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U-571
Metascore
62 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 35
  3. Negative: 2 out of 35
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    Two hours of nonstop, nail-biting tension and anxiety.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    91
    When the submarine has to dive 400 meters beneath the surface to avoid detection, you can practically feel the water pressure crushing in on the sailors.
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    88
    The action is tightly focused and well-paced.
  4. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    80
    A rip-roaring action adventure.
    All this critic's reviews
  5. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    80
    It's a simple pleasure watching an American movie that respects genre, knows its limitations, and genuflects at the memory of Don Siegel in the age of Spielberg.
  6. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Sean Means
    80
    Fast-moving, watertight and firing from all tubes.
  7. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    80
    Highly enjoyable.
  8. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Full of old tricks - cuts between worried faces and overheated gauges inching into the red zone - but director Mostow pulls most of them off with conviction and pizazz.
  9. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    75
    A formulaic and predictable movie that combines minimal characterization with some irritating implausibility.
  10. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
    75
    Certainly it isn't about to give "Das Boot" a run for its money - but nevertheless it is irresistible entertainment.
  11. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    75
    Sets up a mood of tensile suspense from the beginning and never lets it go.
  12. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    70
    Not bad at all.
  13. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Ted Fry
    70
    One sour note is Richard Marvin's derivative score. It's just awful and often pulls the movie down.
  14. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    70
    Gets high marks for tension and excitement.
    All this critic's reviews
  15. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Jeff Giles
    70
    The script is lame...but U-571 works, thanks to the jittery handheld-camera work, the great, visceral sound editing and a few sneaky plot twists.
  16. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    70
    It pulps you, but it doesn't enlighten you.
  17. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    70
    The real star of U-571 is its sheer visceral atmosphere.
  18. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Pauline Ademek
    70
    A thoroughly good war picture that is well worth seeing on the big screen in a cinema equipped with a first-rate sound system for the full sonic effect.
    All this publication's reviews
  19. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    67
    Despite the whiplike pace of events and the compelling realism of the martial effects, the film is dead in the water whenever it pauses to make a human gesture or consider, heaven help us, an idea.
  20. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    67
    Definitely works as an action piece, it's often surprising and never boring, and several sequences had me positioned well on the edge of my seat.
  21. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    63
    As beautiful as all the film's technology is, it needs more real human beings around - to pull the switches, man the pumps and scuttle through those corridors.
  22. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    63
    Never lets down, even if depth of character always takes second place to depth charges.
  23. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    60
    It's straightforwardly entertaining and a genuine nail-biter.
  24. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    60
    Yet there is so little characterization that when the sub goes down, you may find yourself confused as to which of the supporting cast members lived through the torpedo blast.
  25. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    60
    Flouting all rules of the sea but honoring every war-epic cliche about guts under pressure.
  26. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    You can enjoy U-571 as a big, dumb war movie without a brain in its head.
  27. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    It''s loud and flashy and fun to look at, but you''ll grow tired of it very quickly.
  28. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    50
    It's still a submarine movie, confined by the ship, the sea, and a convention-laden script.
  29. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    50
    One would be hard-pressed to name another submarine movie that lingers so little in the memory two days after seeing it.
  30. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    50
    U-571's plot moves like a rocket, never pausing for breath, and this works to a point, but certain events ... are glossed over in favor of more (exceptionally well-done) shots of exploding depth charges and topside battles.
  31. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    50
    A story as creaky as the sub that gives the film its name.
  32. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Richard T. Jameson
    49
    Just keeps grinding along, pushing its way through a barrage of boom-boom and a sea of tight-lipped clichés.
  33. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    40
    Yet another unironic war movie.
  34. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    30
    May be the shoddiest and most incoherent piece of big-budget action moviemaking since "Armageddon."
  35. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    30
    The submarine goes deep but the story never does in U-571, a good old-fashioned WWII picture that is exciting in only the most superficial way.
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User Reviews

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User Score
6.2 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. JD
    4
    Pretty bad movie. Historically it's a load of crap. Watch "Das Boot". A much MUCH better German U-Boat movie.
  2. JaredC.
    9
    It will have you captured in the experience and let you on a firm gripp throughout.
  3. KarlB.
    1
    Politically incorrect film about American sailors finding the German Enigma Code. What a load of bollocks.
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