K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER
Russian heroes Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson struggle to keep their
sub from setting off a nuclear explosion.
(In stores now)
CAST: Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Peter Sarsgaard, Christian Camargo,
Sam Spruell, Peter Stebbings, Roman Podhora, Sam Redford, Steve Nicolson,
Ravil Issyanov, Tim Woodward, Lex Shrapnel, Shaun Benson, Kristen
Holden-Reid, Dmitry Chepovetsky
DIRECTOR: Kathryn Bigelow
"Ford hunches his shoulders, reins in his cocky agility, and speaks
with an accent so slight it's like the speech equivalent of a fake
mustache...Liam Neeson plays an equally grim Soviet navy captain...these
two strapping stars are surrounded by a crew of largely unknown actors
in big fur hats playing many other stern-faced members of the Soviet
navy...why, exactly, are we being invited to suffer through this horror?
It's like watching a thriller about the cleanup of Chernobyl...a post-Cold
War salute to the Russians in all of their comradely duty and loyalty
to the motherland. Will this ironic tribute to the authoritarian spirit
of our former enemies play in terror-minded America?" -- Owen Gleiberman,
Entertainment Weekly
"In spite of the mostly American cast's game attempts at Russian accents
and their quaint habit of calling each other 'comrade' instead of
'mister,' 'K-19' fits solidly in a tradition that dates back to the
1940's when, for example, Cary Grant improbably captained an American
sub on a perilous mission in 'Destination Tokyo'...The denouement
takes too long in explaining what we have already witnessed. But then
again, if it didn't, the film might fall short of the two-hour quota,
and rules are rules. This may be the Soviet Navy, but it's still Hollywood,
comrade." -- A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson grapple with a leaky nuclear reactor
core and even leakier Russian accents in 'K-19: The Widowmaker,' a
movie with just enough pizzazz and novelty to keep it afloat...because
Ford is an executive producer, his bad guy isn't all that bad, ultimately,
and he sees to it that he gets the most traffic-stopping speeches,
even if his accent is all over the map and the script has him uttering
such clunkers as 'Men, you have done your duty for the Motherland!'"
--Jami Bernard, The New York Daily News
"It's a pretty good sub movie, with some pretty good performances,
that, alas, somewhat disintegrates in the last half-hour when the
screenplay by Christopher Kyle goes all nutsy-Hollywood and tries
to bring in our old friend, The End of the World. The other problem
is that it's a movie that's been made at least 10,000 times before,
usually not as well but sometimes much better." -- Stephen Hunter,
The Washington Post
"'K-19's' determination to push hard for self-congratulatory morals
and convenient resolutions undercut the film's strengths...unwilling
to let the audience draw the appropriate conclusions about these men's
heroism, 'K-19' throws in signpost dialogue, artificial plot complications
and melodramatic character changes that cheapen rather than enhance
the drama...It celebrates heroism with such a zeal for conventional
emotional closure it might as well have been made under the old Soviet
system that created K-19's problems in the first place." -- Kenneth
Turan, The Los Angeles Times
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