Why did movie moguls think that this was the right moment for a tale of unflinching loyalty to the Soviet Union?

| Mar 5, 2013

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 30, 2003

The movie's true hero -- or heroine -- is Bigelow, who once again proves herself one of the very best action directors around.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 26, 2002

What could have been a movie packed with historical significance and nail-gnawing underwater tension ends up little more than a lumbering public-service announcement for the human spirit.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2002

Bigelow hits all her marks and more within the narrow parameters.

Full Review | Jul 23, 2002

[A] really strong work from start to finish.

Full Review | Jul 22, 2002

It's simply incapable of overcoming its leading man's leaden performance.

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 21, 2002

An above-average and affecting descent into both heretofore unknown Soviet naval history and the always popular submarine-in-peril genre.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 21, 2002

Plinking balalaikas, syrupy strings, and, in the moments of greatest peril, angelic choirs, like a Carol Burnett Show parody of a WWII-era propaganda film.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 19, 2002

More intellectually scary than dramatically involving.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2002

Gets stuck in a no man's land between the real and the fictional.

| Jul 19, 2002

Though this saga would be terrific to read about, it is dicey screen material that only a genius should touch.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 19, 2002

The movie's centrepiece is as close to tour-de-force suspense filmmaking as you'll see anywhere this summer.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 19, 2002

Within the clutter of accents and heavenly choirs -- Klaus Badelt's score is at times a bit much -- lurks a good story. And, in midsummer, that's often all we can ask for.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 19, 2002

Bigelow is known for making good, visceral movies, but here she adopts a kind of dignified watchfulness, and that feels right for the material.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 19, 2002

A salute is in order for Bigelow, a director who knows how to navigate macho terrain without losing her human compass.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2002

A thriller without a lot of thrills.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 19, 2002

If you enjoy the tense claustrophobia of submarine thrillers, K-19 fills the bill.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 19, 2002

Apart from its exhaustingly repetitive attention to the contrasting Ford and Neeson characters, the movie has virtually no interest in the secondary and tertiary characters whose heroism, jitters, sacrifice and suffering are at the heart of the story.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 19, 2002

As intelligent as it is suspenseful.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 19, 2002