★ 5 / 10
With the race to develop the atom bomb
CinemaSerf
With the race to develop the atom bomb at it's most competitive, it falls on "Stan" (Koen De Bouw) and his disparate crew of Dutch resistance fighters to pilot…
With the race to develop the atom bomb at it's most competitive, it falls on "Stan" (Koen De Bouw) and his disparate crew of Dutch resistance fighters to pilot a submarine full of uranium to the Americans. Needless to say, the Nazis are none too keen on this cunning plan and so have their navy on full alert. Can "Capt. Stan" keep his crew of "individuals" under control; manage his feisty daughter (Ella-June Henrard) and her boyfriend (Joren Seldeslachts) and still manage to evade their pursuing, menacing and well equipped foe? The premiss of the story is actually quite interesting, but the execution is little short of woeful. The CGI effects are basic and do their job, but the the plot quickly becomes preposterous and the acting and dialogue are the stuff of a college project. The submarine is subjected to explosions, deep water pressure and the odd crew tantrum - and all of these scenarios vie shamelessly to be the most ridiculous. There is one scene where our hero swims out through a hole in the boat, at great depth, then sneaks in through a torpedo tube so he can rescue someone ... Hmmm!? Anyway, this is just one of those dead in the water television movies that needed about nine producers to raise what funding it needed to present us with a rather silly maritime thriller that I cannot really recommend - even to the most ardent of submarine action film fans.
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★ 8 / 10
The Dirty Dozen Meets Das Boot!!!
zardoz-13
During the American Civil War, pugnacious Union General William Tecumseh Sherman said, "There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but…
During the American Civil War, pugnacious Union General William Tecumseh Sherman said, "There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell." By the end of World War II, Sherman's blasphemous anatomy of war achieved its ultimate impact with the detonation of two atomic bombs over Japan. Belgian writer & director Sven Huybrechts' gritty World War II submarine saga "Torpedo: U-235" depicts war as Sherman saw it. This outrageous, but unforgettable undersea epic doesn't overshadow director Wolfgang Petersen's "Das Boot" (1981) also known as "The Boat," the best World War II adventure opus about Hitler's U-boats. Nevertheless, not only does "Torpedo" rank as thoroughly sensational in a compelling way, but it also registers as a spine-tingling exercise in escapism that should appeal to anybody who craves maritime combat movies. Huybrechts and co-scripter Johan Horemans have conjured up a vivid, often cynical, sometimes blood-curdling submarine extravaganza. Indeed, the filmmakers have cherry-picked from a catalog of formulaic scenes which you probably may remember if you've seen other spectacular World War II naval escapades.
Although their film is often far-fetched, Huybrechts and Horemans have done a splendid, slam-bang job of conjuring up an air of plausibility for their outlandish, high-octane shenanigans. Moreover, they have generated enough grisly, white-knuckled scenes to keep you poised on the edge of your seat. Certain sequences in "Torpedo" may be a bit brutal for the squeamish. Specifically, an early scene shows one of the heroes dunking a stubborn German officer repeatedly into a tub brimming with water to wrest secret information from him. Finally, when the hero realizes he is wasting his time, a cohort drops a hand grenade into the tub, and the explosion obliterates the officer's head. Worse scenes than this that lack gory prosthetics ensue and attest to the wrath of our heroes. Everything that can go awry aboard the titular submarine as our heroes and heroine struggle desperately to accomplish their suicidal mission seems destined by fate.
These intrepid Belgian resistance fighters amount to a rag-tag team of patriots. Gifted with a sense of ingenuity, they will leave you gasping with surprise at their initial subterfuge. These stealthy combatants mow down an unsuspecting company of Nazis who're gloating over several dead Belgians that they have dangled from the gallows. I've seen every major World War II movie, and I've never seen a more cleverly orchestrated ambush with poetic justice. Huybrechts and Horemans do an exemplary job of differentiating each of these fighters. Tragically, the father who supervises these resilient warriors suffered a fate that nobody should ever experience. Wrists chained behind his back to a brick wall, Stan (Koen De Bouw of "The Dark House") must watch in horror as an odious Gestapo officer conducts an interrogation without mercy involving the fate of the hero's infant grandson. If you can survive this scene without hurling everything but the kitchen sink at your television, you'll probably savor this raw-edged, gritty war picture. Stan and his tough guy cohorts, including his sharpshooting adult daughter Nadine (Ella-June Henrard of "Portable Life"), have three weeks to learn how to maneuver a seized U-boat. Afterward, they plunge into the stormy Atlantic Ocean, carrying a consignment of uranium, bound from the Belgian Congo to New York City for the classified Manhattan Project. Happily, neither Huybrechts nor Horemans give either these reckless Belgium heroes or their ruthless Nazi adversaries an easy way out of this nerve-racking account of sea valor.
The claustrophobic setting of a U-boat is convincingly rendered on a low budget. Huybrechts knows how to confine himself within that budget without undermining authenticity. During the first hour, a captured U-boat commander, Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Franz Jäger (Thure Riefenstein of "Dark Blue World"), teaches them the basics of submarines. Mind you, "Torpedo" isn't as frightening as some of the scenes in "Das Boot," but some of its combat is still mighty devastating. If you dread small spaces, you'll be hunching your shoulders and crouching in fear that you may bang your head or scrape your arms as you watch these fellows scuttle about in this sweaty little coffin of a U-boat. The pressure cooker suspense and subsequent release of tension during some death-defying scenes is awesome. A Nazi spotter plane tries to sink them when they embark on their mission. Unwisely, the Luftwaffe pilot delays his attack until the last moment as the U-boat is submerging, when the boat is most vulnerable to his weapons. Wow, does he ever get the surprise of his short life!
The scene when a torpedo snaps its overhead chain and smashes into an unsuspecting sailor, pinning his legs helplessly beneath its bulk, is harrowing! Moreover, a German submarine lurking in their wake is preparing to fire a torpedo at them, and they have mere moments to retaliate with their own fish. Later, Stan must swim an incredible distance at an unfathomable depth to save his daughter. Nadine is trapped in a flooded compartment of the submarine after a German destroyer has rammed them. This scene reminded me of James Cameron's sci-fi fantasy "The Abyss" (1989) where a husband desperately struggles to revive his drowned wife. Despite all this mayhem, Huybrechts doesn't strive to sicken you so much as spellbind you. Your own imagination must complete what he leads up to without indulging in gruesomely graphic CGI to recreate. Most of the drama in "Torpedo" occurs without warning and seems doubly terrifying when it strikes as well as who it strikes.
The biggest obstacle for anyone who watches this atmospheric World War II movie is its unknown cast. Nevertheless, the performances are all vivid, and the action is visually credible even when it defies reality. Remember, you don't watch a movie simply to complain about how implausible it seems, but whether it entertained you sufficiently that you overlooked its mind-boggling antics. "Torpedo: U-235" qualifies as a must-see for armchair admirals.
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5.9/10
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If it is in Dutch you guys complain. Now it is a dubbed English version and you complain. This is for free. Enjoy or get lo$t