Tony Maylam

n the Autumn of 1901, Carruthers, an aristocratic junior official in the British Foreign Office, is invited on a yachting and duck-shooting holiday by an old University acquaintance called Arthur Davies. On Carruthers' arrival on Germany's northern coast to join the yacht Dulcibella, Davies explains to him that he has a hidden agenda for the trip and the invitation beyond duck-hunting. While boating around the Frisian Islands ostensibly correcting antiquated British sea charts of the coastline's shifting topography, by chance he had met a retired German sailor called Dollmann on the yacht Medusa with his wife and daughter, Clara, with whom Davies has initiated a romantic attachment. He narrates further that whilst sailing together along the coast in a gale Dollmann had, when Davies had tried to put into a particular estuary for shelter, inexplicably prevented him from entering by executing a deliberately hazardous sea-manoeuvre, to the degree that both their lives had been endangered by it. Davies then reveals to Carruthers that his real interest in the area is that he suspects that the Imperial German Navy is engaged in covert military activity of some nature in the Frisian Islands, with the intention of threatening the security of the North Sea from the British perspective, which the Royal Navy is strategically misdirected to meet, and he is engaged in trying to discover what it is. This the pretext of the "holiday" that he has invited Carruthers upon, given Carruthers' ability to speak German along with his professional contacts within Whitehall, if they should discover something warranting the alarm being raised within the halls of the British Government.

Carruthers and Davies go on, amidst cryptic warnings-off from circling German naval officers, sailing expeditions among the Frisian isles and inlets, and fights, to carry out covert surveillance at the estuary in question, to discover that the German Empire is using a naval base hidden in the islands to carry out rehearsals for a seaborne passage across the North Sea of a German army with the aim of militarily invading Britain, and that Herr "Dollmann" is in fact Lieutenant Thomas, an embittered former Royal Navy officer who is treasonously assisting their preparations with his detailed knowledge of the British coast and key naval defences.

After sabotaging one of the rehearsals, whilst escaping to the Netherlands by sea in two roped yachts with the information about it, along with a badly wounded Dollmann and his family as prisoners, Davies abandons Dollmann with his wife in the Dulcibella to allow him to return to Germany to seek medical attention for his wounds at the insistence of Clara, who agrees to accompany Davies and Carruthers back to Britain in the Medusa with his papers revealing the German plans in detail. Dollmann and his wife are murdered by the pursuing German authorities — led by Kaiser Wilhelm II, in person — when the Dulcibella is rammed and destroyed.

The film ends with the yacht bearing Carruthers, Davies and Clara bound for the Netherlands, with a Carruthers' voiced narration detailing how their return to Britain with the information would lead to a shift in the United Kingdom's sea defence strategy towards Germany, that would avert the threat of war by tactical deterrent. (fonte: Imdb)… (más)

Semi-deranged detective (Hauer, using an American accent despite the film's London setting) seeks serial killer who rips out his victim's hearts in a flooded future London (i.e., 2008, which was the future when this film was made.) Incredibly gruesome with more blood than the next ten pictures put together, hearts in refrigerators, and so on, it is made hugely enjoyable by the teaming of Hauer, as the detective who lost his partner to the killer (or monster, actually) and Duncan as his unlikely partner whose transformation toward the end of the film into becoming just as maniacal as Hauer is borderline hilarious. Catrall, as Hauer's love interest (she was the wife of his murdered partner--and he was having an affair with her before his partner's death) is alluring and spunky as always. Throw in folks like Michael J. Pollard and Ian Dury, and you have a memorable film experience for the non-squeamish.… (más)

Yes there are moments that are clunky and plot holes and it's not the most artistic or worthy movies but it's a fun ride. Set in a London of 2008 and global warming has flooded large areas, Dick Durkin (Alastair Duncan) is assigned to help Harley Stone (Rutger Hauer - at his scenery chomping best) investigate a series of brutal murders where the murderer is ripping the hearts out of people. The murderer seems to be taunting Stone and eventually uses his girlfriend Michelle (Kim Cattrall) to trap him. Stone is linked to the monster but doesn't believe in that sort of thing.

It's a vaguely horror monster chase through flooded London with guns and swearing and it's one of my favourite Rutger Hauer movies.… (más)