Monster Music & Movies

Reviews:

Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
CBS/Fox Home Video
Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG-13. DVD
Release Date: April 23, 2002
Special features: Commentary by director John Moore and editor MartinSmith; Commentary by producers John Davis and Wick Godfrey; Behind-the-scenesfeaturette; Original "Main Title Sequence" and "End Title Sequence"with optional commentary; Alternate "Tale Off" montage with optionalcommentary; 3 extended director's cut scenes; 1 Easter Egg; Widescreenanamorphic format

Watching "Behind Enemy Lines" is like watching a recruitment commercialforthe U.S. Navy-there are swift helicopter shots of aircraft carriers, heroeswith stick-it-to-the-bureaucrats determination and plenty of fancy film stocks.In fact, this ridiculous rescue story about a pilot trapped "behind enemylines" (yawn) in Bosnia is about as close to propaganda as you can get:It was made with the full cooperation of the Navy, and the director came straightfrom videogame commercials. Boo.

I've been trying to figure out why Gene Hackman took this role-hemust have needed cash to install an indoor pool or something. If you'refeeling particularly brainless, the pilots ejecting from their damaged planeand a few other action sequences are OK, but the cartoony, one-dimensional villains(including a sharpshooter that, inexplicably, wears a track suit) and the flick'smyopic jingoism will turn off anyone conversant with international politics.Same for anyone with a working knowledge of physics-bullets can'tfollow someone over a hill. Even when said person is Owen Wilson, a talentedactor who should be lined up and shot for this war crime.