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 Behind
Enemy Lines
 
Starring:
Owen Wilson, Gene Hackman, Joaquim de Almeida , Gabriel Macht
and David Keith
Directed by:John Moore
Rated: R
We
meet the US Navy boyz sitting on a war carrier watching of the
Serbian Bosnian war zone. The crew is bored with the lack of action
they're seeing.
One
fighter plane navigator in particular, Mr. All-American Dairy
Land Man Lt. Chris Burnett (Owen "Hawk" Wilson), wants
to go to war and get the bad guys real bad, that or fly
rock stars for a living. He's decided the Navy isn't for him,
with all its calmness, and wants out. He has submitted his letter
of intent to leave when this tour is up to the salty- as- a -pretzel
-double dipped- in- kosher salt, Admiral Reigart (Gene "Fisticuffs"
Hackman).
As
a spiteful little power trip/lesson to Burnett, Reigart sends
him and his pilot Lt. Stackhouse (Gabriel —kind of cute gals—Macht)
on holiday flight duty.
They
are to run through the air and keep the multi-million dollar craft
up to par should any need for its use become necessary. A simple
routine reconnaissance mission...
While
out and whining, the two see a movement of ground units where
there should be nothing but pristine Bosnian forest. They stray
off the flight path and discover a horrible secret. They quickly
snap incriminating photos and race away...
But,
what ever they've just seen gets them engaged in warfare, shot
down and placed directly behind enemy lines - hence the title.
Burnett
is left alone (it's in all the previews-- so I'm not giving anything
away) and must reach the safe area by foot. Of course thanks to
their little photo shoot an entire battalion of mean generic badly
clothed militants are hunting his every step and there's even
a hitman-esque type villian who tracks him as well-- always about
five minutes behind the undestructable soldier.
Burnett
is trained well (by a studio team of union stunt workers it seems)
and has the necessary equipment (even a swiss army knife) to make
it to his rendezvous point...if he's not captured and executed
by the 501 enemies following him, that is.
There's
lots of political going ons, and war scenes to keep the genre
lovers happy through to the end. But Behind Enemy Lines
has too much dramatic editing and hard to fathom scenarios to
make it a four star film. You will like it if you're into war
films- there's plenty of shooting and tanks for all! But, it lacks
a soul. Towards the end it finds a bit and you may even get teary
eyed as a red-white-and-blue blooded American. More because of
the state of affairs at hand than because of the actual film.
Owen Wilson should stick to comedy. It's his gig man. He's also
a talented screenwriter and has a cozy friendship with hysterical
Ben Stiller. I like the guy....not in this....but in general.
Bottom
line, on Enemy Line? If you just must see war films, this one's
not bad. Gene Hackman is his usual stealth self. The action is
great, the editing, with the slow mo so popular gets grating,
the story is good, the acting fine. For those who think Hogan's
Heroes is a traumatic wartime experience- skip it.
Snack
Recommendation: Water only, even if your hungry, to feel as
Burnett feels...
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