U-571 Written by
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
Rating: 1 out of 6
This should have been a telemovie. Apart from the submarine itself, the sets are terrible and look like clean cardboard under bright lighting. There is enough "Americans are great" ego and rhetoric through the movie to make it uncomfortable to watch. The camera angles do not give the feeling of being inside a submarine. The script is bad and the characters do not develop. There are way too many bad scenes, and they all play like awfully done, plagiarised copies of the brilliant "Das Boot".
On the up side, there are some moments which stand out as good scenes, such as the dying scene involving the captured prisoner (although its tainted with Hollywood surprise syndrome), and the scene involving saving people near drowning after they believed they were certain to die. Some plot situations are interesting, but they give no more satisfaction than a good hot dog.
The movie is dedicated to the Americans who managed to steal Enigma code machines and documentation from the German forces.
If you want to see out of context unimaginative and badly executed submarine situations, then this is the movie for you. There's the over-done depth charge scene, the how low can you go scene, the having trouble eating soup on a rocking sub scene, the Hollywood gunfight scene, and huge amounts of ego splattered all through this movie, all done laughably badly.
Things to look out for: Depth charge explosions on the surface, and "White for green."
The low point: The movie sets and their clean cardboard look. Rock Star Rating: 2 out of 6.
Rise, fall, redemption - played out with all the emotion of muzak. Rock Star is not a passionate story, but neither is it a funny comedy, a moralistic revelation, or a realistic insight. It follows a story you could have guessed before you entered the cinema, yet doesn't seem to know where it wants to go. It doesn't involve your heart in the ride, leaving you watching characters that you don't really care about. There's no pain when he falls, there's no joy when he rises.
Perhaps inspired by the Judas Priest replacement of Rob Halford by Ripper Owens from a Judas Priest tribute band, this movie fails to deliver anything more than story to watch. You're better off watching "Almost Famous" and "This is Spinal Tap".
The director prefers to turn down the volume of the music than have the characters shout over it. This 'cleanliness' typifies the whole movie - like a Hammond organ cleaned up to sound less dirty, like a distortion guitar made to sound a little 'nicer'.
The camera work is cliched and uninspiring. The lessons of the movie rarely show themselves, and are instead explained out with dumbed down speeches made by the characters more obviously for the benefit of the viewer than for eachother.
However, if you've got a crush on Jennifer Aniston, this movie would probably be a must-see.
The movie is not without merits - it has it's moments and it's insights, but they are too diluted and far between. The Stage Manager role is completely wasted when it could have been a pivitol point for the whole movie.
Oh well. If the movie shorts attract you, you won't be completely dissapointed. It has merit, but it's hard to describe since it seems almost stumbled over when it comes.
"Wouldn't you rather fail as yourself than succeed as a Bobby Beers clone?" |
