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Black Sea (Kevin Macdonald)



"The only thing more dangerous than the mission. Is the crew"

An under-sea salvage worker is let go from his job, recently divorced and estranged from his son. He is given the opportunity of a life time for a job that pertains to his particular skill set. There is a story about a german u-boat carrying gold bars that sank off the coast of Georgia. He is tasked with the job of retrieving that gold, with the crew of his choosing. But what happens when the crew figures out that the less people there are to share it with, the bigger their portion will be.

Simple story, simple premise, simple locations. Black Sea might not be very deep (ha), but Macdonald showcases some raw direction paired with strong performances from gritty men, lead by Jude Law. My experience with Macdonald has been the really well done political thriller State of Play and the poorly executed Channing Tatum flick The Eagle. So in my books the man is 1/2. With Black Sea, Macdonald is back in my good books and has me interested in seeing what he has cooking up for us in the near future.

If you haven't heard of the film, don't sweat it. The film went under the sonar. Which makes it all that more enjoyable. This film surprised me. I wasn't expecting much, especially from Jude Law, but everything about this film delivers. Yes, let's all get over the absurd story right at the beginning. We have a dozen guys, half British, half Russian (real Russian actors too) who are willing to kill each other at the drop of a hat. Let's put them in a tight space under thousands of gallons of pressure. Nothing can go wrong right? Let's add to the mix that one of these men is a genuine psycho, but he's so good at his job we have to have him. Okay, that out of the way? Than buckle in for an intense underwater thrill ride that is dirty and gritty and just the right kind of "guy" movie.

Supporting Jude Law's 'take no BS' performance is Ben Mendelsohn (say one wrong word to him and your dead), Scoot McNairy (has no business being in the position he is in) and Konstantin Khabenskiy (wrong place, wrong time). None of the crew likes each other, they don't sugar coat anything and on top of that, they have to deal with language barriers.

There are some pretty tense filled moments here. One particular set piece is when some of the crew has to venture outside the sub in search for a possible location of the u-boat. We can't quite see what's out there in the murky water, but we know it's not good. Macdonald plays with this notion. We are stuck out there with them, helpless and only one little cable as our life line. Do we trust the men back at the boat to guide us to safety? Do we have enough air to make it there and back? Is there even anything out there?

Are parts of this film predictable? Of course. The film doesn't try to subvert anything. It knows what kind of film it wants to be and plays to the notion perfectly. Macdonald relies on the claustrophobia and sense of death at every turn. We might not like every character, but we want something good to happen for some of them. We want them to work as a team, even if we don't really want all of them to live.

Ask yourself. What was the last good submarine movie? Black Sea is the answer because U-571 was 15 years ago.