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K-19 The Widow Maker
(July 2002)

Based on the true events of the 1961 maiden voyage of K-19, the Soviets first nuclear submarine. The sub heads out into sea in a less than ship shape condition. Unproven crew, seemingly insane captain, leaking hull and a nuclear reactor that's threatening to turn everybody into a chalk outline. If you think all of that sounds horrible, just wait until you hear Harrison Ford's "Russian" accent.

Harrison plays Capt. Vostrikov who has recently replaced Capt. Polenin played by Liam Neeson as K-19's Captain. Apparently, Polenin wasn't a good enough communist so he is demoted to second in command. With tensions mounting between the two captains K-19 manages to fulfill part of its mission by firing a nuclear missile thus, in a bit of cold war posturing, showing off the Soviet Union's new nuclear submarine power to the spy planes of the Kennedy administration. Shortly after the missile launch the submarine's nuclear reactor's cooling system springs a leak. To prevent a possible war, six lucky crew men are sent into the reactor room with no protection of any kind to fix the coolant leak, before the sub explodes and destroys the US Destroyer that has been shadowing the submarine. Then the aliens came and started doing vodka shots with the crew of K-19.

Okay, maybe I made that last bit up. Maybe if you're thinking about seeing this movie, you should do a couple shots of vodka first. The movie was dull and uninspired. If you want to learn the real story of K-19 save your $6.00 and watch a special on the learning channel.

Rating: PG-13 for disturbing images.