In Hunter Killer, Gerard Butler, who seems to now be the go-to-guy for mid range action movies, stars as Joe Glass, a submarine captain who has to try to rescue the Russian president when he is kidnapped by a rogue general as part of a coup attempt.
Just that brief synopsis tells you that this is a hugely improbable story to be taken with a large pinch of salt. For the most part, the scenes on the submarine work pretty well, with a sequence of them navigating through Russian waters being genuinely tense. A group of Navy Seals are parachuted-in to grab the president and deliver him to the sub. Unfortunately, that part of the story is very poorly realised. All of them are bland clichés and their rescue is ludicrously easy bearing in mind how they are outnumbered.
There is also some laboured business about a coin that Glass carries and a very shaky grasp on British geography…
A mixed bag with just enough to it to make it worth a look on the big screen.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10