This is Crimson Tide. They used a clever trick to hide their misdeed: they replaced most mentions of "Russia" with "North Korea" and switched the roles between the captain and the first officer. Cunning little ones. Some scenes appear to be directly lifted from Crimson Tide and recreated shot-for-shot.That is, the "penny dreadful" version of Crimson Tide. How did they manage to make it so much worse?Well, the addition of a stockpile of corny dialogue helped. The characters aren't much short of just uttering "OMG, it's that deadly pass, the captain is so brave and ingenious and we nearly hit that wreck like, I could touch it, like!"As did the pointless manicheanism. The whole point of Crimson Tide was that all aboard were taking what they thought was the right course of action and that a nuclear conflict nearly arose because the US Navi protocols were inadequate. In this movie, it's hammered home quite clearly that the first officer and his men are just your usual "baddies". Their motivations are just nefarious.And let's not forget the pointless "action" scenes and their accompanying clichés. We're not even spared the terrible "oh! The gun fired between them! Who's dead, is it the baddie or the good guy? Lookie, it's the baddie!" scene. That was never an interesting scene, why do bad movies insist on reusing it ad nauseam?Don't watch this, watch Crimson Tide. Partly because it's objectively better in all respects (writing, acting, directing, effects) and partly because there's no reason to endorse blatant plagiarism.

I'm a sucker for submarine movies, so even this low-budget TV thriller works for me. Good-looking nonactor Casper Van Dien plays a nuclear sub commander whose vehicle is taken over by elements of the crew, the leader of whom is intent on starting World War III against North Korea. He convinces a few people that Korea has attacked the U.S. Nothing out of the ordinary here, and Van Dien quickly regains control, but the suspense builds nicely. The best part of the flick is a tense chase when another American sub closes in on Van Dien's with orders to destroy it. Gerald McRaney from SIMON AND SIMON plays Van Dien's boss, an admiral, but the real standout among the supporting cast is Ron White as the sub's chief petty officer. I don't know White, but I bought his act as a tough, loyal-to-the-death chief to Van Dien's commander.

Yes, I agree it was very predictable, no major surprises anywhere. Pretty sad acting by the majority, very stiff. A few of the good screen shots that I liked had nothing to do with the crew, that is, the submarine underway.Why the Navy would even allow this to be filmed is beyond me. It portrays nothing positive about either side here. The fact that they thought that this was a plausible scenario amazes me. The number of flashing lights I saw remind me of the old Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea stories.If you need a military flik to pass a boring Saturday, watch this... at least you don't have to pay attention to it to get the story.

I really enjoyed this movie, not your typical submarine (Navy) movie, plus the magic that Casper brings to the film helps make this movie more than watch able. It has a good story line, I was able to understand what was happening. Over all great movie.