Hunter Killer

Year 13, Day 31 - 1/31/21 - Movie #3,733

BEFORE: OK, last day of January so it's time for a check-in. Because I added three extra Bergman movies that I hadn't planned on, it's been an over-full month.  Quite possibly I've never watched 33 films in a month before, but the goal was always to end HERE, with "Hunter Killer", because this connects to the planned start of the annual romance chain - more on that tomorrow.  (Today's film could also have slipped in between "RocknRolla" and "Capone", but since I needed to end the month with it, that was therefore out of the question...)

Right now it's one more action film, and as a pandemic bonus, it's set on a submarine, another enclosed space for all of us who are feeling claustrophobic these days.  I had a brother-in-law once who joined the navy and signed up for submarine training, and he couldn't do it, not everyone's wired to spend time in very tight spaces, deep under water, it takes a special kind of person.  Certainly not me, I don't go deep under water or up high if I can help it.  Deep-sea diving, skydiving, I don't even dive into pools, the only diving I do is into a buffet.  

Here's the format breakdown for January - 

8 Movies watched on cable (saved to DVD): Wildlife, Warrior, The Reckoning, RocknRolla, Locke, Official Secrets, Connie and Carla, Unlocked
11 Movies watched on cable (not saved): End of Watch, A Kiss Before Dying, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Hour of the Wolf, Scenes From a Marriage, Autumn Sonata, Fanny and Alexander, Havana, Muriel's Wedding, Hunter Killer
4 watched on Netflix: Okja, Spenser Confidential, Birthmarked, I'm Thinking of Ending Things

4 watched on Amazon Prime: Capone, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2019), The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
1 watched on Hulu: Parasite
2 watched on Disney+: Dumbo (2019), The One and Only Ivan

3 watched on HBO MAX: Through a Glass Darkly, Persona, Cries and Whispers
33 TOTAL

In February, it looks like my AmazonPrime stats are going to go up, there's a lot of connective tissue that I'll need to add to link the romance films I've already dubbed to DVD or are still taking up space on my DVR.  I should be able to make another dent in my Netflix list, too.  

Michael Nyqvist carries over from "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest", and I know it's super early, we're only one month into 2021, but here's who's leading in appearances so far, thanks to all the Swedish films - it's Bergman mainstay Gunnar Björnstrand, who appeared in six films.  Tied for second place with five appearances are Toni Collette, Tom Hardy, Erland Josephson, Liv Ullman and Max von Sydow.  And then trailing them are four more Swedes with four appearances: Bibi Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom, Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace.  It's still early and a lot can change, and there's no way I can predict who will win the year, because I haven't programmed anything past Easter yet.  

THE PLOT: An untested American submarine captain teams with U.S. Navy Seals to rescue the Russian president, who has been kidnapped by a rogue general.  

AFTER: You can practically hear what the elevator pitch for this one was - something like "The Hunt for Red October" meets "Olympus Has Fallen" (maybe with a bit of "Angel Has Fallen").  Then somebody else said, "Great, and let's see if we can get the guy from the "Has Fallen" movies, maybe he's available!"  Also, since the U.S. President is played by a female with blonde hair - clearly, they started filming this before the 2016 election and were expecting a certain outcome.  The actor playing the Russian president looks nothing like Putin, though - I wonder if they tried to cast Matthias Schoenaerts, who was in "Red Sparrow" and gave off a big Putin-like vibe there.  Maybe "Hunter Killer" tried to cast him, but he was busy filming "Red Sparrow"?

Either way, we're in a parallel 2018 universe here, where there's a woman president, and a coup attempt in Russia, where Admiral Durov takes advantage of President Zakarin's visit to the Polyarny naval base to hold him hostage and seize power.  Wouldn't you know it, the U.S. just happened to have a bunch of drone cams and satellite images available, and a submarine headed that way, AND a team of Navy Seals ready to deploy behind the Iron Curtain.  This is all because a previous U.S. submarine disappeared while tailing a Russian sub.  And this happened in the Murmansk peninsula a few days before the Russian President was scheduled to visit?  Seems mighty suspicious...

The good news is, there's plenty of action here, on all fronts, the sea, land and even air.  The SEAL team parachutes in to spy on the naval base, while the USS Arkansas approaches by sea, avoids torpedoes from a Russian sub hiding in the ice, and then somehow finds survivors in a sunken Russian sub, the Konek.  They save the captain of the sub and a few crewmen, and you can bet this is going to be very important later on.  The untested captain and crew of the Arkansas aren't even sure if they're at war with Russia or not, because the Defense Department back in Washington is still trying to make sense out of the situation.  

When they finally determine that Admiral Durov has taken control and intends to start a war, the crazy plan is enacted, for the SEAL team to capture the Russian President, and for the submarine to make its way into the Russian harbor (oh, if only they had a Russian captain on board to help them - wait a second, they do!) and pick up the Navy Seals, plus Zakarin. And it's just crazy enough to work, but also, it's quite ridiculous.  The biggest danger, of course, is that if anything happens to the Russian president while in the hands of the U.S. military, it's going to look like that was the goal of the operation, to invade Russia and capture & harm their leader. 

Thankfully I'm not a military expert, because if I were, I'd probably be more aware of technical mistakes regarding missiles, targeting systems, sonar, torpedoes and the like.  But being ignorant, I could more easily turn off the skeptical parts of my brain and just try to enjoy the ride.  Now that it's over, though, I want to know where the goofs are.  But this was based on a novel called "Firing Point", which was co-written by a former commander of a nuclear submarine, so maybe they got more things right than wrong.  The film's director and star Gerard Butler also spent several days doing research on that same sub, the USS Houston.  So, maybe it's legit?

Also starring Gerard Butler (last seen in "RocknRolla"), Gary Oldman (last seen in "The Laundromat"), Common (last seen in "Smokin' Aces"), Linda Cardellini (last seen in "Capone"), David Gyasi (last seen in "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil"), Gabriel Chavarria (last heard in "War for the Planet of the Apes"), Ryan McPartlin (last seen in "J. Edgar"), Carter MacIntyre, Zane Holtz (last seen in "Holes"), Taylor John Smith, Michael Trucco (last seen in "Next"), Michael Gor (last seen in "The Hitman's Bodyguard"), Yuri Kolokolnikov (ditto), Alexander Diachenko, Igor Jijikine, Ilia Volok (last seen in "Gemini Man"), Caroline Goodall (last seen in "The Chumscrubber"), Toby Stephens (last seen in "13 Hours"), Christopher Goh, Atanas Srebrev, Sarah Middleton, Corey Johnson (last seen in "Jackie"), Adam James (last seen in "Johnny English Strikes Again"), Shane Taylor, Kola Bokinni (last seen in "Annihilation"), Mikey Collins (last seen in "Dunkirk"), Will Attenborough (ditto), Kieron Bimpson, Michael Jibson (last seen in "1917"), David Yelland, Stuart Milligan (last seen in "Spy Game"). 

RATING: 6 out of 10 underwater mines