BLACK SEA, a very good submarine thriller, slipped in under the sonar in late 2014, and did a leaky $1.2 million in business in the US market, Good reviews didn’t help, so it’s up to word-of-mouth to send out the distress signals that this is a worthy voyage in that—yes,—subgenre —that launches a new vessel every so often. Dramatic pressure, literal and figurative, is built into undersea exploits, and it’s cranked up to a pleasing ratchet (rivet?) here, as slickly directed by Kevin MacDonald.

Bitter, out-of-work ocean salvage expert Jude Law gets turned onto a scheme to retrieve Nazi gold from a sunken U-boat, off the coast of Georgia (the European one, not Rhett Butler’s). A decommissioned Soviet sub is procured and a crew of desperate salts, half Brit, half Russian, sign on to the perilous mission.

Tension between the nationalities erupts, the official Russian Navy pursues, greedy scamming from all sides onsets. Compelling cast including the intense Ben Mendelsohn, taut direction, fine visual and sonic effects. Law is better than he’s been in years, revitalized into tough and grizzly middle-age, sporting a keen Scottish brogue and a commanding attitude.  115 minutes of neat adventure fun does its stuff with flair.

With Scott McNairy, David Threlfall, Karl Davies, Bobby Schofield, Konstantin Kabensky, Grigori Dobrygin.