Hey folks, Harry here... I see this one tomorrow... then Wednesday I get a double bill of Anthony Mann westerns at the Paramount theater in Austin before heading off to Seattle. Hehehehe... Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Can't wait! I'm hoping to like K19 tomorrow, I've heard some people liking it, some hating on it and some being in the middle. I have no idea where it'll hit me, but I'm pulling for Han and Qui.
Heya, ThePoleOfJustice here to babble about more stuff & spoilers, but no surprises.
OK, K19. I have to say that the previews didn't exactly inspire me. I guess that's a hazard of being forced to see everything: stuff that might normally generate a bit of interest just kind of sits there. People comparing it to THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER didn't exactly make me do cartwheels either, although I like that film (quick aside: has our cultural memory become so shallow that it only allows for one film per idea? M. Night didn't invent people seeing ghosts with THE SIXTH SENSE, and not every submarine film is RED OCTOBER. )
So, onto the film. Well, the first hour is a wash. There is not one single frame of the first 60 minutes that you have not seen before, repeatedly. Good Men voicing Respectful Dissent against an Unlistening Authority, soldiers kissing girlfriends through a fence before going off (well, THAT guy's gonna die) Etc. There's even one guy who keeps a pet mouse. Guess what happens to it?
Not promising. Everyone absolutely sleepwalks through the first act. There's even one scene where the sub dives, and the main characters (Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, in case you didn't know) don't even bother to lean. Guess they couldn't be bothered.
Things pick up considerably after the first hour, when a leak in one of the nuclear reactor cores threatens massive nuclear catastrophe. Maybe it was because I was so lulled into complacency after the first part, but the members of the crew exposing themselves to radiation was immediate and flat out thrilling. Deeply disturbing, as well. (Reminds me of the Midnight Oil song, I forget its name: 'When the stuff gets in, you can not get it out.' I was scratching my face unconsciously after that.) And I have one name to mention: Peter Sarsgaard. He plays the novice reactor commander, and he does wonders with a hackneyed and very, very generic part. There is a scene where he panics and begins to cry, and he walks the line between spineless and sympathetic flawlessly. More of him, please.
After that, the film oscillates wildly between sharp and sappy, often within the same scene. The basic plot points can be seen a mile and a half away, but (very) occasional flashes of originality cause you to not care for a few seconds. There's even a bit where, clichÈ be damned, you really start to think that Harrison Ford's commander might really be off his rocker. He's not, of course (that would be too--I dunno--CHALLENGING.) But it's nice to have the momentary doubt.
The ending is a full ten minutes too long. This was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who also directed STRANGE DAYS, another movie that went on about ten minutes too long, so maybe there's a trend there. The performances, save Sarsgaard, are going-through-the-motions uninteresting. The accents are horrible, but not too intrusive (although I swear that Ford sounded more Irish than Russian a few times.) So, totaling up the plus column: great half hour somewhere in the middle, not intelligence insulting. The minus: too long, too generic. The plus wins out -- barely. We're talking a wafer thin margin. I didn't expect much, so I can't say I was disappointed. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from seeing this, but it wouldn't come to mind if I was asked for recommendations. Maybe the promotional tagline could be: K19: It's Not A Waste Of Time.
Ah well. PoleOfJustice out.
