Hunter Killer Review

R: Violence and some language  Summit Entertainment, Original Film, Millennium Films, G-BASE2 Hrs and 1 Minute Dir: Donovan Marsh | Writers: Arne Schmidt, Jamie MossCast: Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Common, Linda Cardellini, Toby Stephens, Zane Holtz, Caroline Goodall, Michael Nyqvist
Deep under the Arctic Ocean, American submarine Captain Joe Glass (Gerard Butler, “Olympus Has Fallen”, “300”) is on the hunt for a U.S. sub in distress when he discovers a secret Russian coup is in the offing, threatening to dismantle the world order. With crew and country on the line, Captain Glass must now assemble an elite group of Navy SEALs to rescue the kidnapped Russian president and sneak through enemy waters to stop WWIII.
I give the film this: Gerard Butler. He exudes a solid onscreen presence with a performance that carries the film. He plays the captain of this ship and you believe it. He acts like a captain. He’s played a leader of soldiers before. Shit, that’s how he kicked off his career... and I literally mean kicked off.
I do feel bad because he delivers a really good performance, but he’s exerting all of his effort towards something that’s so fucking bland. I’m gonna go ahead and say it: Gerard Butler, please get yourself a new agent. You have proven to have a certain caliber of talent but it’s wasted on these garbage movies you always seem to star in. Honey, please choose better movies. I don’t like seeing a streak of shitty films in your filmography and the ones that seem to break it are the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies.
Why is this in a theater? Which asshole studio exec decided to not send this straight to DVD? I mean, the title itself is evidence enough. “Hunter Killer”. If that's not the most basic ass name for a movie, I don’t know what is. This doesn’t need to be in theaters by any means and those words were jogging around my head in a loop until I left my seat.
“Hunter Killer” is essentially supposed to be a submarine action-thriller, but most of the time it doesn’t know what it wants to be. You barely get any submarine action and then it tries to be some sort of espionage action film. Is this supposed to be the “Red Dawn” version of a “The Hunt for Red October” ripoff? Because that’s the vibe you get. I’m telling you, the only scene of suspense is when the submarine travels through a minefield and a guy on the lower level drops a wrench. This is the type of brainlessness you’re working with here. The film feels like 3 completely separate movies combined into one unbalanced package and only one of them kinda works. You have Common and Cardellini in the Pentagon, Butler at sea, and three military dudes on the ground. WHY IS THE LATTER, WHICH HAS NO NOTABLY NAMED ACTORS, THE ONLY SUBPLOT THAT WORKS?! The only time any form of action occurs is when they focus on this military ground unit who are off the grid and have their own mission. They provide the fun, mindless action which is amusing albeit it being mediocre and generic as hell.
I’m mad I walked in thinking: “Okay, this is a Gerard Butler action movie released by Millennium Films who is responsible for films such as ‘The Hitman's Bodyguard’, ‘Olympus Has Fallen’, and ‘The Mechanic’. This is probably going to be an over-the-top, brainlessly fun action film. What did I get instead? A brainless action movie that barely has any action and takes itself way too fucking serious. There’s no fun to be had here. They had the perfect opportunity to be a fun action submarine movie, but no. It’s just dull as hell, which brings me back to the WHY THE HELL IS THIS PLAYING IN A GODDAMN THEATER? No offense to the studio but you know nobody is going to see this and I assure you that the people who do are either going to walk out out or take a nap in the theater. Whenever they would cut to torpedoes that surround the submarine or anything ocean-related the effects are so bad they look like a cutscene straight out of a PS2 game. Not PS3 or PS4. PS2.
The ocean effects are bad, the performances are lame, and the editing is choppy. Go watch “The Hunt for Red October” instead.
We have now seen Common in four films in the span of one month and I’m happy he’s getting that bread. In this film he’s clean shaven and it looks weird. It’s similar to how Henry Cavill had a mustache for MI6. Common had to trim his for this. It’s a shame his talents were wasted on this piece of crap. Oh well, they can’t all be winners.
“Hunter Killer” is such a bland action-thriller that it belongs in the bargain bin at Family Dollar. Not even Walmart. Family Dollar.Rating: 1/5 | 23%Super Scene: Grenade Middle Finger