mscampos It's better than the awful U 571 ( complete crap). This one at least have some interesting GCI scenes to see but the actions aboard the subs are not realistic at all. The actor who portrays the American captain ( Scott Caan) is a major problem, to. He is absolutely terrible and not suitable as a submarine captain at all ( he is a jerk and acts and looks like one all the time).

ellanegri This movie is neither as amazing or terrible as everyone seems to make it out to be. Let's talk what stinks about this movie. The editing, for one, and huge chunks of the script for another. Macy's strange wife-vision scenes are not only badly placed, they're useless. Cutting them out of the movie and establishing a better relationship between the two at the beginning might have been a wiser choice, if they were necessary at all. As far as realistic goes, this is no Das Boot. If it went for historically accurate U-Boat operations, it's not awful but it is far from perfect. The German crew does speak German, which is refreshing. Some of the line delivery from more minor actors was off. The music is a little cheesy, and I had a personal gripe with the large Nazi flag hanging behind the second German boat in the climax, as if to say "these Germans are the BAD Germans. It's okay if they die." It was a little heavy handed for a movie that's about......cooperation between enemies. Let's talk what's good about this movie, and that's the message. As much as I love films like Saving Private Ryan, little irks me more in war movies than the the Americans portrayed as the gung-ho patriotic heroes and all Germans as evil redshirts who can't hit anything with their guns and just wait around to be slaughtered. Though they do their civic duty and begin as the "bad guys", In Enemy Hands, much like films such as War Horse and Stalingrad (1993), portrays them as human. The German crew in this film are made up of both loyal sympathizers to the German cause who will go so far as mutiny to kill the Americans that they hate, and men like the Captain who are just tired of the war and want to get everyone home safe at the end of the day. Perhaps the most realistic is Ludwig, who dislikes and distrusts the Americans but follows his Captain's orders to the letter, is reluctant to fire on his countrymen but in the end saves lives. It is a realistic portrayal of men, not a bunch of swastika-painted monsters who want to make their sausage with Allied children. And through the trials, treason and mistrust, both crews learn that the others are men, as well, and THAT is what is great about this film. It might be fictional, but it is a story that I wish had happened during WW II and indeed, I am sure, at least began to happen in many parts of the world. It's important for people to see films like this at least once so that they don't linger under the impression that every German in the war was a Hitler clone. As far as acting goes, don't believe what everyone else complains about. Scott Caan was the weakest of the leads but he wasn't distractedly bad, and he wasn't in it for too long. Til Schweiger didn't have to do much to look imposing and Captain-y, and he's easy on the eyes for the lady viewers. Macy was very good in a unconventional role, a normal looking fellow among a rather good looking lot of sailors. Thomas Kretschmann will always be the standout of whatever film he is in, managing to convey a plethora of emotions without Hollywooding it up for the camera. It's worth a watch for his performance alone, and it was good to see him finally survive.

karisco1 Mild spoilers. I did not serve in WW2, nor the navy, heck, I didn't serve in the military. But I do know of it and its history. And when someone goes to see a movie like this they'd expect some semblance of accuracy. SOME semblance! Could they not find more footage of older ships or even CGI? Would a captain command switch to battery from diesel, even though they hadn't been on surface (no snorkel)? Would they house prisoners in their torpedo room, unshackled and unguarded? Would a destroyer shell a fully submerged Uboat (and destroy with one salvo)? Paraphrasing: "Get to battlestations!" OK, you had already made contact and fired torpedoes, so NOW you let certain unaware crew members know you're fighting?!? What about... I could go on. I don't expect historical films to be 100% accurate but at least try to make it believable! The people watching this movie know it's about war, a real war, one that has occurred fairly recently and is well documented. I suppose the repeated gaffs on appearance and tactics of combat could be overlooked if you just want action, which wasn't poor but certainly not exceptional. But that's all you get. Acting=horrific (from some decent, respected actors) although I'm guessing it is actually a directing issue. The script? Worse. Holly's and Macy's chemistry,... sigh. I have a feeling the reason I thought the German navy personnel dialogue was the best is because it was subtitled so I didn't get as much of the awful timing and flat out unrealistic conversation (regardless of era) tone between the English speaking characters.I'm not a 'hater' that just wants to bash movies, but know: This is my first review because I could not stand to see the glowing reviews of this pile. My first. I'm middle aged and have used IMDb for quite a while and decided I could not let others be fooled. My first review. I stopped the movie a third of the way through, decided to see how bad it could get, restarted (it got worse) and finished. Don't let my pain be yours.tl/dr: No.

fnj2002 It's clear that some people put a lot of work and sincerity into making this production. But that is not enough. This work was ambitious, but fails quite comprehensively. Apparently there was no technical adviser, or he was not knowledgeable, or he was not listened to.U-boat captains did not wear immaculate uniforms while on war patrol. All you have to do is watch Das Boot to know this, but it is well covered in the literature as well if you do your research.WW-II torpedoes did not have proximity fuses. Come on! This blatant error is shown repeatedly during the film.The continuity is very poor.The dialog is laughable in places. In particular, official discourse during a WW-II war patrol just is not worded like that. Watch Das Boot or Run Silent, Run Deep to hear both official discourse and conversation in WW-II submarines. A U-boat skipper saying "I can't make this decision" in the heat of battle, or a U.S. chief of the boat saying "Hold your goddamn fire" is just silly.It's silly to have US subs facing German U-boats. It was not a factor in the war; I believe there was only a single instance of it. There is rich opportunity available for a treatment of what really was a factor in the war: US subs facing Japanese vessels.Summary: inconsistency is what you get here. The premise is not without interest, but the way it was handled would have better served an episode of The Twilight Zone. Maybe that's enough. That's why I gave it 5 stars instead of 1 or 2. I couldn't give it more, however, because the execution was simply too poor.