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I am a retired U.S. Navy Captain, an Engineering Duty Officer who ran shipyards for many years and was Chief Engineer of an aircraft carrier. Ships and what make them tick were my thing for 30 years. I trained for the disaster depicted in "The Last Voyage" for many years and fortunately never encountered it.

I can tell you with some expertise that this is the most realistic film of this genre ever made. I was astounded watching it. They actually got most of the terminology and sequence of events correct. Edmund O'Brien made a convincing Engineer. It could almost be a training film for: > attempting to manually trip a boiler safety valve > shoring up a bulkhead in an adjacent flooded space etc.

If you want to see what something like this might be like, watch this film. I also found the ending pretty suspenseful - I wasn't quite sure who was going to live, and who was going to die.

Simply put, this film is completely senseless and ridiculous without the panache or entertainment of 'Pulp Fiction'. Yes, the psychopathic killer is menacing, but so what? Movie history is replete with incredibly evil and menacing villains, and there is nothing particularly spectacular about this guy relative to, say, Hannibal Lechter. Tommy Lee Jones, whom I like a lot, is deadpan and not that interesting. Woody Harrelson's character is a distraction to the film and, again, senseless.

Bottom line, I don't see what the hype was all about, and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I lived in Japan three times in my life for a total of about eight years. The first time as a child in Tokyo in the mid-60's when it was very different than now. The last time for me (2003 - 2005), was the culmination of a career, and both personally and professionally the best time of my life (and my family's) so far. My wonderful situation there can never be recreated for me. So this movie evokes emotion in me on several levels.

The story of the connection between Bob and Charlotte is sweet, and I love the fact that there is no apparent physical affair between them. It would have cheapened their relationship. In a different way, it also captures some of the relationships and friendships that are forged by foreigners abroad. If you haven't experienced it, it's hard to describe. We made some of our closest friends living in Japan. So their parting is bittersweet and the relationship a memorable one.

Sofia Coppola's depiction of a Gaijin visiting Japan for the first time is right on the mark. For those of us who have lived there, it's very, very funny and captures many of the little nuances, strangeness and feel of Tokyo. She captures some of the absolute beauty of Kyoto and the train ride there.

So the film brings back a lot of wonderful memories for me. I'll continue to watch this film every time I want to remember what that best time in my life felt like. A masterpiece.