Hunter Killer

Gerard Butler’s finest gift is appearing in daft tosh such as this and yet acting as if he’s in some classic serious arthouse flick. Its as if winking to the audience like Arnie always did is beneath him- no small feat considering the lines of dialogue he delivers and the preposterous plots of the films he so frequently stars in (and produces, no less).

And we have a winner here- 31 producer credits listed to this film! I thought the 23 I noticed last week while watching Final Score would take some beating but I was obviously mistaken. There’s a few films I could name with less actors than the number of producers for this one (there’s just something that feels wrong when the number of producers outnumbers the cast).

The sets are magnificent though- it’s clear the production design was a huge undertaking and the submarine sets really are quite convincing (although I’m not sure about all those flat panel screens, it wouldn’t surprise me if that turned out accurate). It would appear that the production tried to cement the film in some sort of physical reality before launching into its crazy Tom Clancy-on-steroids plot.

Anyway, not much else I can mention regards this nonsense, except that perhaps someone should reign in Gary Oldman before he does himself an injury chewing up the scenery with his ludicrous over-acting. He’s much better than this kind of film, and he knows it, but he should keep it to himself instead of hamming it up onscreen. Just take the paycheque Gary and don’t draw attention to yourself.

Sadly, I should think this was likely one of the very last films that Michael Nyqvist made before his death in 2017. It was quite a jolt seeing him appear onscreen, and it’s quite a good, albeit subdued performance. Pity he and Gary couldn’t have had a scene together- that would have been nuts.