Or is it "onboard"? Well whatever it is (and emphasis on the "it"), there are far better efforts out there than this one. It tries pretty hard and unfortunately thinks it's more clever than it is. Still with no expectations at all, you might have a somewhat rewarding experience ... On the other hand, you could do a lot better with your time and watch a Lance Henriksen movie, where the movie is good too.It's shot nicely though and there are a few nice scares (though it does suffer as some movies, from a strong beginning and very fast drop after that). The effects are good too, but that's almost it. A friend of mine told me, that there might be a music "mistake" at the end too. But why bother looking for a mistake like that?

Benevolent, powerful spirit gruesomely massacres officers on board an old Naval ship(nicknamed as a "Naval Museum" by the military)on Middle Eastern waters. Commander Combs(James Russo)decides to send in Captain John Willets(Lance Henriksen) and his team of Black Ops soldiers to see why the ship hasn't reported in the last several days. What Willets finds is a slaughtered crew with only his son, Colin(Gary Stretch), the engineer Slab(Robert Pike Daniel), and what is presumed to be a Muslim terrorist(Lee Majdoub). What the Black Ops team soon discovers is what is exactly behind the bloody rampage, the spirit of a Nazi killing machine, Gunther Neumann(Grant Mathis)whose power is "fused" with the ship, a concentrated energy which can possess humans, using their bodies as a vessel of destruction. So Willets and his men have quite a battle on their hands, to say the least. They also must halt the ship from entering Iranian territorial waters by any means necessary. Along with the Black Ops team are a duo of paranormal investigators, and we later learn of why they are on board, their mission is to "capture" Neumann's essence, to use it as a weapon in the field! Look, I could pick apart the plot contrivances, along with the gaping holes of the script, but, when it comes down to it, the movie is about soldiers combating a supernatural force throughout the darkened corridors of a 60 year old warship. Black Ops soldiers consider their mission rather routine, boarding the ship in a goal to find and destroy the enemy, which is, in their mind, a terrorist. The whole Gunther Neumann storyline, I admit, is preposterous and really is a bit hard to swallow. But, the idea of a vengeful spirit attacking members of an elite squad seems entertaining enough, but when the details are revealed behind who it is and how he's able to move about, it's hard to take it seriously. I disagree with others regarding Henriksen just cashing a check with some non-performance..I felt he was quite well cast, even at an older age, as a strong authoritative figure who competently guides his men through a very troubling situation which grows more and more implausible by the minute.The hurled insults about the lighting, I also disagree with. You are watching men marching deep into the bowels of a ship, and I thought there was enough light to see characters clearly. I think, in the case of "Black Ops", that the use of hand-held cameras works because there's a free-flowing nature adopted by director Roel Reiné, and he's able to capture the action within confined, claustrophobic spaces and areas where movement would be difficult otherwise. The violence itself isn't too graphic, and this could be used against "Black Ops" as most of the attacks aren't visibly shown in elaborative detail. The production history behind this movie is rather interesting, how the filmmakers put together a quick story, were allowed to shoot on a ship similar(..but not quite)to what the Navy has in their arsenal. For a "cheap jack" production, it works rather well. I, for one, thought it had some spooky, suspenseful moments here and there before the Gunther Neumann revelation rather sucks the wind out of the sails of the movie. The "Body Snatchers" plot element is worked into the plot and seems to take away from what could've been a rather intriguing actioner shrouded within a ghost story.

It's hard to hate a film you rented for only a buck, but this one did it. First off, the movie and some reviewers too, called the obvious WW ll vintage TRANSPORT a BATTLESHIP. Normally I don't get too picky about military stuff, like that model of the P-51 Mustang wasn't used in the Pacific in WW ll or trivia like that. but confusing an obvious transport, with derricks around cargo holds, with a battleship that is only 8 times it's size and bristling with guns is a travesty of idiocy, even for a foreign translation. A gun tub with a 20 mm cannon or a flack gun on the bow does not make even a warship. Then the rank of Lance and other naval dudes keep changing, colonel, captain, general admiral. Do you need R Lee Ermey to keep the ranks realistic too? Then the ultimate lack of imagination was to make the nemesis a, hold your breath cause this is supposed to be set in our times, NAZI SS genetically altered superman from WW ll! Is he a ghost or some emag presence or or just some true superman is hard to figure out. But one scene towards the end has him in his little hideaway listening to some 1940's vintage radio covered with cobwebs. You mean after 60 plus years no one caught him in his little home away from home on a naval vessel? He has fantastic powers of dismemberment, he did most of the original crew in by tearing them apart then displays some sort of mind control and body jumping skills too at the end. Like they were filming the scene and what ever cheap sci fi - supernatural trick they could come up was used in that scene. After the first 15 minute everything was done in dark in below deck. About the only thing I can admire about them was that they did get a real transport for a at least a couple live action scenes.They also through some scenes in the beginning where our guys were brutally torturing some Iraqi terrorists, who of course is well educated in our colleges and speaks great English too. So there is supposed to be parallelism between our bad boys behavior and this super Aryan spook. This gives one of our good guys, some naval rating, a chance to confront the badder of our guys to show that real Americans have heart. This rating is supposed to be Lance's son who Lance and his SEAL? team are sent onto the ship to rescue. But in another scene both Lance and his son are punching out some ghost hunter CIA? dude who knows more than he's letting on, I guess. They are punching him out in a room full of model ships and displays like the type kids and vets build to show in the mall. What dreck In spite of all this, the movie's ending is still confusing and I couldn't give it away because it was just too lame. Do not, I mean do not, go 1" out of your way to watch this direct to DVD mess!

Oh when oh when will I learn not to let my absolute adoration of Lance Henrikson make me sit through even extremely bad films Ie. pretty much anything post-"Millennium". This brain-dead little number is no different. Attempting to tie a Iraq war film with a supernatural ghost story may work on paper, but this is not paper and the result is an absolute mess that's nearly unwatchable. Bad acting, bad special effects, incoherent storyline. One can go right down the list of bad film-making 101 and put checks down it. The sad thing is I KNOW this won't be the last movie I watch from Henrikson, i still believe the guy rocks. But it will be the last Roel Reine flick that I watch.My Grade: D-DVD Extras: Director's commentary; One night on the set; Alternate opening; deleted scenes; Trailer for this movie; and trailers for "War, Inc.", "Player 5150", "Day of the Dead", "Three Days to Vegas", "Jack & Jill Vs. the World", "the Amateurs", & "Rockaway"