20TH CENTURY FOX should be ashamed of themselves. Here's a movie that is being released at this time of the year simply because of September 11th and the events following. Behind Enemy Lines was originally suppose to be an early 2002 release, but Fox saw an opportunity and by God they took it. The country is feeling more patriotic then ever before, so of course people want to go see a movie that salutes the military. It's too bad that the movie most people will be seeing is this tripe. To say Behind Enemy Lines is a bad film would be far too kind. The only other film that can compare with the film's awfulness is this year's The Musketeer, and that's saying something.

"Die Hard meets Top Gun," has got to be the phrase used while this movie was being pitched. Those two films had qualified action directors at the helm and they were good, this film has one of those directors who has the mentality of, "I made commercials, that means I can do movies too!"

There is one mediocre scene in the entire film, and all the rest are complete junk. The one scene in the film that doesn't completely suck involves an American fighter plane being chased down by heat seeking missiles. The scene is a bit cheesy because the special effects are so obvious, but it does have a certain amount of excitement to it. The scene happens very early in the film, and the film is never able to repeat.

Have you ever watched a film that gave absolutely no effort? This is one of those movies. Take the simple story line, which is never expanded on. Owen Wilson plays a fighter pilot whose jet is shot down and his co-pilot gets killed, but he must survive and to do so he will need to run and protect himself. Gene Hackman plays the gruff Admiral who never has a kind word to say, but he'll be damned if he looses one of his boys. As luck would have it, there are other military officers who don't want to save Owen because they feel they might be starting a war.

Now I am willing to accept a stupid story line in order to enjoy an action movie, but this film is just a little too dumb for my liking. There is a scene in the film when Owen discovers his co-pilot has been captured. From the distance he watches until the inevitable, the death of his friend. Now the audience knows this is coming, Owen must have known it was coming, but when his friend gets shot in the back of the head, Owen yelps like a six year old girl, calling attention to himself and letting everyone around know where his hiding place is. The entire army that killed his friend hears his little girly-girl scream, and this is what leads them to chasing him.

There's another problem I have with the Owen Wilson character, and this is a big one, he's not very likable. At the beginning of the film he cracks really bad jokes, ranging from a Wilson the volley ball joke, to a joke that makes fun of the death of John Denver. While watching his character I thought to myself, "this guy wouldn't make it a day in the Navy, let alone 7 years." He doesn't obey orders, he argues with his superiors, and he has a very anti-military personality about him. He always has a smart remark, and that's fine with some of the characters he plays, but it seemed a tad inappropriate with this one.

Did I mention how desperately this film wants to be hip? It's like the director watched every single Michael Bay and Tony Scott film (two directors I like), combined the two techniques, and is now trying to sell it as being his own style. I got so sick of the techno music blaring every two minutes, followed by quick cuts and slow motion. This film looks like it was made by a ten year old.

I really like both Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman, but it's obvious the only reason they did this movie was for the money. No passion or care went into this film, it's just trying to make a quick dollar, and it doesn't even try to be good, let alone entertain, and that is unforgivable.






Recommended:
No