Basically crap...
Do you remember how famous John Travolta was
back in the late 70's and early 80's? Well,
somehow he managed to sink that career with
amazing effectiveness. Then came 'Pulp Fiction',
and Quentin Tarantino single-handedly revived
that career and turned him into one of the
biggest stars of the past decade. And now, as we
have all learned in life, history is starting to
repeat itself. With absolute bombs like
'Battlefield Earth', 'Lucky Numbers' and now
'Basic'... Travolta is doing his utmost to
harpoon that bloated success and return to the
desperation and anonymity he felt in the late
80's.
Just think of this stunning fact... He hasn't
had a major box office hit since 1997!!!
With 'Basic', he and everyone else involved in
this project has jumped in to the most popular
Hollywood genre of the moment... the
mind-bending twist on a twist inside a
psychological thriller that doesn't really make
any sense. At the end of a movie like this, all
one can feel is a sense of being duped. Duped
out of $10.
The plot, if you can call it that, revolves
around a Drug Enforcement Agent (Travolta) and
his partner (Nielsen) who are called in to
investigate the disappearance of several
soldiers from an Army base in Panama. The film
then proceeds to reel off multiple versions of
the story from various witnesses and
survivors... the list is endless and so are the
interpretations. After the third or fourth
different version, you will stop caring.
Travolta plays the same action character you
have seen in other films like 'The General's
Daughter' and 'Face Off'. His performance is
truly unoriginal and stale. Samuel L. Jackson
does his best impression of himself as he spouts
off multiple one liners that are used in the
trailers to show how much of a bad-ass he can
be. But we are all now painfully aware that Sam
Jackson only has one character in his
repertoire, and if you are not already sick of
it, I suppose you will enjoy his role. Connie
Nielsen is far too good an actress to be in a
piece of shit like this. Her role consists of
being the tough chick with two emotions...
concerned and more concerned.
It's a real shame to see another turkey from
Travolta, but it is a shock to see one from
director John McTiernan of 'Die Hard' fame. He
is typically very good with this type of
material. But here he seems bogged down by a
ridiculous story that fails to do anything but
infuriate the audience.
This film is the definition of an eye-roller!
©
Written by TC Candler
Richard
Propes' Comment
How many
decent actors does it take to make a bad movie?
<holding up my hand> "This many!" This
film had potential to be a fairly watchable
flick, but all the decent actors are in
supporting roles. I don't begrudge Travolta a
career resurgence after Pulp Fiction, but it's
painful to see him squander it on garbage films
like this one.
Jacob
Hall's Comment
N/A
