U-571: Starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Jon Bon Jovi, Harvey Keitel and Jake Weber. Rated M. This one has generated a lot of talk. Reviews and internet chatter. And the tone varies considerably. There are those who fall heavily on the side of historical truth and those who see it as simply a damn good action movie. I fell into both categories -- sort of.

What I mean is, I listened to, and was swayed by, those who shouted loudest that a film based on the truth (especially historical truth) should not tell lies. They claimed that this film lied about who broke the German Enigma Code. Another case of America saves the world, they claimed.

And so it was that I went to see for myself (and for you guys) how bad those bad Americans really were. And so it was that I went to see this movie in totally the wrong frame of mind. I was all set to bag the crap out of it, give it a resounding zero and even had a few damning quips ready in my head.

How wrong could I be?

The action starts with a bang from the first second and, apart from about 10 minutes to set the plot, did not let up for the rest of the flick. Real edge-of-the-seat stuff.

Lt-Cmdr Mike Dahlgren (Paxton), his XO, Lt Andrew Tyler (McConaughey) and crew of the S-33 submarine are dispatched with all haste from America on a secret mission. They must find and board a crippled German U-boat, U-571, in the middle of the Atlantic, in a race against a rescue sub which set sail from France following U-571's distress call the previous day.

The importance of the mission is known only to a select few, led by spook, Lt Hirsch (Weber) who reveals, only after clearing American waters, that their goal is to steal an Enigma code machine from the stricken German boat, sink it and scarper before the other German U shows up.

Everything goes roughly according to plan until the ever-so important cargo has been captured and is about to be transferred back to the American sub when the German from France shows up and blows a hole in their well-laid plans.

The American sub cops a gut full of brine through the newly acquired blowhole and slips away into Davy Jones' locker, taking half her crew, including the captain, with her.

This casts the XO in the unenviable role as ships captain on a disabled German sub in the middle of the ocean with another, able-bodied German U in the neighbourhood and their own scuttle-charge's fuse still burning in the belly of their new sub.

And that's all in the first one third of the film. They still have to figure out how to drive a crippled sub whose instructions are all in German, fix at least one of the engines, kill the other, perfectly healthy U boat and then limp to England, through German-infested waters, with the all-important Enigma machine gift-wrapped for a safe-hand delivery.

My explanation of the storyline may be crap but the movie is not. The storyline does not lie or mislead in the historical-facts department and the facts are nicely scrolled in chronological order before the end titles, just to clear up any miss conceptions.

And the remaining American heroes are picked up by a passing Catalina just before they have time to sail off into the sunset.