Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman star in the new naval thriller, Hunter Killer. But can these super stars deliver on the action? Read on…
The summer blockbuster season is here again and Gerard Butler is back on our screens with… hold on isn’t it autumn already? Don’t we normally have the season’s awards hopefuls around this time? Well, Academy Award-quality this is not though, it does star some very capable actors, such as the very talented Gary Oldman fresh from his own well-deserved and long-time-coming Oscar for best male actor with his turn as old favourite British PM Churchill in Darkest Hour. So stick around and see what Mr. Butler & co have cooked up, you may just enjoy this slice of American naval warfare.
The preparation for Hunter Killer was actually quite impressive when we consider that that the crew spent three days submerged inside the real Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Houston before being decommissioned. This gave the crew the opportunity to drill alongside the true submariners, thus adding an otherwise unobtainable level of realism to the scenes filmed during the shoot on set. The premise is a novel one, with the Americans in planning to rescue not one but two Russians; one stranded submarine captain and secondly none other than the Russian Prime Minister himself. I wonder if Vladimir is planning on seeing this one…
The shoot was to become a memorable one for all involved as unfortunately a cast member lost his long standing battle with lung cancer after finishing the project.
Michael Nyqvist had starred recently in projects such as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and the original Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s incredibly successful Millenium trilogy which went on to to spawn a American adaptation of the first book in the series The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It goes to show that Nyqvist really knew how to pick his jobs well, and he will be sadly missed but the new film surely benefits from his presence.
The film plays quick and sharp with a number of different character’s perspective points all coming together for the final third of the picture. As we have come to expect from Gerard Butler, the action is actually very good and the naval warfare setting is certainly a whole lot less easy to pull off than land-based action and the realism of the CGI is also very good. All in all, Hunter Killer is a very enjoyable action spectacular, if sometimes a little heavy in political pretence.
Author: Dave, Plymouth store
