U-Boat vihollisen kynsissä

This is an unfortunate case. The movie has a fairly likable cast, decent performances, and considering it's a B movie, acceptable production design, and even the direction holds up, but what drags the film down is the screenplay. It's not so much stupid as it is silly. It's not that the story isn't set in any believable reality, in that in August 1943, German U-boat commanders are discussing how the war will end in German defeat in the near future when at the same time Germany occupies the majority of Europe and the Allied command expects the war operations to end sometime in the summer of 1947 if all goes well. Rather, it's the fact that the characters behave and speak in contradiction to any elementary logic. Just as an example, after the prisoners incite a revolt, thwart an attack on an enemy ship, damage the submarine, and put its crew in mortal danger, precisely at that point, one of the sailors feels a strong desire to fraternize and exchange family photographs. The plot is driven by improbable coincidences and the bizarre thought processes of its characters. Strangely enough, there is no doctor on board the German ship, but an epidemic breaks out that decimates 2/3 of the German crew, only to coincidentally kill the lone American at the same time, and so on. The screenwriter simply twisted the screenplay without any regard for credibility. Not to mention the storyline of the relationship between the commander, portrayed by William H. Macy, and his wife, which is marked by literal incredibility and sentimentality of such a nature as if it came from a highly exaggerated parody. Overall impression: 25%. (25.06.2009)