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Visitors since
April 1999.
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BEHIND ENEMY LINES
 
Starring Owen Wilson, Gene Hackman, Joaquim de Almeida,
Olek Krupa, Vladimir Maskov, David Keith and Gabriel Macht
Director John Moore
Canadian Rating 14A
Released by 20th Century Fox - 11/01
The producers of “Behind Enemy Lines” bumped their film’s release date ahead two full months in hopes of capitalizing on the patriotic state of the nation after the devastation of Sept. 11. A film about the valor and courage of an American naval pilot facing immeasurable obstacles was something that 20th Century Fox felt would play well with viewers during this time of international crisis.
Granted, “Behind Enemy Lines” isn’t even a serious war movie - more a live-action Nintendo game with the invincibility cheat option engaged. The unkillable hero is Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson), who finds himself scrambling for his life after his aircraft is shot down during a routine reconnaissance mission over Bosnian soil. Burnett and his co-pilot (Gabriel Macht) mistakenly took a few aerial snap-shots of something the Serbs are apparently quite sensitive about, and now, a ruthless tracker (Vladimir Maskov) is dispatched to hunt Burnett down before he becomes anything more of a nuisance. The U.S. military, meanwhile, doesn’t think it wise to attempt a rescue mission (the details are complicated), but Lt. Leslie Riegert (Gene Hackman) is intent on getting Burnett out at any cost -- including going over the head of his NATO superior (Joaquim de Almeida), who doesn’t want to call attention to the situation.
Debut director John Moore is obviously fond of hyper-cut action sequences and delivers a few doozies, including the smoky display of Wilson running through an open field of explosive trip-wires. Some of the breakneck editing made my head spin, but ultimately the emphasis on blowing stuff up is the saving grace. Owen Wilson, normally suited to the loose comic roles in “Meet the Parents” and “Zoolander”, also gives us something more than the generic action hero with his portrayal of Burnett. The always-intense Gene Hackman commands what limited screen time he has, while other familiar faces like David Keith and Olek Krupa are relegated to your standard good guy/bad guy corners. Hackman is so good at this stuff... when he barks orders, I’d stand up and listen.
The problem with “Behind Enemy Lines” is that the film is eminently forgettable, in spite of the producers’ flagrant efforts to engrain a patriotic message in our mind. The plot is your standard action formula, juiced up with some well-choreographed mayhem and intent on covering every military cliché in the book. At the present time, the movie is a joke. If I casually remind myself that this is no serious war movie, however, then “Behind Enemy Lines” isn’t bad for its hair-raising action pyrotechnics. Taken as anything more, however, it’s typical Hollywood drivel.
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©2003, 2002 Jamey Hughton |
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