Review of Black Sea (2014) by Heather M — 03 Jul 2015

Not exactly sure whether this is a really good 'good' movie or just a really good movie. I know that the former doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but I honestly know what I'm talking about.

I honestly think I'm leaning towards the former, instead of the latter. No idea why, honestly. Part of the reason is that the film starts off all ass backwards, but you're only told about it maybe 80 minutes in.

Essentially, Robinson is fired from his job at Agora and given 9,000 pounds severance pay for 11 years' worth of work. One of his former co-workers tips him off to a Nazi U-boat that was shot down that was carrying 4 tons worth of gold.

Robinson meets a man who'll finance the mission. All he needs to do is find a group of 12 men, half British and half Russian, since the U-boat is sunken in their waters, and one representative from the man funding the mission to keep an eye on the crew.

Essentially, however, it is revealed that it was all a set-up and that Agora, the same company that fired Robinson in the beginning, set everything up and Robinson and his crew were working for the same people they were trying to fuck in the first place.

I guess I can understand the reasoning behind it, I mean there are no ties to Agora if these people are caught. And you also needed Robinson to have an economical incentive for wanting to do this, but it just feels like you're taking the long way around to make the same point.

You very easily could've done the same exact movie without ever firing Robinson and the story would've played out exactly the same. I guess the point they're trying to make is that the big companies will always try to fuck the blue collar worker.

Using the workers to do the hard and dirty work for them while the company gets rich of their labor. That's capitalism, I guess. And, in part, the film is a criticism of that and how the workers are just cogs that can be easily replaced if they speak up or their work slightly deteriorates.

So that part of the film is good, though they don't really rely on this a lot of or beat it into the ground past its true effectiveness. The film is more about the interpersonal relationships between the men, from vastly different backgrounds, and how the claustrophobia, and later greed, gets to them and how that affects the mission.

It sort of reminds me of a non-supernatural Below. Though, to be fair, neither Below nor this film are the only films of this type to have ever been made, clearly. But this is well-made, it's really well-acted, Jude Law is excellent here, and it's well written.

I just don't think the film really manages to kick it into the highest gear possible to reach the next level. I don't know why, it just always sticks at the same level. There's some really good suspenseful moments here, but I still don't think the film really kicks it into high gear.

It's still quite a good movie, one that, actually, has some flaws but it's still an enjoyable experience. Wouldn't go out of your way to see this one, but if it ever pops up on Netflix Instant, then I would recommend it.

There's some good stuff here.