MOVIE - BASIC - Review Rating $$$$$ $ (OUT OF 10)
STARRING-John Travolta (Tom Hardy), Connie Nielsen (Lt. Osborne), Samuel L. Jackson (Sgt. West), Tim Daly (Chief Warrant Officer Wilmer), Giovanni Ribisi (Levi), Taye Diggs, Brian Van Holt, Roselyn Sanchez & Harry Connick Jr.
DIRECTOR - John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard, The Thomas Crown Affair,
The Hunt for Red October)
A DEA Agent, and former Army Ranger, is brought into investigate an Army Ranger training mission that goes terribly wrong.
After watching Basic the most pressing thought I had was that the title had little or nothing to do with the movie. Basic is a reworking of another Travolta movie, The General's Daughter. There is a subplot involving a General's son (Giovanni Ribisi) but I guess they decided against calling it The General's Son for obvious reasons. Maybe they called it Basic because the movie employs every basic plot device necessary for a murder mystery.
Basic is far from original but it does succeed at its basic mission of being entertaining. There's some humour, decent acting, and the requisite number of plot twists required of movies of this type. The twists and turns are not always completely obvious so you won't solve the mystery moments after the film begins. That being said, some of the plot twists verge on the ridiculous and others rely on hiding vital information from the viewer to succeed.
The most distracting aspect of Basic was the fake rain. Despite hurricane force winds and driving rain you'll notice that the surface of the jungle river is totally calm. I guess the budget didn't allow for rough water.
Travolta and Jackson, teaming up for the first time since Pulp Fiction, do a good job with their respective roles. Travolta, in particular, appears to be enjoying himself. He hams it up a bit at times, in a nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more fashion, but the performance still works because both he and the audience know this isn't a film meant to be taken seriously. Connie Nielsen keeps a straight face throughout her performance and she does a credible job of playing Travolta's ernestwhile co-investigator. Tim Daly's performance (from the T.V. show Wings) is a bit suspect but otherwise the supporting cast does a decent job.
Basic is one of those films, if your in the right frame of mind, that can be entertaining while watching it and completely forgotten about before the credits finish rolling.
Running time - 95 minutes
ALTERNATIVE REVIEWS:
Roger Ebert's Review
Peter Travers Rolling stone Review
Rotten tomatoes Reviews
BASIC OFFICIAL WEBSITE
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2003
David Schwartz.
Last update:
8/9/03; 11:07:43 PM.
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