User Reviews

My review of the plot of Britannic would only mirror other reviews, it's a good movie and does well with it's budget. It is a little to similar to Titanic for my liking in that there is unexpected romance aboard a large ship that sinks. It's still very watchable until right at the end when the ship actually sinks.

It switches from real footage of the characters to a computer animation of the ship sinking. The ship then topples over and sinks in all of about 10 seconds. The fact that it's animated couldn't be more obvious. It's such a let down, they coped well with the low budget throughout, then at the climax of it all they cheap out with some very nasty CGI.

While this is an obvious made-for-TV follow up to Titanic (Cameron) it does draw attention to a signficant shipwreck that has been largely forgotten.

Bollards relatively recent expedition has shown that the ship was sunk by torpedo's as shown, but sunk because the portholes were open and the bulkhead doors were not closed.

It is indeed fortunate that it happened on an inwards transit because on an outwards one the loss of life would have been enormous.

Yet again we have intrigue and romance fictionally built into a disaster movie but the truth of the matter is that the sinking of Britannic was an act of war with minimal loss of life. With what had happened in Galipoli and the Western Front it was hardly newsworthy.

The movie for all its slights of hand might have just made its sinking more noteworthy than has otherwise been the case.

I believe this movie was made for TV, and I think that I have seen better special effects in an older video game. But I don't think that those things make this a bad movie, the plot is interesting and the movie never gets boring. If you are looking for a historically accurate story of the Britannic, then you might not like this movie. It is true that the Britannic was the sister ship of the famous Titanic, that it was suppose to be even safer and grander, and then the ship was commissioned by the British government as a hospital ship during World War One. But the story about spies on board, and that they were the ones that made the ship sink is not true. The ship was really sunk by a mine, or torpedo and I really doubt that there were any spies. The movie is not rated; I don't remember any swear words, or crude language. There is some violence, but it is not bad. But I was disappointed that the movie does have a nude/sex scene, in which Amanda Ryan shows off her stuff. This scene really disappointed me because the movie had been so clean and family friendly until that point. But I really do think that this movie was interesting, and if cheesy special effects, and nudity (You can always hit the skip button) do not bug you I would suggest watching this movie.

Britannic is a good film that has a good cast which includes Edward Atterton, Amanda Ryan, Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Daniels, John Rhys-Davies, Bruce Payne, Alex Ferns, Eleanor Oakley, Archie Davies, Ed Stobart, Adam Bareham, David Lumsden, Wolf Kahler, Philip Rham, Daniel Coonan, Daniel Tatarsky, and Martin Savage! The acting by all of these actors is very good. Rhys-Davies and Payne are really excellent in this film. I thought that they performed good. The thrills is really good and some of it is surprising. The movie is filmed very good. The music is good. The nudity scene was a bit unneeded and I thought it brought down the impact of the film a few stars. The film is quite interesting and the movie really keeps you going until the end. This is a very good and thrilling film. If you like Edward Atterton, Amanda Ryan, Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Daniels, John Rhys-Davies, Bruce Payne, Alex Ferns, Eleanor Oakley, Archie Davies, the rest of the cast in the film, Thrillers, Dramas, Romance, War, Action, Mystery, and interesting true stories films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today!

Jacqueline Bisset a once and still magnificently beautiful and talented actress is regrettably the most notorious name in the cast. It is so unfortunate that she allowed herself to become a part of its ensemble since the film has little, if any, value at all. As can be expected, the film attempted to ride on the coattails of the enormously successful, Titanic, but fell far short of its expectations. Most importantly, it is not historically correct. The same argument could be made regarding Titanic, as the characters were fictional. However, in the case of The Brittanic, not only are the characters fictious, so is the plot. In addition, the rating is decidedly incorrect, as the film is full of violence and should have received an R rating for its violence alone. I surely regret having to pan a film starring Ms. Bisset. However this film does not deserve to have been distributed and certainly not under the guise under which it was. Hopefully, having received as little publicity as it did, it will not reach a much larger audience than it has to date.

The Britannic's tragic story will never generate the same interest or emotion as that of her more famous sister ship. Still, the Britannic met an even more mysterious fate and does constitute the world's largest shipwreck (the Britannic having been 20 feet longer than Titanic).

This brings us to the 2000 made-for-TV movie. Overall, it provided an enjoyable evening's entertainment. It wasn't until near the climax that some disturbing anachronisms and very unlikely character behaviors began to seriously take away from my enjoyment.

The film features Amanda Ryan as governess/British intelligence agent Vera Campbell, along with would-be chaplain/German intelligence agent/saboteur Father Reynolds (Edward Atterton). Jacqueline Bisset, as an aging and infirm aristocratic English matron, is the only big name in the cast-and her role is somewhat small. The cast is solid, though, also including John Rhys-Davies as Captain Barrett and Ben Daniels as First Officer Townsend.

SPOILERS

There is certainly plenty of room for speculation with the Britannic story. Did it hit a mine? Was it torpedoed? Was an internal explosion the primary (or a secondary) cause of the sinking? If so, was it intentional? Was the hospital ship carrying contraband troops (as the real-life Germans seemed to believe) or a cache of weapons (as the movie Germans rightly believed)? These are all fair questions and any halfway feasible explanation is about as good as another. Therefore I had no trouble with the basic premise of a German spy on board and a German U-boat being involved-although the film shows the U-boat failing to sink the ship and then being destroyed by a British warship-something that did not happen.

Other than the tiresome, ever-present presence of a 1990s feminist, EXPECTING 1990s treatment (and thoroughly surprised and outraged when her male antagonists act basically as they would have in 1916 instead of 2000), the film has a few other anachronisms. For one, Atterton and Major Baker (Bruce Payne), the ship's doctor, glibly discuss the explosive dangers of coal dust in the bunkers. I could be wrong, but hasn't this phenomenon been discovered only in the past 25 or so years? Secondly, this IS 1916. Whatever Vera Campbell's morals, her sudden and uninvited (at least expressly uninvited) return to Reynold's cabin where she immediately began disrobing without a word is quite a stretch! Not having figured out his ulterior plans, she still thought he was a minister. True, they were beginning to be very attracted to each other. Yes, they had shared a steamy kiss a short while before. In 2000, perhaps the woman returning and diving into the man's bed would be a feasible occurrence. But with a MINISTER, in 1916? Not that the two of them COULDN'T have gotten together during the movie…but, my gosh…if nothing else, her assuming that he would welcome her advances was a clear lack of respect for the man and his principals! I would have to believe that 85% of REAL ministers in 1916 would have been both flabbergasted and offended (if titillated ) by a young women bursting into his room (even after sharing an earlier kiss) and disrobing.

This pales in comparison, though, with Agent Baker's suicidal desire to rescue Reynolds-AFTER she knew he was responsible for sinking the ship! Her being hesitant to leave him trapped in the sinking ship I can understand. But running back onto the ship to miraculously (love the length of time TV shipwreckees can hold their breath!) save a man who undoubtedly WOULD HANG within a few weeks' time is preposterous. What's more, despite her feminine racing heart (funny how these 1990s feminists are somehow too `feminine' to make a logical decision in movieland!), as a trained operative, she would KNOW that by aiding and abetting the enemy, she would be facing a REAL danger of being hanged, herself! This is where I felt cheated. A pre-flapper female charging around the decks of a ship, firing a pistol…OK…I can buy that within this context. There WERE female operatives throughout history. Yet, in making the character feminine and human enough to be liked, why does she have to make a mockery of the training she supposedly had received? My only possible explanation for this apparent plot hole is that only the two of them and the now-dead doctor (Payne) knew Reynold's identity. Perhaps Vera hoped they could just pretend he really WAS an innocent minister and forge a life together. This, too, sounds outrageous-although, under the stress and passion of the moment, perhaps such muddled thoughts COULD have been running through her mind.

In any case, Britannic is an intriguing little film, but one which leaves the viewer with more questions about the characters' bizarre actions than about the mystery of the ship's actual sinking.

Definitely don't watch this awful film. Basically everything is historically wrong. Weather, time of day, cause of sinking, way of sinking. Even the explosion and the killer propellers are on the wrong side. Everything is made using terrible GCI and where is looks so bad, the set is dark. The sinking is just wrong. At the end, the brittanic tips over and the whole titanic sized ship is gone in seconds. This is probably because they were too lazy to make the ship sink properly. GCI is just terrible and unrealistic, I've seen movies from the '80s and can name multiple which have better special effects.

After the high-budget high-gross success of James Cameron's Titanic, it is quite inevitable to try and make a copy-cat film about something based on the same idea. In this TV made case, it is a fictionalised story of the events concerning the Titanic's sister ship. Basically, the Britannic was a hospital ship carrying thousands of medical supplies to be used for the troops of the First World War. As it is wartime, a certain passenger, British Secret Service agent Vera Campbell (Amanda Ryan), and a survivor from the Titanic sinking, is searching for German spies. The Germans' attempt to take over the ship fails, and the spy, Reynolds (Edward Atterton) sees no choice but to cause the ship to sink. There is a lot of discussion as to how the ship sunk, it was either mine or torpedo, in this case (true or untrue, I don't know) it is a strong alcohol dropped down a drain. Obviously when the ship has water coming in very slowly, Captain Barrett (John Rhys-Davies) gives the order to abandon ship, and while Vera gets out alive, Reynolds is mashed by a propeller, and the ship eventually topples over and sinks completely. Also starring Jacqueline Bisset as Lady Lewis, Ben Daniels as First Officer Townsend, Bruce Payne as Dr. Baker, EastEnders' Alex Ferns as Stoker Evans and Eleanor Oakley as Sarah Lewis. The story is pretty thin, the acting is a little lame, and the special effects (being made for TV) are nowhere near the quality Titanic had to offer, but it does have its moments. Okay!

For a low budget film I was surprised how good the sets and props are and the cgi isnt great but watchable however all this is ruined by the terrible and disrespectful storyline. Shoot outs on the bridge, shoot outs in the boiler rooms, and then the Townsend the terminator character who destroys a torpedo with his hand cannon a Lewis gun. Throughout the film the characters repeatedly say how brittanic is unsinkable. After titanic I don't think anyone would call a ship unsinkable anymore. They also got the sinking completely wrong. It sank fast but not as fast as in the film portrayed and also she stood on end for about 5 minutes once the bow had impacted the seabed. If your bored and want a laugh then give it a watch. But don't be getting your hopes up.