land and in the water to justify the 2hour running length in transparent attempts to Plate female viewers Linda Cardellini is on hand as a high ranking NSA liaison and US president is a woman the movie works on its own cartoonish terms the extraction rescue is suspenseful and the underwater combat while not well choreographed is exciting there's also a big crowd pleasing moment that Drew cheers from the audience when I saw the film hunter killer is that kind of movie it's easy to point out all the things it does wrong and poke fun at its mistakes but in the end it's an absorbing way to pass 2 hours not everything released at this time of the year has to enrich The Cinematic eek cast directed by Donovan Marsh screenplay by orang Schmidt Jamie Moss produced by Neil H Moritz Matt ool Les Weldon starring Gerard Butler Linda cardini Toby Stevens cinematography Tom Marise edited by Michael J Guffy music by Trevor Morris production companies Summit Premiere Millennium Media Tucker Tuli entertainment distributed by Lionsgate release date October 26 2018 running time 121 minutes country United States languages English Russian budget $40 million box office $31.7 million so friends this was the review of today's film hunter killer and some other information hope you like this video and don't forget to support our Channel by subscribing please like the video and tell us how you like the video in comment section thanks for watching