Rating: 
Summary: Very good! Watch it!!!
Review: This is very fine "sub" movie. First of all, it does not have the costumary "USA x Russia" battle, or "German x Allies" batlle. It's a crew fighting to survie, about two captains with different ideas. Just it.Liam Neeson steals the show here, and it was delightful to see Harrison Ford play a cold-war era Russian! Delightful! I enjoyed the pace of the movie, the recreation of the sub and the extras. I just did not like when Neeson'c character Polentin suddenly changes his views about Ford's character in the middle of a mutiny, a mutiny mainly inducted by him when confronting a lot of the captain's orders in front of everyone of the crew! Weird change of events! Other than this, it's a highly, I repeat, highly enjoyable cold war drama.
Rating:
Summary: Very realistic & authentic; the DVD commentary is lacking.
Review: I am not going to describe the movie which has been articulated well by the other reviewers. My only beef is with the full-length commentary by the director and photographer on the DVD. It drones on and on in a self-congratulatory banter between the two and extols the virtues of the different crew and cast members and their prowess in making the film without actually commenting on the scene itself. We have to take their word that they researched the story thoroughly - which I don't doubt. But it would have been nice, as the movie progressed, to let us know when editorial license was taken. For example, it would have been fascinating to learn a little bit more about the encounter with the American destroyer and about the Soviet sailors mooning the American chopper taking pictures of them. Did this actually happen? It would have made for a nice human-interest sidebar. And yet, these two kept on droning through this and other scenes. I had to end this commentary at this point in disgust. One of the reasons I buy the DVD is for a good commentary. Notwithstanding that, the audio/visual qualities of the DVD are perfect.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy something else
Review: Harrison is for "regime change on both sides". Buy something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Sincere but flawed
Review: I can think of few things drearier than living in communist Russia, or having to do submarine duty. This is probably only exceeded by living in modern day communist North Korea. But getting back to our story, doing submarine duty while living under the rule of the old regime. A party movie this isn't. The movie takes the Russian point of view, or at least the Russian point of view that Hollywood would like us to have. In the not-too-distant past, the Commies have developed a submarine that can launch nuclear missiles while under water. As this country has a perpetual fear of being invaded, even while still in the business of invading other countries...the successful completion of this mission will allow Vitali and Irena back home to sleep much better at night. So with a mission as critical as this, the commander for this mission seems to do everything he can. The Russkies have chosen Indiana Jones himself to run the operation, and he seems to want it to fail from the beginning. When his crew pleads with him that more time is needed to safely prepare the ship, he tells them they will leave in two weeks whether they drown or not. Can you imagine the leaders of the Space Shuttle taking this stand? Then, of course, there is the problem of unifying the crew. With a mission as important as this one, we seem to have a rag-tag group of drunks operating the vessel. It might be a stab at the way the country was in those days, but once again, with a mission so critical, don't you try to have everything right before proceeding? Indiana Jones answer to this is to take the boat so deep that it actually damages the ship in order to make the crew fear for there lives, and in this respect, somehow grow closer. I don't buy it. But the biggest problem is that if you've seen one submarine movie, you've seen them all. They all have lots of men with constant worried looks on their faces. We have a lot of somber music. And you have those well-placed creaking sounds designed to make you think the whole egg might break at any moment. "The Hunt for Red October" worked because the submarine action was PART of the whole plot. But with virtually all the action taking place here, I'm not sure how it's possible to break new film-making ground with this kind of movie.
Rating:
Summary: Mismarketed...and pretty good!
Review: Marketed as a "suspense thriller", I think the film is really more of a "slice of life" docudrama, that happens to have some seriously tense scenes in it. Harrison Ford is not as bad as some have said, and the problem with his accent may be as much our fault (Indy with an accent? Not.) as his (it does disappear for a moment or two...).
This is genuinely an ensemble piece, with Liam Neeson providing a powerful central performance...the movie is his more than Ford's.
Fans of the "submarine" genre...and you know who you are...will find a lot familiar here, but a welcome addition to the canon.
Life aboard the K-19 appears to be realistically portrayed...I found myself wanting to know more about the real-life incident this was based on, at the completion of the film. (The featurettes only hint at some of the history...)
The disc itself is another example of marvelous audio and video, that we now take for granted, yet less than a decade ago would have been considered unimaginable...
Rating: 
Summary: Is this the "true" story?
Review: I did enjoy this film, albeit it starts slowly and I really wondered about some plot details ( the death of the doctor, the stereotypic faulty gauges ). But in all, there is not a lot to complain about. I especially approved of Harrison Ford playing "out of type". The fact that he is not a likeable character for the first 80% of the film accentuates the drama of a boatload of Russian sailors trapped inside a timebomb of a submarine, with leaking nuclear reactor. What I struggled with, and this is a small quibble, is whether Vadim -- the untested replacement for the sacked reactor officer -- could stand up to the 18+ minutes he spent trying to repair the jury-rigged coolant pipe weld, when the other sailors came out fried and puking their guts out after 10 minutes. Finally, while I think this "expose" of a cold war tragedy makes for good cinema, I doubt seriously whether the story as told is what really happened. Let's not kid ourselves. This was a Russian submarine. A RUSSIAN submarine.
Rating: 
Summary: one of the best of the last decade
Review: This exceptionally well-made and well-acted movie drives home a very urgent point - how detestable ALL the wars are, may they be cold or not. These conflicts initiated by war mongrels and brass hats, tear families apart and scar the nations for life. Had it been not for the shameless propaganda on both sides, good people would not had to die.
In this case, the constant struggle of the "leaders" to be on top, resulted in testing (!) the most dangerous technology out at sea next to US borders. The point of it was simple saber-rattling, an increasing common technique to convince one's enemies that they better not mess with us. Heck, it's used these days still.
I won't get into all the intricacies of the plot, but it's enough to say that the captain (Harrison Ford) deemed it necessary to sacrifice the boat and its crew to prevent a full-scale nuclear confrontation. At the time, this kind of decision bordered on treason, and it's a great surprise that the captain did not end up in GULAG (which had just began to fall apart following the death of Stalin and execution of Beria).
The actors do a magnificent job here. What comes across first is the stark difference between the two captains. Polenin (Liam Neeson) is a new generation reformist; he's a thinking man and, therefore, is a torn man full of internal conflicts. Vostrikov (Ford) is a polar opposite, his purpose is clear; he has no hesitations whatsoever, even when he disobeys the Party or his own beliefs, firmly impressed by the system. As the action takes a deadly turn, they both shine in their perseverance and their humanity.
The supporting cast, particularly the brass hats, is quite good as well. The sailors are just kids, but the director made it clear that they're all regular boys who could be our own children. Their chatter, their smiles, their lovely young faces make us think, "can WE send our boys to wars?" no matter what the cause is.
Some questions are left unanswered. Did Katya stay with Vadim through all the hell that a ray illness is? What happened to the submarine once it was back home?
Just a couple of drinking scenes did not strike as plausible. Are we still fighting the stereotypes here? They could have been safely deleted. Same goes for phony Russian accents, although I suppose they needed to match the English-speaking cast members with Russian ones (the split is approximately 70/30).
But overall, this is a convincing and powerful drama, first (in my mind) that did not show Russians as monsters or brutes, but first and foremost as the people whose historic fate might have been one of the most tragic of all.
Rating:
Summary: Without a doubt - the best TRUE movie
Review: As for the person, who was born and lived in the USSR, "K 19: The Widowmaker" is a flashback... Flashback from times, when brave men have suffered from the Communist Government because of their crazy ideas. Afganistan, Chernobil and K 19.
Kathryn Bigelow's movie is not the new fake about the cold war, like any other film made before. This is the REAL tragedy, which will make you cry. At last American Movie Industry tried to tell the truth.
Casting is perfect and on the top of it briliant artists - Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson.
There are more secret stories from the history of the USSR to discover.
Rating:
Summary: Watchable
Review: I recommend to rent the movie, but not to buy it.
My main problem with this movie is the script. What is the deal with the riot on the boat? Half of the movie they show us how bad is the 1st captain (Ford) and the second half he is the hero. But during all the 1st part he created the problems that cause the death of his crew members. The other weakness of the movie is that it failed to show how fanatically people believed in the Communism, that they were doing right things although through huge amount of dead bodies. Probably movie makers need more consultants in order to create a real good movie. I think in the real situation the riot on the boat is ended with the death of the captain or the riot crew, at least that what happened at the old times. All this riot plot is looks like a Hollywood fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: If you like Hunt for Red October, you'll love this movie...
Review: When this movie came out it got mixed reviews. Granted nobody is going to win Oscars for this movie (other than makeup), but as a military suspense movie, this is at the top of the list. The filmakers went to lots of trouble to make sure that the sets actually looked like K-19. The techincal detail of the film is fantastic, and the portrayal of the Russian crewman is extemely acurate. This movie is great if you're looking for a movie that has lots of action and suspense, but don't want cheesy "one-liners" and unrealistic plot lines.
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