Torpedo (2019) User Reviews

not bad, could be better without the todler humor

[trashgang · 6/10 · 1 June 2020]

In Belgium this was seen as never done before. A movie in a submarine. All big names of Belgium thespians are in it as dis some faces you thought, hell, that's been a while.

Starts off with a bit of humor over it, the bathtub scene and the german losing his head. Though guys who are asked for a dirty job. That reminded me immediately to those old westerns. By bringing in the humor, you don't take it all to serious and it's best you don't because the last 30 minutes things are done that just couldn't be done. Swimming for example without any protection over 100 meters down below.

But I must say, even as it has it flows, towards the end it picks up the best of it and delivers an above mediocre flick. Of course, love, racism. nationality, it's all there, full of clichés but it do works.

If the humor had been discarded it would be much better. A mixture of all those flicks with subs in it.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Just a fun movie, give it a try.

[christian-adriaensen · 7/10 · 8 November 2019]

I'm sure people will enjoy this movie. It's like having that kinda cocktail, bittersweet with a taste of lemon. All ingredients are there: humor, sadness, action, drama and a slice of horror.

Is it Oscar worthy? No, but it was never made to be a big pricewinner. It was made for those who appreciate and enjoy a movie without expecting deep Shakespearian dialogues. For people that just want to leave the cinema, having a had a good time.

Koen De Bouw remains one of Belgians finest.

Overall, taking into account the limited budget I'd give it a 7/10.

Wish it wasn't dubbed.

[jayg_58 · 7/10 · 22 May 2020]

Outside of the mediocre dubbing, this is a typical submarine flick... which is not a bad thing. Pretty much keeps you on the edge of your seat most of the way. No surprises, but well done. It gave a real feel for the confinement inside an old submarine. Considering that the action was right on, there was, perhaps, a bit more character development than actually needed. Did we need to know that one of the crew did not like blacks? Didn't really impact the plot in any way. The improbability factor got a bit high in places, and the (first) ending was a bit "we ran out of money" ish, but overall very well done.

Very surprised

[zrx-wannabe · 7/10 · 22 May 2020]

Interesting movie right from the start. Very real looking submarine action, good plot twists, interesting characters. Much better than I thought it would be. For sure worth a watch!

Nice Belgian movie

[rolphbronkhorst · 7/10 · 26 April 2020]

I got interested after seeing a trailer. So I bought the movie. It's entertaining to watch the movie. Action all through the movie with some bits of humour and drama. The submarine details are great. Some events are however not technical realistic in real life (I will not spoil them). But in the end a nice entertaining movie from the creators and cast and definitely will watch it again.

Good fun til the last 10 minutes that ruin the movie

[tobiasrichter · 3/10 · 27 February 2021]

It was a fun movie, not extremely believable, but it was enjoyable. The story doesn´t make much sense, but I didn´t expect that. It was fun to watch. Up til the last 10 minutes - which are so ridiculous. Diving wthout metal suit in 150meters deep is instant kill. Thats just simple physics. And then, suddenly, they are supposed to be near the US coast, when they were in the middle of the atlantic ocean moments before and havent moved an inch. WTF? Awesome way to ruin a movie that was fun up til then.

another sub gem

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 18 May 2020]

Greetings again from the darkness. "Desperate times, desperate measures" is a phrase that dates back to ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (he of the Hippocratic Oath), and has been applied in many and varied situations since ... war strategy being one of the most common. We hear the phrase a couple of times in the War Room during an early scene in the feature film directorial debut of writer-director Sven Huybrechts submarine movie. The term "submarine movie" is used with the utmost respect, as I'm a huge fan of the sub-genre.

Opening with a well-orchestrated attack on Nazi soldiers, we are soon in the midst of a group of resistance fighters - a rag tag bunch committed to wiping out as many Nazis as possible. In the War Room scene, this group is referred to as "The Bad Eggs", and everyone from all sides seems to want them stopped. However, there is a problem - this group is made up of the only ones crazy enough to accept the current 'suicide' mission: delivering a Uranium filled submarine from the Belgian Congo to the United States, where the cargo will be used for the Manhattan Project.

The cast is excellent, led by the ongoing conflict between two outstanding and renowned leads: Belgian actor Koen De Bouw as Nazi-hater Stan, and German actor Thure Riefenstein as captured U-Boat Captain Franz Jager. Co-writers Huybrechts and Johan Horemans effectively use the dangers and claustrophobia of the submarine, and are truly expert in their pitting Stan against Jager. Stan's beautiful (and sharpshooter) daughter Nadine (Ella-June Henrard) is also on the mission, but it's Stan's tragic backstory (which we see in tension-filled flashbacks) that have filled him with a lust for revenge and over-protectiveness.

Training for submarine crews typically lasts a year, and this group of misfits has only three weeks to prepare. Some of the early soundtrack reminds of the iconic Elmer Bernstein theme to THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, which comes across a bit misplaced, but that's a minor quibble for a film that gets most everything else right - except for a too-good-to-be-true sequence near the end. Along the way, we see vivid images of the brutality and cruelty of Nazis, which helps us understand why all of these folks are so committed to the mission.

Working with a low budget, the film still manages to deliver the danger and tense situations we expect from a submarine during WWII. There is even a sub vs sub battle for some underwater action. The lineup of other worthy submarine movies over the years include: Jules Verne's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954), THE ENEMY BELOW (1957) with Robert Mitchum, RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP (1958) with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, ICE STATION ZEBRA (1968) based on the Alistair MacLean novel, the nerve-rattling DAS BOOT (1981) from Werner Herzog, THE ABYSS (1989) from James Cameron, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990) from Tom Clancy's novel starring Sean Connery, CRIMSON TIDE (1995) pitting Denzel Washington against Gene Hackman, U-571 (2000) with the great Thomas Kretschmann, and BLACK SEA (2014) with Jude Law. And let's not forget the 1968 classic featuring The Beatles animated, YELLOW SUBMARIINE.

This latest begins in 1941 and the final scene takes place on August 6, 1945. Huybrechts's film could be described as a cross between INGLORIOUS BASTERDS and DAS BOOT, and it includes plenty of material for conversation on race, religion, nationality, and duty.

Too many factual errors and glaring plot holes

[jay-805-667829 · 4/10 · 24 May 2020]

I enjoy historical war dramas - which from the outset this 'appears' to be. I have no problems with things taking liberties historically to move a story along, but this movie takes on all sorts of Hollywood tropes that even Hollywood has shied away from over the years... at points I felt like I was watching a comedy try to be a serious movie.

For one, the sole basis for the plot of Belgian resistance fighters delivering uranium to the US isn't a feasible plot. The US mined their own uranium and also had an ally in Canada to provide it as well. There was no need for Belgium to supply this for any reason.

Why they have to venture to Africa to pick up a stolen U-boat to make the delivery isn't made clear. This would be feasible if they had to visit a uranium producing country first, but they don't. Instead they go through a crash course for a few days of how to operate a U-boat at the hands of a former U-boat captain.

When they finally get into the submarine, mysteriously one of the characters knows how to detect for torpedoes, enemy ships and enemy submarines. It takes years of training for submariners to even become qualified to sail, let alone operate their individual stations.

When a torpedo slips out of its winch and falls on a crew's legs, thereby crushing his legs below the knees, he mysteriously stays conscious the entire time. Furthermore, he doesn't almost immediately bleed to death - which seems infeasible when you consider your femoral artery runs down your legs and would have you bleed to death within minutes if severed.

They only tournaquet his legs when they go to amputate them. Of course, this is also laughable because the whole time a fellow crewman is plying the amputee to be with alcohol - which thins the blood and could also have him bleed to death. They don't even use the whisky to disinfect the wound! This whole series of scenes is laughable.

When the Germans come aboard to visit, they don't salute. Instead of being treated and helped aboard the sub on deck, they somehow managed to board the vessel in the midst of heavy swells... Not to mention they just let themselves in and climb on down.

Despite none of the crew being in regulation German Navy uniforms - which would be the order given when visitors boarded their sub, no questions are asked of the faux submariners. When it all goes south and the faux submariners are detected, people are shooting at each other in a submarine with an abandon - also an unlikely event for the time because the bullets could pierce the hull!

Once the German officers are killed, a Belgian resistance fighter uses a sniper rifle to shoot through a German enemy ship's main gun bore and it all somehow just magically goes ka-boom! The sniper does this in the midst of severe ocean swells, during a heavy rain storm and visible droplets of water on her scope. It's just far too convenient and lazy writing.

When this happens, the German ship rams the u-boat and runs over them as they dive, instead of using one of her functional guns or depth charges to destroy the sub. It's explicitly stated in the dialogue that this was a German destroyer class ship, so it would have had jmore than just the one gun and definitely been equipped for anti-submarine warfare in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. But hey, that doesn't make for good cinema, now does it?!

That all said, the German destroyer manages to sink the U-boat. This is perhaps the most realistic and well shot portion of the movie, until of course one of the submariners decides to get into a torpedo tube and be shot out into 150+ metres of the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to save his daughter drowning from another compartment in the sub. Not only does he manage to do this without any air supply, he doesn't end up being crushed to death fronme the pressure end up with hypothermia, manage to drown, or even end up with the bends when he comes back (with his daughter of course) to a pressurized compartment.

There's just far too many liberties taken in this move to make it believable. It tries to present itself as a historical drama, but it goes through far too many movie conveniences to make it enjoyable. If you don't mind completely turning your eyes away from glaring plot holes, historical and physically impossible feats, then by all means dig in. Das Boot this is not. A definite opportunity missed.

Youoldduffer is spot on.

[dnob-58707 · 6/10 · 26 May 2020]

Good watch. Robbed The Abyss of a scene but absolutely had me leaning forward & upright (edge of seat stuff) on multiple occasions. Can a guy exit a torpedo tube and swim for 3 or 4 minutes at 150m, I don't care frankly! Many excellent performances from relative unknowns (to the West). Like Hunt for Red October, Das Boot? This won't disappoint!

Submarine Version of Inglourious Basterds Meets Wolfenstein?

[WarMovieCollector · 5/10 · 2 June 2022]

The story is about a small band of Belgian rogue resistance sent to commandeer a captured German U-boat to deliver uranium to America to build a nuclear bomb and end the war. The special effects were great. The story, however felt like it wanted to walk the path taken in Inglourious Basterds the movie and Wolfenstein the video game. A weird WW2 submarine-themed film that does not take itself too seriously.

Wow, I actually really enjoyed it

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 8/10 · 23 May 2020]

Reading some of the bad reviews, I wasn't expecting much, but I surprisingly really enjoyed it. My dubbed version wasn't that great, with some voice-overs being ridiculously over the top, and I wasn't a fan of the loud Star Wars type score, but for a Belgium-made film, it was pretty epic.

For starters, this was writer and director Sven Huybrechts' (and writer Johan Horemans') first full length feature film, with only one prior short and one TV show on their resumes, and they did not disappoint, especially since they are new and unheard of filmmakers.

It's refreshing to see a non-Hollywood blockbuster film of this caliber. I'm shocked at the low rating and some of the wannabe critics negative reviews, like "another submarine movie" - then don't watch it! Do you also say "another cop movie" lol? Then the other reviewer "Too many errors...." because of a bazooka lol. This isn't a documentary smh, it's entertainment that 'touches' on a historical event. Another reviewer nailed it... "The Belgian Inglorious Bastards". There was comedy, suspense, action, romance and drama... what more could you ask for? The best part was it wasn't Hollywood-ed with all the main characters living through the impossible - there were losses.

The runtime was just right, perfect pacing and excellent cinematography and editing. I highly recommend this film, especially if you're a fan of submarine-type films. It's a well deserved and honest 8/10 from me. To see more of my 1000+ ratings and 900+ reviews, click on my username.

Lots of Action!!

[Blumanowar · 7/10 · 13 July 2020]

But the klutz crew made you want to scream because of their total incompetence. However, that's part of the story... they only had a couple weeks training to learn how to operate a German U boat, so it's what you'd expect. Still the foolishness of the one guy (in love with the gal) made you want to get rid of him lol. All action, tense and fun to watch!

I thought this was meant a comedy...

[dr-kaban · 1/10 · 20 September 2020]

I really thought this is supposed to be a comedy, but for some reason not funny at all. Belgians apparently still did not learn what submarine is and skipped all school physics classes. C'mon, this is not StarWars, there should be a tinny bit of reality in it! It has no historical reference, badly played, lousy storyline, not convincing characters, full of cliches. Probably the worst attempt of war movie of the last decade.

Inglourious Belgians

[Coventry · 7/10 · 8 June 2021]

Happy, and even somewhat proud, to be able to say that cinema in my home country underwent an incredibly evolution in the past two decades; - and cult/horror in a mere span of 10 years. In the 80s and 90s, it was impossible to gather proper funding or any other type of support for eccentric cinema in Belgium, so there only existed underground trash-classics, like "Rabid Grannies" or "Lucker the Necrophagous". It's only since 2014 that we have our first official slasher film (with "Welp"), since 2018 that we have our first zombie splatter film (with "Yummy"), and now we finally also have our very own historically inaccurate exploitation epos with "Torpedo".

"Torpedo" comes forth out of love and admiration for over-the-top "men on an impossible mission" movies, like "The Dirty Dozen", the Italian "Quel maledetto treno blindato" or - more recently - Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Bastards". Haters, and sourpusses altogether, discredit the genre because the films are 100% historically incorrect. But who cares, seriously, when they are so entertaining, exhilarating and imaginative.

During WWII, a group of Belgian resistance fighters are known as the Bad Eggs. They excel in pulling off suicide missions, but not so efficient when it comes to taking prisoners. The Nazis they capture usually lose their heads before able to release useful information to the allied troops. In '43 they are recruited for a bizarre mission to transport a shipment of uranium from Congo to the US in a confiscated German submarine. None of them ever set foot in a U-boat, they are forced to collaborate with a former Nazi as their captain, and the cross-Atlantic journey is full of enemy ships and death traps.

Evidently, "Torpedo" isn't without defaults, but it's primarily a praiseworthy accomplishment. Praiseworthy because debuting writer/director Sven Huybrechts delivers a visually striking film with a relatively small budget. He gathers a phenomenal (for Belgian standards) cast, collected impressive sets and scenery, and realized top-notch special effects. The script still contains slightly too much drama, like the flashbacks lead character Stan suffers from, but the flamboyant and deliberately insane highlights are stupendous. Stan shoots a plane out of the sky while the submarine is already diving is fantastic, the Nazis boarding the submarine assuming the crew are fellow Germans is quite suspenseful and the chemistry between the Belgian "bastards", with their juicy Antwerp accents, is often downright funny.

Pity

[TommyDD · 6/10 · 19 September 2020]

The first 15 minutes are great fun. Made me think of Inglourious Basterds. But when the resistance crew boards the u-boat the sarcastic humour disappears and the story becomes quite boring. Pity really, because the action scenes, actors, set pieces and soundtrack are all pretty good. This movie could and should have been a lot better but is let down by a script that runs out of steam far too fast

Not sure if this was meant a parodie

[Nico2000-nl · 5/10 · 23 May 2020]

Not sure if this was meant a parodie, or if it's just a... low budget, bad acted, historically inaccurate, lousy dubbed, flimsy special effect., loaded with the usual idiosyncrasies and characters of the genre... attempt to a war movie. Still if you're bored and you have nothing better to do and you don't have to pay 15 bucks for a ticket and stream it at home on a lazy Sunday morning from your couch, it's entertaining enough to waste 100 minutes of your life... No idea why it gets this high rating on IMDB, (famous for the ratings) but why the hell not... I can't give it more than a 5, cause I wasn't alone on the couch.

Fun and Enjoyable movie

[Abdulxoxo · 7/10 · 17 November 2020]

The beginning got you thinking that it's a comedy or even a parody, but by the second half the film becomes very engaging with lots of tense, suspenseful and heartfelt moments, the visual effects of this film were nothing short of spectacular, the scenes where the protagonist torpedoed the Germans submarine was breathtaking, you can almost feel the shockwave as it hits our protagonist's submarine. The score was amazing and so was the cinematography, the whole production value was on point. Can't say anything bad about the acting either, the actors were convincing enough in their roles. overall, it's an entertaining submarine movie, with enough humor, drama and action to keep you engaged throughout.

A bit intense at the beginning, but fell short all the way! Very disappointed! Really should have done better!

[kwenchow · 1/10 · 6 June 2020]

This film start with a man been suffocate in the water, and a military man light up a match with a death row prisoner shoe scene! As turnout, this film is about a commander "Stan" need to leading a team to deliver the uranium to America with a submarine! Entire film almost wasting all the time talking in the submarine! Make the film unwatchable! Barely intense scene is, a bunch of Nazi army shot by the disguise death row prisoners! At the end, the submarine sinking to the bottom of the ocean! Four years later, the surviving crew of the submarine listening radio broadcasting the atom bomb drop at Hiroshima! That's it! Wasting time to watch!

Surprisingly good Flemish WOII non-factual U-boat action movie

[Digital_excitation · 7/10 · 14 December 2020]

The story itself is fairly simple: A small group of Belgian rogue militia is sent to man a captured German U-boat to deliver uranium to the U.S. to build a nuclear bomb and end the war.

First of all: I watched the movie in the original languages. A Dutch IMDB-member seemed to have (accidentally?) seen an English dubbed version and wasn't to happy with that. There is a German dub ('U-235' BluRay dual audio) and apparently an English one (US International version BluRay, no dual audio sadly). Some of the Flemish is hard to understand though, especially in the first scene. It's mostly Flemish and English, some German and a tiny bit of French (elles vivre!). When the Dutch Kapitein Maes speaks English, he does so with that typical native accent, making the scene quite genuine.

The writers have adapted the Hollywood style of using factual historic moments in a fantasy action movie (like in 'The Expendables'). I'm not particularly a fan of rewriting the past in that way. That does not mean this movie is bad, I just think that the viewer needs to be aware of that in advance to avoid misunderstanding and bad movie reviews.

Some will compare this to 'Das Boot' or 'U-571', but it's not in the same league, it clearly has less budget and those movies were more true to factual history. Still, the submarine is old and genuine, the scenes shot with great care, good music score, very good performance of all actors, costume design is great and SFX are pretty good, giving it all the ambiance of WOII era. It also tells the story from the viewpoint of Belgian militia in WOII, and they are the heroes here, even though they are called 'bad eggs' and are actually hunted by the Allied Forces for war crimes (some thing they do are quite brutal, but so are the Nazi's).

No dull moments, good pace and a bit of predictable humour (you'll know it when you see it). The German BluRay-version is censored btw, it lacks two scenes (the killing of a German soldier and the last part of the medical procedure in the submarine).

Recommended for people who like foreign movies and don't care about factual WOII history.

Too many errors....

[roal · 2/10 · 20 April 2020]

Right at the beginning of the movie, we see a bazooka which don't even EXIST at that time. Rest of the movie is as accurate as I said. Possibly entertaining but false from beginning to end.

Fun, exciting WW2 sub pic

[meduzahollywood · 8/10 · 4 June 2020]

Most contemporary submarine-themed films tend to be overly dark and psychological. Not so much here. Just an old-fashioned war film featuring equally good acting, script, camerawork and music.

The original Belgian-language version doesn't seem to be available with subtitles but the dubbing here is passable, not at all distracting.

If you're into this sort of thing, just grab some popcorn and enjoy a really good show.

Imitation makes no sense

[mrdonleone · 6/10 · 8 August 2022]

It makes no sense they are speak in English in this movie because the German language and the Flemish language really resembles one another and because of this none of the worlds in this movie makes sense except for a Hollywood production which is possibly but I tried or attempted to get and do and all of this is of course very sad doesn't make anything of the movie and the movie itself is not a bad but not that great as well because it just tries to imitate das boat.

Implausible plot

[pberthoty · 2/10 · 1 June 2021]

I didn't have any trouble watching this movie on Roku because it was not dubbed and had English subtitles throughout, even when they were speaking English.

The Nazis weren't even close to having an atomic bomb because Hitler was concentrating on his rocket program. It was proven that they didn't even get close to even having a heavy water program.

One of the reviews said the uranium came from the United States and Canada however a large portion did come from the Congo so that's the only plausible plot.

Why would you take an inexperienced crew that would normally take months to operate a submarine to make such an important long-distance voyage.

When the Germans from the destroyer came on the ship there was no military protocol and none in the submarine were dressed in proper uniform which would give them away.

The German Destroyer was parallel alongside of the submarine but after the rifle shot exploded the destroyer's cannon, all of a sudden it turned and was running over the submarine???

One of the reviewers said they worked on a submarine during the Vietnam war and criticized people for downplaying the flood scenes, however this was just a stupid movie, buddy.

The Belgium's did produce a silver tip 30 ought 6 incendiary round.

I watched it because I did not have anything better to do.

For a fairly modern movie produced in 2019 it was pretty bad.

Thrilling, as good as Das Boot

[martial-vaneecke · 7/10 · 5 June 2021]

My frist sering was on the television, when VTM showed it in premiere. Thought this was going to be a minor belgian movie. As the movie advanced it surprised me. Wellicht written, good acting by De Bouw. Although some scenes are impossible, this is fiction and not a historical correct war movie. This one can certainly be set among the graat submarine film like "Das Boot", "The enemy below ".

Torpedo passing film

[eva3si0n · 3/10 · 16 October 2021]

Torpedo passing film. A comedy that looks at war through pink glasses. A very boring story in which there is nothing special. Absolutely gray motion picture.