Hunter
Killer **
Dir: Donovan Marsh. With: Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Linda
Cardellini, Common. 122 mins. Cert: 15
When we last encountered Gerard Butler, in February’s
semi-enjoyably derivative Den of Thieves,
he was rerunning Al Pacino’s old Heat
moves. Tonight, Matthew, cinema’s loudest Scotsman will be impersonating The Hunt for Red October-era Alec Baldwin.
Swerving any lawsuit that might have followed from calling his character, say,
Jack Bryan, Butler’s maverick sub commander has been assigned the no less
no-nonsense name of Joe Glass. Joe has an intense rep. “He never went to
Annapolis!,” a Pentagon functionary gasps, upon parsing our guy’s file. “I
heard he once punched his CO,” gossips a passing seaman. Glass is first seen tracking
elk with manly bow-and-arrow; you’re surprised the filmmakers didn’t go the
whole alpha hog and have a shirtless Butler best the poor creatures in an arm
wrestle.
Yet as with much else in this muddled, disjointed
non-thriller, that intro proves misleading. Glass actually turns out to be a
thinker and boat lover – two parts Cousteau, one-part Poirot – who finds
himself plunged into choppy diplomatic waters while investigating the simultaneous
torpedoing of US and Russian subs. Could it be the Russians themselves, as
represented by noble seadog Captain Andropov (the late Michael Nyqvist)? Or
might it relate to Berocca-swilling Chief of Staff Gary Oldman, who bellows
something gruff about chess to his (female) President, then goes suspiciously
quiet for an hour? Don’t invest too much: for all the military hardware, this
long, loud game of Battleships will result in a terrible fudge.
Butler’s convoluted claptrap phase remains preferable to his louche bachelor period, yet at two hours, Hunter Killer is carrying a lot of undue timber, not least a very boring, Poundland Michael Bay B-plot involving a squadron of Marines doing the on-the-ground chestbeating the star usually does. Elsewhere, indifferent cutting only heightens the weird artificiality of the sub scenes: the off-kilter footage of Cap’n Gerry sternly relaying orders seems to bear scant relation to the model shots of metallic phalli running silent and deep through the studio fish tank. Toning down his usual act in a manner that suggests he’s finally read his reviews, Butler gives it handfuls of dramatic ballast, but this vessel has been badly compromised: any interest seeps out by the frame.
Hunter Killer is now showing in cinemas nationwide.
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