Rating: 
Summary: A good cold war flick!
Review: A cold war movie can be just as exciting as a hot war movie, and K-19 proves it. Based on a true story, but still exciting, this movie is pretty historically accurate yet fun to watch. Turn the lights out and pop some popcorn, because you won't want to get out of your seat.The video and sound quality are excellent, although not quite reference quality. A more active soundtrack would have been nice, but it's still one of my better DVDs.
Rating: 
Summary: Tragedy at sea
Review: This has to be one of my all time favorite movies. For some reason though, it didn't stay in the theatres all that long. K-19 was the USSR's first nuclear powered submarine but it was doomed from the start. When they tried to christen the sub, the bottle didn't break; which is a bad omen. The most tragic part of the movie for me was when the reactor was very close to a meltdown. Not wanting another Cherynobyl, crewmembers volunteer to try and fix the reactor knowing that they will most likely die. Watching that part was difficult because you feel like you're there. This is a movie that everyone should see.
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable action movie about real life heroes
Review: This is a pretty enjoyable movie. While based on an incident from real life, dramatic license has been taken with many of the personal relationships, nuclear physics, and the heroic incidents in the movie. The making of the film documentary also on the disk points out how much effort they made getting the submarine right to the point of outfitting a real Russian sub to take on the dimensions and look of the actual K-19. However, if you search the web you can find information on this incident that will make clear how the plot made changes for dramatic effect. Does it really matter that the captain during the building of the sub was also the captain at sea, that the commanders had a good relationship, that the workers going into the chamber to work on the reactor knew they were going to die and made the sacrifice anyway? I think it does to the extent they could have made a more profound film. However, this is an action film and it keeps the surfaces moving. I guess some of the Russians who acted as technical advisors found the licenses taken to be too much. Leaving all that aside, does the film work? As I said, I think it is a pretty good Hollywood action film. My children were riveted and found the sacrifice and heroism moving and the radiation sickness disturbing. I think it is good to get such a story out and recapture just a taste of the psychology of the Cold War in 1961 even its complexities are over simplified in this movie. I did like the point a Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) makes about the important balance such a nuclear submarine on patrol of the Eastern Seaboard makes when US subs are patrolling the waters around the USSR. Here we end up seeing these Soviet sailors as the heroes and we root for them. Yes, the movie gets a tad manipulative in trying to make the Cold War into a moral equivalency argument, but not so strongly that you can't set it aside and enjoy the movie for what it is. Liam Neeson is very good and very large for such a small space, but apparently some Russian sailors were. The actors in the crew are energetic and pull off their roles quite well. The special effects are pretty good. I do love the story in the making of the film extra that points out the blue light a near critical reactor gives off. To make that effect they found that a black light shining on quinine water would do the trick. They tried to save money with powdered quinine, but it didn't work. So, on the day of the filming they were pouring 700 2-liter bottles of Canada Dry into the set to get the effect right. Enjoy the film. Respect the heroism. Don't get too hung up on the facts or it will spoil it for you.
Rating: 
Summary: the real story was somewhat different
Review: There is something basically wrong with this film. For those who know the real story of K19, the film should have been a scathing indictment of the Communist system. Instead of that, what the film conveys is feelings of horror about the Cold War and nuclear energy. It is true that, from a technical point of view, the accident is shown as it happened, and the submarine itself is shown as it was. However, the two strong, courageous, communist captains, played by Liam Neeson and Harrison Ford, simply never existed. The real captain of K19, a Captain Nikolai Zateev, was an irresponsible, devil-may-care officer.
He started the reactor ashore in conditions that would never have been tolerated in any Western navy - not even bothering to have pressure gauges installed for the vital primary coolant system. As a result, as the inquiry later determined, the coolant pipes were overstessed and one of them ruptured at sea, as shown in the movie. As in the movie, the captain did not radio Fleet Command immediately - but not, as in the movie, because the radio was broken. The true reason was that he hoped he could fix the problem at sea and avoid an inquiry that could send him straight to the gulag. It was only when it became all too clear that the accident could not be hidden that he radioed Fleet Command. As in the movie, seven sailors died in the first few days back to base, and many others later. It was only the first accident of K19 - in 1972, a fire onboard killed 28 sailors [yes, the Soviet navy did not decommision K19!]- and another good movie could be made about the real facts.
As for this movie, the submarine is well recreated, but the movie is simply too biased.
Rating:
Summary: Turgid Filmmaking; Bigelow's Worst Film
Review: Bigelow's worst movie is the turgid "K-19, The Widowmaker," where all was apparently sacrificed to provide another star turn for Harrison Ford. Unlike Bigelow's other work, it is slow, plodding and heavy handed. There isn't a single artistic image or stunning visual sequence to be had. Set entirely aboard a nuclear submarine, one can't help remembering and comparing it to an earlier film, "Das Boot," which handled the submarine world at war beautifully and artistically. The major difference is that "Das Boot" is about German submariners during WWII whereas the Bigelow film is about Russian nuclear submariners in 1961 during the Cold War. This is the only film of Bigelow's that I consider a bomb. Like many who have gone before her, given a huge budget and a super star who had to be showcased throughout, the whole thing sinks under its own weight. The Russian accents by all these American movie stars are also atrocious, like chalk screeching on a blackboard to your ears by movie's end.
Rating:
Summary: Good, Enjoyable Film
Review: I thouroughly enjoyed this film, and would reccomend it to any war film or action buff. Altough the accents faulter a little, Harrison Ford does a good job fitting in as a Russian Submarine commander. The film doesn't concentrate so much on depth charges or torpedoes as so many submarine films do, but captures the intense moments the crew went through to keep it running and fix the reactor problems. It is a must have!
Rating:
Summary: BETTER THAN EXPECTED
Review: I found this movie to be compelling and engaging. Well directed and produced, K-19 is better than what many critics suggested. Worthy viewing. Can't go wrong with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, who turn in quality performances expected from stars of their calibre. Director Kathryn Bigelow captures the drama and tension of the moment. All the more poignant given the reality of the situation.
Rating: 
Summary: Realistic Garbage.
Review: It graphically shows us (in all ugly and shocking details) how people are dying for nothing. The crew could abandon this "can" to begin with and all be saved, but stupid captain wanted them to be heroes instead. The captain preferred explicitly to send 6 of his comrades to terrible death for so called honor of the Socialist motherland, instead of saving all their lives by simply abandoning the ship. This captain (whom H. Ford played) is a brain washed communist criminal, not a hero, not a wise leader. Technically, this movie was very well done, but its setback in moral is severe. This movie took 100 million dollars to produce, and it brought back only 39 million. No wonder, it became a financial failure as well.
Rating: 
Summary: HAN SOLO, MEET QUIGON-GINN
Review: The movie is better if you don't know how it ends, so I'll not tell you. This is an interesting movie about a "true" incident.
Rating:
Summary: Make you feel bad
Review: If you were drawn by the phrase in the trailer "ordinary people pray from miracle, heros fight for it," and hoped for something invigorating, something athletic and healthy in this film, then you will be dissapointed. There were little elements similar with, say "Old man and the sea"- man's heroic challenge to his fate, but this movie was just a grotesque, - be it true - accusation of communist system in Russia.
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