Writer-director Jonathan Mostow plays off that same human trait in his new sub flick U-571, which opens with an homage to Das Boot. The very first scene takes place aboard the title vessel--a German U-boat housing one of the precious "Enigma" encryption machines that baffled the Allied codebreakers during the early days of World War II. The sub is under attack by the British Navy, and though we know in our heads that these guys are the enemy, it's hard not to root for them--especially since at this point in the film, the bad guys have a face and the good guys don't.

By and large, U-571 is a routine war flick. A crew of American sailors--led by Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, and Harvey Keitel--are sent to seize the contents of the damaged U-571 by posing as a resupply boat. But after imprisoning the German sailors, the Americans' own sub is torpedoed, and our heroes are forced to take refuge in the crippled enemy sub while keeping their identities a secret from a roving German destroyer.

We have a general idea of how this story is going to go just by its pumped-up, action-movie tone; we're not expecting bitter ironies. We've also seen enough submarine movies to know what marks Mostow and his cast will have to hit--there'll be depth charges, torpedoes, and at one point the sub will have to descend below the dreaded "hull crush depth." The trick is for the filmmakers to keep the movie moving swiftly enough that we in the audience never have time to remember that we're watching a movie with a foregone conclusion.

For the most part, Mostow and company do just that. There may be a few too many depth charge assaults--and more than once our heroes are pushed too far past the brink for us to suspend disbelief--but there are several breathless moments that leave the viewer in a suitably silly stupor. (My favorite is when the Americans first try to operate U-571 and realize that all the controls will have to be translated from German...in about 30 seconds!) Credit the likable, character-actor-driven cast (especially a revitalized McConaughey) and credit Mostow's own skill at keeping action sequences crisp and comprehensible (a gift previously on display in his underrated Breakdown).

Mainly, though, the key to U-571 is that neat trick of giving the audience a rooting interest in the villains in the first five minutes of the movie. A little later in the film, Mostow attempts to obliterate any lingering sympathy by showing the German submariners callously machine-gunning a raft of British sailors, but he pulls back a bit by having the captain explain that he's only acting on Hitler's orders. Still later, that same captain, now a prisoner, is a thorn in the side of the Americans, and though we wish he'd stop trying to sabotage our side, we have to admire his pluck and ingenuity.