Drive-in_Zeppelin Review of Black Sea

Black Sea (2014)

We're sinking! We're sinking! What are you sinking about?

[6/10 · 17 February 2015]

It's an interesting little film to say the least as it seemingly throws aside any character development or emotional complexity to jump to what…the next underwater blunder? Anyhow,for this type of movie you pretty much already know the routine. It's a treasure hunting movie in a submarine that unfortunately takes itself a little too seriously. Basically Jude Law plays a crusty sea-captain named Robinson that gets fired from his salvage job for some shadowy corporation. After finding himself at the bottom of a healthy looking pint of beer, he is told a salty tale by his matey that there's Nazi gold resting peacefully at the bottom of the Black Sea. You'll forgive me if I skip all the montages and build-up of the first act but you've no doubt see the same thing dozens of times by now. Robinson has his Ocean's Eleven (sea puns FTW) moment and puts together his crack team of sea-thieves comprised of a half Russian, half English crew. They take some old rust-bucket submarine out to look for the sunken submarine and naturally shenanigans ensue. Like any other good sub movie you get the usual claustrophobic drama mixed with the already elevated levels of tension that go with being 90 meters under the sea. Throw in a little greed-induced hysteria and that fact that the crew can't understand one another except through a handful of translators and you've got yourself a good ol' fashioned treasure hunt. I was thoroughly pleased to see Jude Law attempt a transformation from a fired blue-collar worker to an 'at-all-cost', obsession- driven treasure hunter. Unfortunately writer Dennis Kelly doesn't really give him enough depth as a character to make you care one way or the other. If I'm being honest you won't really care about any of the characters, or the submarine, or the sea, or the lack of any distinguishable threat, or the scientific and historical inaccuracies. We're all watching this movie for one reason and one reason only. Because there's Nazi freaking gold in it.