Black Sea - Probably a longer film than it needs to be

‘Black Sea’ is a submarine thriller, almost entire shot in the confines of the underwater vessel.  It charts the – slightly shady – mission of a team of Russian and British sailors who get made redundant from their day job and decide to go on a hunt for treasure, allegedly hidden at the bottom of the ocean, left over from World War II. However, the two nationalities don’t really hit it off and soon tensions start to rise over the best course of action and, of course, who gets the loot.  

Jude Law is the only really recognisable face among the cast; he plays the captain of the British contingent (sporting a fairly reasonable Scottish accent) and he does his best to carry the film, but then he’s given the most to do and his character goes through the most changes.  The others are all basically ‘fodder’ who will, no doubt, be severely reduced in number by the time the credits roll.

Being in the submarine most of the time, yes it is a nicely claustrophobic atmosphere and – according to the film’s trivia – was filmed in a genuine (retired) sub, so it’s all pretty authentic.  However, the film is pretty long and does tend to drag in places.  It probably could be trimmed down by at least ten minutes here and there to make the overall runtime just a little bit tighter.

I don’t know why, but the closest film I can liken ‘Black Sea’ to, is Alien.  Yes, I know there’s not acid-blooded monster stalking the crew, but the submarine-set wasn’t too dissimilar to the Nostromo.  And the characters were generally being picked off one by one, albeit by each other rather than a giant creature.  Obviously, I wouldn’t rate it as highly as Alien.  It’s one of those films that’s pretty predictable overall, but not too bad for it.  There wasn’t really that much the film-makers could do that hasn’t already been done before.  

It’s not a bad film, but nothing that you haven’t already seen before.  Plus it’s a little hard to categorise.  It’s not a war film, because it’s set in modern day.  It’s not horror (no alien!), it’s a sort of drama/thriller, but with only traces of both those two genres.  Probably best to watch on TV before you ever consider paying to watch it.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights