PREPOSTEROUS BUT GOOD TO SEE...
Hunter Killer (15A) Verdict: Enjoyably preposterous
GERARD BUTLER — who somehow seems to be getting squarer-jawed as he gets older — plays Joe Glass, a rugged maverick in command of a US submarine sent to sort out a right old hoo-hah in Russian waters.
We first meet Glass above the surface, as he prepares to shoot a handsome-looking stag with a bow and arrow. Is he the hunter killer of the title? Nope, that’s the sub.
Besides, he hesitates, struck by the majesty of his quarry, and the fact that he (the stag) appears to be a proud husband and father.
Thus, Glass is established as tough and ruthless enough to go hunting, but also compassionate and decent enough to spare an animal’s life.
That’s the kind of movie this is. A very, very unsubtle one.
It’s also a movie which presents Gary Oldman as a permanently irritable Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff back in Washington DC. In fairness, he has much to be irritable about. For one thing, World War III appears to be kicking off under the Barents Sea, where someone is firing missiles at both Russian and American subs. For another, he simply cannot get his hair under control.
No matter how long he’s spent at the Pentagon, barking at assorted admirals, he always looks as if he’s just got out of bed. The problem at the root of most of this, if not Oldman’s unruly barnet, is a megalomaniac Russian defence minister (Mikhail Gorevoy), who plans to topple his own president (Alexander Diachenko) by destabilising US-Russia relations.
Glass’s job is to rescue the Russian president and blow the dastardly defence minister to kingdom come, neither of which is all that easy from a submarine.
But, handily, he has the help of a doughty bunch of Navy Seals, led by a man even squarer-jawed than he is, played by Toby Stephens.
It’s enjoyably preposterous stuff, unashamedly alpha-male US jingoism (despite the British leads) conducted with a certain elan by director Donovan Marsh.
The script is as ludicrous as the plot — nobody says ‘let’s go’ when they can John Wayne-ishly say ‘waddya say we get the hell out of here’. But it’s done with such a defiant swagger that, despite all my better instincts, I liked it.