The work of Pen Densham is exceptional. The movie displays directorial talent but this just one of many. Ed Harris is one of America's most talented actors. The movie gets your blood racing and opens unanswered questions that never lose their relevance.The Captain of a vessel is in a sense the leader of a select group and primal issues of tribal coherence are uncovered.

Overall, this was a good movie. The only real problem I had was that this was a Russian submarine with dozens of Russian crew members and not one of them had a Russian accent. For me, that took away a substantial amount of credibility in the movie. I found myself frequently wondering what was going on here. Were these Americans that hi- jacked a Russian sub? But, no, they were supposed to be Russian's. Took a lot of the believability out of the movie.

What a long wait it has been since I saw u-boat flick! It's been so many years, I have to check when they came out, all of the great ones; "Das Boot", "The hunt for Red October", "The enemy below", "Crimson Tide"... I must say, after seeing this, I'd like to see more. Films like this are bound to be tight, and well acted, if you get the right actors to do it. Director Todd Robinson obviously did here.Based on a true story, we follow a Cold War Russian u-boat crew when they come in, and are sent out right away the morning after on an old submarines allegedly last trip before it's to be emptied and sold to the Chinese. The mission also includes a couple of strangers with a command to follow, with a secret mission. What, is not to be revealed until they are out on open sea.Ed Harris is the one bargaining of this to be quality, and boy it is. We also get to see David Duchovny, William Fichtner, Kip Pardue and Lance Henriksen in central roles.I'm relieved this isn't a film in which the actors are to talk English with a Russian accent. This film is too good to fall into that category. Another quality sign. This is history telling, of history we don't want to re-live. Thank God those days are over. Let's hope they never return.

An underrated, under-appreciated tale of tension at sea. While i am always a sucker for the kind of built-in drama afforded by movies about men helming an iron coffin surrounded by tons of seawater, this one is no less notable than its counterparts. More than adequate performances by Ed Harris, David Duchovny, and several other notable actors, it is worth watching, and casts a sympathetic face on the pre-glasnost Soviet Union.You should know beforehand that the actors make no attempt at sounding like Russians. While this seemed jarring at first, I realized that even if they did have an accent, they would still not be speaking English! So I just chalked it up to artistic license, and quickly forgot about that self- imposed requirement. I suggest you do the same, and enjoy this feature for what it is. While it doesn't offer much new, especially in the wake of superior (and higher budget) similar films, it fulfilled this WW2 fan for a couple of enjoyable hours.