The Sea Wolves

Entertaining WW2 yarn with Greg Peck and Rog Moore. Took a while to get into it but I got there eventually and enjoyed it in the end. Based on a true story, it's about a sneaky German transmitter on a boat in neutral Portugese waters that's passing on co-ordinates for shipping vessels and navy frigates to a U-boat that's blowing them to smithereens.

Being in neutral waters though means the Brits have to find an undercover way of taking the naughty transmitter out. Or they'll get really told off or something. Solution? Get a squad of deniable middle-aged old boys to sort it.

So the first two thirds of the film is Greg and Rog doing some spying secret squirrel stuff  to get the plan in motion and then you get the old boys on a mission routine as they sail into the harbour in a knackered old boat. Will they all make it out though?

For most of the film it feels very James Bond. Glamourous locations, Rog Moore doing eyebrows and ladies with gay abandon. That sort of thing. Peck is good value as the leader of the gang too, being frightfully proper and proper hard - "I'd be delighted to kill you" - whilst judo chopping and machine gunning like an especially angry headmaster.

Despite the rubbish models used for the special effects, it's the ending that makes the film. I definitely felt an urge to get nearer the edge of my seat. 'Come on old guys' I cheered in a quiet sort of way. You can't beat a good men on a mission film though. More please. Especially WW2 set films. There's got to be some more of these to be made.

So a rather random film to watch but a pleasant experience all the same. Look at the movie poster up there too. That's awesome. Don't think I've seen 'Wild Geese' but if this team is behind it then I probably should.