Harrison Ford needs a slap. Harsh? Well, consider Exhibit A - he turned down The Sum Of All Fears for this drab sub thriller. Exhibit B - his tired, charmless and dodgily-accented performance, in which he looks less concerned with the fate of the world than with trying to squeeze out a close-quarters fart undetected. Clearly, drastic action is required to save our hero - next time, Harry, read the script before the cheque.
Yet even vintage Ford couldn't salvage K-19. The cramped sets suffocate Bigelow's signature visual flourishes, while it's staggering that a movie based on a true story can be so cliche-ridden (don't submariners know that a picture of a girlfriend equals a death warrant?) and, unforgivably, dull.
It's also interminable, dragging on and on. And then dragging on some more. While it's admirable to see an American blockbuster side with 'the enemy' - and there is one superb sequence involving an understandable act of cowardice - generally K-19 is dead in the water.
