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Director: Tony Scott

Starring: Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, Matt Craven, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortenson, James Gandolfini, Rocky Carroll, Jaime Gomez, Michael Milhoan, Lillo Brancato, Rick Schroder

Action master Tony Scott scored another hit with this powerful submarine drama that features excellent dialog, a strong tension-filled story and a great cast that, much like True Romance, is full of familiar faces, including Law & Order’s George Dzundza and a pre-Strider Viggo Mortensen. The story was helped along by an unaccredited re-write by Scott’s True Romance writer, Quentin Tarrantino, who added Hackman’s Jack Russell Terrier and cigars, as well as the dialog on the Lippizaner stallions and, of course, the Silver Surfer comic book chat. The end result is well-drawn main characters whose personalities drive the story.

Rebllious ‘unltra-nationalists’ have seized control of parts of Russia and are threatening to launch nuclear missiles at the United States. In response, Capt. Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) is ordered to take out his nuclear submarine, the USS Alabama, and get in position to launch a pre-emptive strike if needed. A medical emergency leads to his second-in-command being replaced by Lt. Commander Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington) and it soon becomes clear that these two men are not going to get along. The tension gets wound tighter as the USS Alabama deals with both an enemy submarine and an order to launch their missiles at Russia.

The characters, actors, story and direction all combine to make this one of the best submarine movies of all time, in the style of the earlier Hunt For Red October, and a great action addition to any movie library. If this is a genre that you enjoy, this is a can’t miss.

Black Book (Zwartboek) (2006) ****1/2

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Starring: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kolbus, Derek de Lint,

Dutch director, Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Hollow Man) shot this gripping, WWII spy drama in his native language and it was first released as Zwartboek in The Netherlands. The screenplay, written by Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman, is inspired by the true stories of Dutch resistance fighters, and the resulting project was the most expensive Dutch movie ever made. The expense is justified, and the subtitles are worth putting up with because this is a compelling feature with strong characters, impressive acting and an ever-growing story that picks up from a slow (or was just my usual resistance to a foreign-language film?), confusing start to quickly pull us in.

Carice van Houten is Rachel, a beautiful, fleeing Dutch Jew, whose family is betrayed and murdered. Numb with pain, she soon finds herself involved with the underground resistance and is asked to establish a romance with a German SS officer, Ludwig Muntz (Sebastian Koch). She is successful and soon finds herself running into Gunther Franken (Kobus), the leader of the unit that murdered her family, as well. The story is well-paced and has plenty of twists along the way to an excellent ending.

History buffs will love this movie, and film fans will agree. There may not be enough action to hold all the ADD viewers, but the excellent story and quality performances and directing make this a little-known renter’s gem.

300 (2007) ****

Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Heady, Dominic West, David Wenham & Vincent Regan.

Director: Zack Snyder

Prepare for Gory! I mean glory! But, anyway, either one fits. This is a full out action epic in the tradition of Braveheart and Gladiator and will be loved by those who enjoyed those efforts.

300 tells the story of the war-obsessed Greek city state of Sparta and its King Leonidus who takes 300 warriors to prevent a massive force of really ugly Persian invaders from entering their lands. The real start of this film was the innovative vision of Zack Snyder who wrote the screenplay from a graphic novel by Frank Miller (the Sin City guy), and directed the cast of unknowns. The characters are one-dimensional and their enemies are caricatures, but Snyder rivets us to the screen with a look reminiscent of Lord of The Rings, but with lots of slow motion, striking images, contrasted colors and dramatic use of sound. The story is simple and one you have seen many times before, but it works here.

The action junkies will flock to 300 and be glad that they did. FOR SCOTLAND!!! I mean FOR SPARTA!!!