It’s no trick for even the most ham-fisted global action thriller to achieve a ripped-from-the-headlines “topicality.” Just throw in a terrorist from the right enemy nation, or an American president with the right haircut.
So it’s a weird and musty Twilight Zone indeed that one enters to watch “Hunter Killer,” a grindingly ponderous and bombastic neo-Cold War submarine thriller — how ponderous is it? It stars Gerard Butler, and he’s the most lighthearted thing about it — that in every relevant detail seems three years, if not two decades, behind the times.Consider its take on the U.S.
president.
The character, played by Caroline Goodall, is transparently modeled on Hillary Clinton.
As a result, one watches her scenes utterly removed from the drama (I use the term loosely) and preoccupied, instead, with thoughts like, “Was this film really shot that long ago?” It was.
Principal photography on “Hunter Killer
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