Tides of War

CinemaSerf

When his XO (and lover) is killed following a mysterious naval action off the coast of North Korea, "Cdr. Habley" (Adrian Paul) is relieved of command of his hunter-killer submarine. Thing is, his bosses do think that something is amiss in these waters, so engage duplicitous and ambitious "Lt. Cdr. Barker" (Matthew St. Patrick) to entice "Habley" back, despite his golfing leave. Back in the murky waters, they discover that another allied submarine has been sunk with all hands but some manoeuvring onboard sees our captain locked in his cabin and his deputy running a somewhat disgruntled crew into what is increasingly looking like the jaws of disaster. Can "Habley" regain control of his ship and save the lives of his crew from the unknown threat lurking in the seas? It's a sort of "Crimson Tide" (1995) meets "Hunt for Red October" (1990) - I'm sure a few of the shots were borrowed from the latter film - only without any jeopardy or intrigue. The acting and writing are as bad as each other and it's all augmented by mediocre visual effects and a sort of faux-military style of trumpeted score that really adds up to a television movie for consumption at 3am when you've lost the remote. The idea isn't terrible, the execution, however... Avoid, sorry.