I have no clue if the story is accurate or not (not when I read some other reviews) but to me it just didn't really matter as I watched this movie to be entertained and entertaining it was. I vaguely remember the details when the drama happened for real but the details that I remembered were all present in this movie. Personally I would have used the real languages of the characters instead of making a full English spoken movie. I'm sorry but when you have an entire Russian crew you expect them to speak Russian and not English. I'm a Belgian and used to read subtitles so that was what I was expecting. Matthias Schoenaerts, definitely one of my favorite Belgian actors did another good job playing his character. There are no weak moments in Kursk what makes this story a captivating movie. And whatever the accuracy of details are the fact that so many people lost their lives because of the stubborness of their superiors is just a big shame. Like in any other war the high ranked never risk anything, they get the praising in case of victories, and are never to blame if something goes wrong, so for that it's all well accurate to me.

Most know about the Kursk incident yet know little otherwise. A terrible Cold War accident in which one of Russia's cutting edge subs sank due to an internal explosion - with survivors. The surviving crew was detected by the Russians who wouldn't ask for crucial help in the short window of saving those still alive. Expected? Well it's not a project such as The International Space Station - vastly different long-standing veils of secrecy dictate the Russian's inept posturing and faulty decisions. This is the story we haven't, mostly, been aware of. It's chilling as it depicts the human cost. This movie seems to pull few punches and doesn't bow to Hollywood-like bombast. It isn't meant to entertain so much as to enlighten with respectful homage given the crew. It succeeds and is a film that is easy to highly recommend.

The underwater world ... quite astonishing and something that will really get some of those viewing. You cannot be claustrophobic - yes there have been classics in the submarine genre or underwater movies or whatever you want to call them. They all have the tension and people in common we as viewers cared for.

Getting good actors to be in this was paramount (no pun intended). There always has has to be an inciting incident. And there are always some cliches that you can expect - still this is above ... average. Again no pun intended.

When there is an added flavor of true life drama ... well it may work quite well - as it does in this case. Based on a true story can be a bummer or something that people will roll their eyes to if they see it ... but I think this is one exception to that case. I had heard of this - but I did not know the details. So while I'm guessing they are taking liberties in telling the story, it works for the experience watching this.