Demi Moore
captured the Razzie award for Worst Actress for
her performance in "G.I. Jane" as a woman
enrolled into the Navy SEALS training program by
an ambitious, largely self-motivated female
senator(Anne Bancroft). Everyone expects her to
fail, but...well, you know the rest of the
story. <Let's all do the wave for Jane>
I suppose I should be kinder than this subpar
"D" rating for a film that doesn't actually aim
very high but usually hits its mark. As directed
by Ridley Scott, "G.I. Jane" is a high energy,
intense and fairly mindless way to spend a
Saturday afternoon. Moore completely invests
herself in the character, turning a potential
caricature (aka "Private Benjamin") into a
genuine soldier that it's hard not to root for
throughout the film.
Yet, I actually didn't root for her and I didn't
care for her one bit. In a film such as this
one, it becomes vital that one care about the
character who endures, who survives and who
succeeds. I never cared about Moore, despite the
tremendous rigors of SEALS training. I never
cared if she suffered, I never cared if she
succeeded. I enjoyed some of the action, but
that was it.
The supporting performances were largely too
under-developed to care about, including Jason
Beghe, James Caviezel and Viggo Mortensen as her
training instructor. The script? Well, this is a
Ridley Scott film so the script consisted of
well placed and meaningful grunts.
A few decent action scenes are not enough to
salvage a bad, somewhat corny performance by
Moore along with what appears to be a mostly
improvisational script. While "G.I. Jane" was no
"Private Benjamin," well this critic would
rather have Private Benjamin fighting for him
anyday.
©
Written by Richard
Propes
TC Candler's Comment
n/a
Jacob
Hall's Comment
n/a
