Tom Hanks, whose enduring fame I’m at a loss to understand, as the captain of a WWII battleship, engages in a North Atlantic naval battle against Nazi subs in this actually pretty enjoyable bit of fluff. Basically a straight, he-man war movie lacking any nuance, but, you know, I was in the mood for it. Doesn’t go very far over the top, which keeps it watchable. Nazis, heard only over the ship’s radio, are portrayed as a suitably sneering and murderous enemy that there’s no possible moral ambiguity to rooting for their offscreen (totally underwater, actually) deaths. Just in case anyone hadn’t got the memo yet that Nazis are bad.
