Basic Movie Review:


Basic is a militaristic thriller that reveals its clues quickly like an unraveling ball of yarn. After all the twists and secrets are revealed, the outcome still manages to have a few knots in it.

The film opens in the rainy atmosphere of Panama with a jungle training exercise of Army rangers going unexpectedly wrong. The end result is four out of the six trainees are dead along with their ruthless trainer, Sgt. Nathan West (Jackson). Ex-ranger and interrogator Tom Hardy (Travolta) is brought in to assist Army investigator Lt. Osborne (Nielsen) with the questioning of the two survivors at a Panama Army base. Hardy is cocky and playful, but also knows how to get into a person’s mind. Osborne is a butt-kicking military woman that doesn’t like the idea of Hardy interfering with her investigation. The two survivors are the elusive Raymond Dunbar (Van Holt) and the bed-ridden
Levi Kendall (Ribisi). As Hardy and Osborne eventually begin working together, many different flashbacks, point of views, and narrations take over
the story in explaining what happened in the jungle with the trainee unit. The film pushes your mind to its limit and the final answers are what one would least expect.

Director John McTiernan does a fine job of keeping the audience guessing with the tensional elements in Basic. McTiernan’s past work has either been really good, like with Die Hard (1988), or really bad like with Rollerball (2002). He does a solid job of establishing the rainy tropical atmosphere of Panama his actors glow as the truth of the story keeps jumping back and forth. The problem with the film’s puzzle is that the clues and answers are never totally explained visually, a good deal is revealed through dialogue.

James Vanderbilt could be the blame for this; since his script turns so much that some of the story’s clarity and motive is underdeveloped. The jumping
back and forth through point of views gets out of hand and actually annoying at times. This is relevant in the beginning of the film, when Hardy first questions his old commander pal (Daly) if there are any outside occurrences involved with the incident. As the Tim Daly character reveals vital
information to Hardy, the focus goes back to Nielsen’s Osborne, with the information being put on the backburner until the last half hour of the film.
I sense that this is the first clue that the main protagonist is Osborne. It is hard to determine if the film is from her point of view, is she the main
character, is it Hardy, or is it both of them? So much of the attention and focus are put on the Tom Hardy character. The twists and turns of the film
are like a blend between a who-done-it mystery and Courage Under Fire (1996). A lot of Basic’s genre nature has been compared to The Usual Suspects (1995); there is no way that the two films can be put in the same category. The Usual Suspects is a stylish mind-boggler that explained all the secrets through its final act. Basic has an ending, but everything is by no means clear. Perhaps
I should watch Basic a few times, but I believe there will still be some holes in the script.

As Hardy, John Travolta gives one of his better performances since Pulp Fiction (1995) brought him back in the spotlight. It is a Travolta performance where he actually holds the screen instead of trying to be a force, like he attempted to do in Battlefield Earth (2000). Connie Nielsen has a better character to work than she did in the recently released The
Hunted (2003), but her southern accent is way off. Nevertheless, as Lt. Osborne, Nielsen still shows she has a presence as an upcoming lead actress.
It is also very amusing to see her smack a few of the male actors in the films. Samuel L. Jackson is right on with his egotistical training Sergeant
Nathan West. Jackson’s performance reflects the actor’s arrogant, but likeable charisma, which has made him a movie star. Other notable acting in
the film includes the work by Giovanni Ribisi, Taye Diggs and Brian Van Holt as some of the trainee soldiers. Each has their own moments, but are playing catch up with the two lead actors.

Basic is a keep-you-guessing thriller that has a workable blend of tension, action, and humor. Though the patterns of twisted mind games and narrations that nearly gives you a headache, the film is to an extent enjoyable even though some of the outcomes are loose and vague.

Report Card Grade: C+

Joseph C. Tucker

John Travolta returns to the silver screen as a disjointed ex-military man turned DEA agent who is trying to unravel a mystery. Maybe John should be looking at the mystery of his fading cliché-ridden career, instead.

Charismatic Travolta plays Agent Tom Hardy, who is summoned by friend Chief Warrant Officer Pete Wilmer (Tim Daly) to look into the disappearance of infamous Army ranger drill sergeant Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson). It seems that strange things are afoot at the old USO.

Wilmer teams Hardy with Lt. Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen) in the investigation. Their first suspect is the only healthy survivor of the altercation Private Dunbar (Brian Van Holt). Who will turn the tables on whom? What’s the biggest secret surrounding the disappearance of West? And what is it with John Travolta’s Hardy sprawling out on a table before Dunbar?

Basic is in the purest of words, a “basic” mystery. There is nothing flashy, shocking, debonair or risky about the thriller. The only thing that may be of interest to fans of the mystery genre is the film’s flip-flopping ending. As the film screeches towards its eventual conclusion it takes liberties to fool the audience. Some of the leads and twists are logical and worthy. But it’s the film’s second to final hurrah that leaves me saying to myself, was that just a Scooby Doo ending I just saw. The ending is almost a cop-out and becomes even more so as the final chips are laid into place.

I also found a lot of Basic unwatchable. The pelting rainstorm, lightning flashes, gunfire and screaming men repeated at least four times made for a hard time in the theatre. The lighting in 85% of this film is atrocious. The lighting is so bad that half the time I can’t even tell who is who. That should be pretty hard to do when we are talking the difference between a group of grunts and actress-model Roselyn Sanchez.

The acting in this film is also quite flat. I felt that Nielsen’s Osborne felt a lot like a Sharon Stone or Joan Allen clone. She had no chemistry with Travolta’s over-the-top Hardy. I liked seeing Tim Daly in a significant role. It was also nice seeing Harry Connick Jr. in a different kind of role.

I could even begin to imagine what director John McTiernan was expecting from his take on this film. Well what do you expect when director, cinematographer, casting director and costume designer all worked together on the 2002 goose-egg “Rollerball”? This revelation explains so many of the reasons why this film is unwatchable. McTiernan used to be one of my favorite directors since he brought forth 2 Die Hard films, Predator, Thomas Crown Affair, Hunt for Red October and Thirteen Warrior. I guess it just goes to show that when McTiernan wants to stink he does it in style. Some of his giant stinkers include Medicine Man, Last Action Hero and of course Rollerball. Don’t worry John, your due for a great film soon.

(1.5 of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

After a platoon of Army Rangers are decimated on a training exercise in the jungles of Panama, former Ranger Tom Hardy (Travolta) is brought in to help with the interrogation of the surviving members. As one story seems to clash with another, Hardy and Lt. Osborne (Nielsen) are getting no closer to finding out why most of the team were murdered or if it was a revenge plot against Sgt. Nathan West (Jackson) for his brutal training methods.

A military murder thriller that has so many twists and turns that your head will end up spinning.

There are so many red herrings and blind alleyways that the plot throws at you or takes you down, you can’t help but get slightly bored with the constant guessing game. It does keep you guessing and predicting who has done what or who is behind the entire thing but the finale is slightly confusing, far too short and completely lacking it any real explanation to make any sense. Even Connie Nielsen character looks as confused as the rest of us.

The performances are fine. John Travolta is his usual cocky, arrogant self, a role that he seems to have labelled himself with for the pass few years. Connie Nielson is a good as ever, but deserves more challenging roles than this and Giovanni Ribisi is slightly over the top as Lt. Levi Kendall. There is also good support from the underrated Timothy Daly and Taye Diggs. The highlight is Samuel L. Jackson, as he is as cool as ever, even when playing a potential bad guy.

Director John McTiernan simply goes through the motions and is never really taxed. It is hard to believe that he directed Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October, as this movie never shows any of the passion or pace of either of those great action dramas.

The major crime this movie makes is that Travolta and Jackson only share the screen for one scene. Any possibility of seeing the electric chemistry that they generated in Pulp Fiction is dashed and fans dying to see the pair share the screen again will be severely disappointed.

Basic has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the finale, but a confusing outcome totally spoils what could have been a decent Military drama.

Star Rating = * *

Jamie Kelwick

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