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Action
movies have become a commodity since the September 11th attacks,
especially those films about Military men overcoming tremendous
odds and beating higher forces. October's "The
Last Castle" tried to capture this ra ra American
spirit and this month's "Behind Enemy Lines" is just
another film meant to capitalize on this new Military craze.
Just it ends up being just as ridiculous as "Last Castle."
Owen Wilson stars as Lt. Chris Burnett, a pilot stationed on the
U.S.S Carl Vinson, an air craft carrier almost right next door
to Bosnia. Burnett is the cocky young pilot who spends his days
doing practice runs and going through the regular routine. But
like all young men in movies like this, he is bored by the
constant waiting around, and wants to fight for his country.
This makes him a constant problem for his commanding officer,
Admiral Leslie Reigart (Gene Hackman). Reigart knows that
Burnett has the drive, but he doesn't think he has the skills to
last two seconds in a real war. He decides to give the restless
pilot a mission though, and before he knows it, Burnett is
crossing a no-fly zone, and photographing a bunch of Bosnian
soldiers burying dead bodies.
When the Bosnians see his plane, they shoot it down, and then
lead an effort to make sure that both Chris and his partner are
dead. While his partner doesn't make it, Chris manages to escape
to the hills and contact Reigart.
Upon hearing the news, Reigart is ready to load up and bring his
boy back. But before he can do that, he finds out that going
into Bosnia will be a violation of the peace keeping agreement
the U.S has with Bosnia. This forces Burnett to fend for
himself, and also try to ditch an assassin hot on his tail.
"Behind Enemy Lines" feels like a trap for actors. It
completely denies them the ability to express their skills as
much as it just allows them to go through the motions of the
generic good guys vs. bad guys plot. The story, by David
Veloz and Zak Penn, is enough to satisfy a Chuck Norris film and
the character development is severely lacking.
The only thing Owen Wilson must do is go through one
over-stylized, and thus unbelievable, action sequence after
another (his cynical wit makes him reasonably entertaining
though). The villains barely seem to exist as anything other
than men with guns saying "find him, find him". And
Gene Hackman is barely given anything to do, and says some of
the worst dialogue since his role in "The
Replacements."
First time director John Moore manages to show his inexperience
behind the camera, as he tries to add tension by putting in
unbelievably dumb looking action sequences, such as the main
character constantly managing to dodge bullets and exploding
land mines. Were supposed to feel that Burnett is in some kind
of danger, but this movie makes it blatantly obvious that the
entire army of villains doesn't stand a chance against him.
Moore also sets his action to a rock music soundtrack, and
grounds the film with an over-killing of camera styles,
including slow motion shots and freeze frames.
His other problem, and this is the first time I've ever said
this about a film, is that he could really use some transitional
scenes, or something to show that a day has passed. There are
several occurrences in this movie where characters do big things
very quickly, or at least that is how it looks based on the fact
that the scenery never changes.
Poor Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson. I guess we will have to wait
for "The Royal Tenenbaums" to see if they work well
together. The two seem to try forming a bond here, but their
efforts look completely false. Both actors are just trapped
behind a formula, with a director and writers who have no clue
how to get them out.
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