Title – Hunter Killer (2018)

Director – Donovan Marsh (Spud)

Cast – Gerard Butler, Common, Henry Goodman, Cosmo Jarvis, Linda Cardellini

Plot – Submarine captain Joe Glass (Butler) and his American crew must traverse dangerous territory as they fight an unsanctioned war with Russian subs and terror groups whilst mounting a treacherous mission to rescue the Russian president from impending danger.

“What is better? Be right or be alive?”

Review by Eddie on 11/06/2019

It’s a question I’ve asked before and a question I will probably never know the answer to, but what happened to Gerard Butler?

There was a time when the angry Scotsman felt like the next big thing, an actor that despite seemingly having a limited range was never the less continually popping up in films that were noteworthy for being far better than you’d thought would be or films that were downright entertaining.

There was 300 in 2006, RocknRolla in 2008 and guilty pleasure offerings like Gamer and Law Abiding Citizen in 2009 but since then Mr. Butler has seemingly thrown it in for generic and tiresome entries, content with the fact he is no longer going to try be a part of films with any type of risk involved.

Gone are the visual delights of 300, the energy of RocknRolla, the oddities of Gamer or the thrills of Law Abiding Citizen and instead they have been replaced by the likes of Machine Gun Preacher, Chasing Mavericks, Gods of Egypt, A Family Man and Geostorm, films that you’d be hard pressed to remember even existed and act as proof that Butler seemingly no longer cares.

There’s nothing wrong with aiming for low hanging fruit but with Butler having proved in times past that he has the ability to be an entertaining central figure and choose movies that are ok to enjoy, it’s a shame his making films like he is at the moment, that includes Hunter Killer.

Arguably better than it should be but also daft, over the top and filled with sleep-walking performances and early 2000’s CGI work, this submarine action/thriller sees Butler kindly not kill a deer and his family and then move onto commanding an American vessel caught up in a dangerous game with Russia that could see World War 3 come to fruition.

Teaming up with director Donovan Marsh, Hunter Killer is like a film straight out of the 80’s, just done with less fun in mind as everything is very po-faced as the films too long run-time ticks by as Butler wanders his way through proceedings as mastermind captain Joe Glass.

There’s slight thrills to be had once every now and then as Glass and his crew get deeper and deeper into enemy territory but there’s little to no imagination on offer here and with the action beats taking place around dollar budget effects and lots of loud noises, Hunter Killer faces a constant uphill battle to find its way to the surface, made worse by the fact Gary Oldman somehow was convinced he needed to appear in this film as a high ranking official.

Final Say –

There’s no surprises here, Hunter Killer is yet another Butler outing that feels like it was made with zero love or thought and while its passable as a filler offering, its undeniably sad to see Butler once more partake in such a lifeless outing.

2 bored looking Oscar winners out of 5