Basic

Rating:
Summary: Full of sound and fury, signifying...well, you know.
Review: "Basic" features one of the great fakeout performances of all time from John Travolta, though it's more deplorable than admirable. If the movie is to be believed, then only the final five minutes feature Travolta's character, DEA agent Tom Hardy, speaking words that could not be considered a con job. Were "Basic" a David Mamet picture, well now. But it's a military movie about a combat accident, then murder, then drugs, then...nothing. There has to be easier ways to ferret out crooked officers than this.

Truth be told, the journey in "Basic," directed by John McTiernan, is pretty entertaining. A "training" exercise in the Panamanian jungle goes awry when a soldier (Who? How? When?) murders the sadistic drill instructor, Sgt. West (Samuel L. Jackson). Out of eight soldiers, two survive, neither is talking, and the commanding officer in Panama (Timothy Daly) has an impending image problem. Hardy is a friend called in to assist the on-base investigator (Connie Nielsen) with the predictable butt of heads ensuing.

A leaner, meaner Travolta has his moments, especially with the first uncooperative solider (Brian Van Holt). The other, wounded soldier is played by Giovanni Ribisi as a mannered, slightly deranged gay man forced to join the military by his general father. Uh huh.

Naturally, the soldiers have alternate stories that implicate one another. Naturally, there's another layer below those stories. And another. And another. The final layer reveals there were no layers; it's like icing, suspended in air, over a nonexistent cake. You can see how this might not be pleasing.

Movies can be, and often should be, clever. Every so often, movies can even fib a little -- flashbacks, for example, are seen in the eye of beholder, and are not necessarily the actual truth. "Basic" goes much further into this territory, toward blatant abuse of the audience's trust. Consider a scene where Hardy discovers that one soldier has been using the name of another; the camera zooms in on Hardy, then cuts to several scenes we've already seen in the movie, only with a different soldier in the role of the previous soldier. The way this scene is cut, it's clear these flashbacks are meant to occur in Hardy's mind; thus, he would seem to be putting together the pieces as we are.

But later, "Basic" reveals Hardy not only had this information, but concealed it. How to explain the previous scene? There is no explanation, beyond the screenwriter, James Vanderbilt, wanting to make the viewer feel like a fool. His clear obsession with a trick ending throws a javelin through the heart of the film.

Judging by the A-list supporting cast -- Jackson, Nielsen, Taye Diggs, Ribisi, Roselyn Sanchez, in a nice turn as a twisted, goofy female grunt -- "Basic" had some heft behind it. What a bitter shame it amounted to nothing.

Rating:
Summary: John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson back together at last!
Review: John Travolta plays Tom Hardy, a ex-military Ranger now DEA agent brought in by an old friend to investigate the disappearances and/or deaths of several Army Ranger trainee's and their legendary drill instructor, Sgt. Nathan West (Jackson), during an exercise at a basic training camp, Fort Clayton, in Panama.
Once Hardy gets there a series of different storys are told and changed by the trainee's that he question's on the events that occurred at this training camp. Which starts to form a huge question in the audiencies mind, WHO'S TELLING THE TRUTH? However by the end there is a huge climax and everything is explained and leaves you in half shock, half amazement. I recommend this movie to anyone who liked 'A Few Good Men' or 'Mission:Impossible'.
'Basic' has terrific performances by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta although a shaky performance by Connie Nielson. It also has great supporting acts from Giovanni Ribisi, Taye Diggs, and Brian Van Holt.

Rating:
Summary: 1 1/2 Stars
Review: This movie has a relatively interesting premise with good actors and relatively good execution. The problem with this movie is that it makes no sense.

If you like plain action, this might be ok, however, I found myself pausing this movie every ten seconds to ask the person I was watching it with what had just happened. The movie consists of the same scene repeated ten times, from a different point of view.

The characters are believable, the only problem is that the watcher has no idea what is to be believed. The twists are so numerable, and minor characters unknown and vague that it is impossible to follow. (Toward the end two characters even switch names!)

Rating:
Summary: Really Dreadful Ending that burns the film.
Review: Basic was panned by its critics and rightly so. It is opportunity squandered on a nonsensical ending. Basically the story is not so basic. In fact it is the opposite of basic and makes no sense at all. The story is about a group of trainee army recruits who must survive a training exercise only their drill instructor is killed during the task and then the recruits start killing each other and the premise is a sort of "who dun'it" with two survivors left to tell the tale and an ex-ranger brought in to interrogate the suspects. The first half of the film is great and above average for a murder mystery. There is a good story there that will keep you tuned in. The characters are farcical and the dialogue really macho vs one-liners, but the over the top treatment works for awhile. However the man who brought us Die Hard and Predator, John McTeirnan, has really gone down the tubes much like John Carpenter and William Friedkin. The ending stinks so bad that the movie is lost into 1 star purgatory. Basically it has this double twist ending and then a final third twist and at that point you just want to get your money back. It really is that stupid. Do not say you have not been warned. Basic ends in a way that casts shame on all involved.

What a waste.

Rating:
Summary: One too many plot twists doesn't always make a great movie
Review: On paper Basic is pretty much what it's title implies: a more or less basic military mystery thriller with plenty of plot twists (both conventional and unconventional), but despite a top notch cast and the film being in the hands of veteran action director John McTiernan (Die Hard, Predator), Basic falls short of it's potential thanks to some shallow performances, and one too many unconvincing plot twists. John Travolta is solid as an ex-Army ranger called in to interrogate surviving rangers of an ill-fated training exercise and find out what happened to the legendary Sgt. West (Samuel L. Jackson; excellent as always). Travolta is joined by Connie Nielsen to help with the interrogation, but as the film gets underway and the plot thickens, the viewer is left in they're seat wondering just what is going on. All that aside, Basic is a fine film on it's own right, but it had so much potential that has been laid to waste. The rest of the cast includes Brian Van Holt, Taye Diggs, Tim Daly, and Harry Connick, Jr.

Rating:
Summary: MORE TWISTS THAN A PRETZEL
Review: BASIC is one frustrating movie...I found myself wondering throughout the whole movie, what in the world is going on here? Who in the world is telling the truth? Who killed who? But, once it completes its rollercoaster ride, it leaves you snickering, come on, how can this be? And yet, I found myself riveted to the screen waiting for the "truth" to be told. John Travolta is at his smooth best in the role of an interrogator under investigation for bribery; Timothy Daly gives a good performance as his old buddy who lures him into the case; Connie Nielsen is pretty, but her performance is at times too wooden to be convincing; Brian van Holt is excellent as Ray, the stubborn soldier; Giovanni Ribisi (so good in "The Gift") is a little too "gay" in his role, but convincing; Samuel L. Jackson is Samuel L. Jackson, but certainly makes you hate him. John McTiernan's direction (he of the Die Hard fame) is crisp and shrouded in mystery. If you have a low frustration level, you may give up on "Basic"; but stick with it; it's ending comes out of nowhere, but it does have an impact.

Rating:
Summary: Worst movie ever!
Review: Worst movie ever!

Please subtract 1 star from the 1 star rated.

Rating:
Summary: Yow!
Review: John Travolta as a soldier, cop, DEA agent or any sort of gun-weilding protagonist is simply not believable, therefore, the pretext for "Basic" is flawed before the story ever takes root.

Travolta reached his peak when he took top billing in "Saturday Night Fever", doing a great job of portraying a Brooklyn kid who is coming of age during the 70's disco era. But, outside of "Pulp Fiction" it's been all downhill after that, with a string of failures like "Stayin' Alive", "Broken Arrow", "Battlefield Earth", "Swordfish", and lest we forget, "Look Who's Talking II".

In "The Thin Red Line" Travolta played a U.S. Army General officer by method acting, evidently by imitating a talking plant. This (...) effort no doubt greatly contributed to the failure of that film to garner any sort of approval by veiwing audiences.

"Basic" is another such failure. Casting Travolta in a roles like the DEA agent he plays in this film is like a kiss of death for the entire project. For one thing, the idea that his character is a former Army Ranger is a hoot. Casting somebody like Pauly Shore or maybe even Martin Short as a a former Army Ranger would be more believable.

Very predictably, Travolta manages to stink up the whole story, which isn't all that great to begin with. Yet, with an extremely limited acting range, Travolta continues to crank out box office bomb after bomb after bomb.

Oh well... That's Hollywood politics. After all, no one ever went broke underestimating the sophistication of the American public...

Rating:
Summary: Basic deception
Review: This is by far Travolta's best movie since "Face-off". Basic is almost impossible to predic, that's what I love about this moive, not many thrillers can do that anymore. The ending was great! Much better ending than "Identity", why? because it is not a let down, many movies now days end with you saying what's was the point, for one Tarantino's movies(Pulp Fiction), even if their not bad movies they always living you saying what's the point. Another great thing about basic is the cast, Academy Award nomine Sam Jackson and the very hot Connie Nielsen, she sould be in more stuff. Once Agian Travolta's has made another winner! He relly has proved to be one of the best actors of all time. If you like this movie, try out "The General's Daughter", "Snake Eyes".

Rating:
Summary: Who Writes This Stuff?
Review: Over the past five years or so, Hollywood has been hit with a string of surprise ending movies. In the right hands (see "The Sixth Sense") the surprise ending can make an average movie excellent. In the wrong hands though it can make an average movie terrible.

Terrible is what you get with the military thriller "Basic". The movie starts with Col Styles (Tim Daly) flying over a jungle in Central America watching one of his men shoot another one of his men on a training mission. The man in question, Dunbar (Brian Van Holt), happens to be carrying another wounded soldier over his shoulder. That soldier is Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi). To make things interesting Kendall just happens to be the son of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Styles calls in Tom Hardy (John Travolta) to see if he can figure out what's going on. Styles doesn't have enough faith in his current interrogator, Capt Osborne (Connie Nielsen). To top it all off, Hardy is an ex-Ranger currently employed by the Drug Enforcement Agency. He is under investigation by the Justice Department for taking bribes from drug smugglers too.

What we have of course is a first class riddle that needs to be solved by Hardy to find out what happened in the jungle. The only thing we know is that Dunbar and Kendall are the only survivors of the exercise and neither is saying much.

For most of this movie, Travolta and Nielsen provide enough interested perplexity to carry along what is essentially a dead story. There are so many double backs and hidden meanings in this movie as to make everything that's going on seem positively fake. But Travolta and Nielsen some how make it work.

The movie continues to work until the very end. It works until Osborne thinks she's figured everything out and goes to confront the bad guys. It is here the movie completely falls off the reality cliff. I obviously can't reveal what happens because that would "spoil" the ending. Of course, with this movie, the writers do a plenty good job of that themselves.