X
- 2003
- R
- Columbia Pictures
- 1 h 38 m
- 2003
- R
- Columbia Pictures
- 1 h 38 m
Summary When a legendary commander (Jackson) and several of his men turn up missing, the last thing the government wants is a rogue DEA agent (Travolta) investigating the disappearance. As the investigation unfolds, the agent is placed in direct conflict with the Army's official investigating officer (Nielsen) and nothing is as it seems. (Sony)
Directed By: John McTiernan
Written By: James Vanderbilt
- 2003
- R
- Columbia Pictures
- 1 h 38 m
- 2003
- R
- Columbia Pictures
- 1 h 38 m
Basic
34
7.4
Where to Watch
Summary When a legendary commander (Jackson) and several of his men turn up missing, the last thing the government wants is a rogue DEA agent (Travolta) investigating the disappearance. As the investigation unfolds, the agent is placed in direct conflict with the Army's official investigating officer (Nielsen) and nothing is as it seems. (Sony)
Directed By: John McTiernan
Written By: James Vanderbilt
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
34
12% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
42% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
45% Negative
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
34
12% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
42% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
45% Negative
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
Buy your ticket, sit yourself down, and let ol' John take you for a ride. You'll have a blast.
Confused, and confusing.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 47 User Ratings
7.4
66% Positive
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
23% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
11% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 47 User Ratings
7.4
66% Positive
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
23% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
11% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
Really good film with strong, good actors. It is an action film with a twist. Probably enjoyable by most ages over **** you liked Fight Club,Sixth Sense,Memento,Identity & The General's Daughter then watch this.
Sent to investigate a training mission that goes wrong,nothing is as it seems.John Travolta returns to form as a military man ( he is brilliant in General's Daughter) the very qunitessential Prince oF Cool & If you think that is good then the King of Cool Samuel L Jackson is also in it.
Highly recommend as a good crime thriller & great for Christmas time present
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Alright, yes this sort of film has been made before (Courage Under Fire) and yes it is a very military film. If you are one of those people who watch military films because of the guns and blood and guts then you won't enjoy this. That is not because this doesn't have those things, it does, but this is a thriller not a shoot'em up.
On to the film; the film itself is very mysterious, you don't quite know whats happening some of the time. Don't worry, this is meant to happen and it only adds to the film. Certain reviewers slated this film, probably because they enjoy shoot'em ups. This film doesn't focus on the weapons used by the 75th Army Regiment (US Army Rangers), or their soldiering tactics. This focuses on soldiers going through tough training, you might relate it to Royal Marines training, psychological and muscular rather than just the latter. I won't give away the plot, but this is a great film, not what you might expect from either Travolta or Jackson.
If you liked Courage Under Fire, or simply like thrillers with twists (and primarily do know a little bit about the military, not just guns) then you will like this film.
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The tepid result is like "Courage Under Fire" without the compelling Meg Ryan angle, or Travolta's 1999 "The General's Daughter" without the sexual squalor. It all feels a little moldy.
Travolta’s performance in Basic is irritatingly familiar to his overacted, spastic performance in "The General’s Daughter." Either that, or he’s channeling Nicholas Cage from “Face Off” again.
When the film stumbles to its last and silliest conclusion, you realize much of the plot line was unnecessary -- or couldn't have happened at all!
It begins in a muddle and ends in confusion.
Basic really brings to mind a Travolta film from 2000, "Battlefield Earth," in that it's so astonishingly awful it becomes a sort of kinky pleasure; just when you think Travolta has fallen to the bottom of the barrel, he pulls out a shovel and dons his miner's helmet to see what lies beneath.
When things go wrong in the armed forces, an investigative procedure often follows. In this film, when you think you've got it figured out, you're wrong... and the suspense just keeps culminating, and you end up on the edge of your sofa trying to figure out what went wrong, and you just can't until the very end. You're literally gobsmacked.
Travolta and L. Jackson are truly amazing in their performances in Basic, as they were in Pulp Fiction.
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When I saw this film I was expecting it to be, well, basic. However, in reality I received a pleasant surprise. Basic is one of the best films I have seen recently because it kept me entertained until the credits. Plot twists and changes keep the suspense throughout the film and the actors add to the experience. I thought the performances of Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta were incredible an the power of their parts was quite astounding. All of the actors displayed a connection with their characters which I have found to be very rare in films today.
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There is nothing basic about Basic. I thought this movie was superb; maybe I'm easier to please than a lot of the people who criticize the script because I found this to be one of the most intelligent, mesmerizing, blow-your-mind movies I've ever seen. It's a rare treat to find a movie that is not completely predictable these days, and Basic takes unpredictability and surprise to unheard of levels. There was one small aspect of the saga I successfully predicted early on, but the rest of the twists and turns this movie takes had me doing mental gymnastics. Every time you start to think you've seen at least a shadow of the light, this movie rips the rug back out from under you and plunges you into even darker depths of confusion and doubt. Best of all, this elaborate plot actually holds together, which is really just amazing. Basic is a movie that makes you think, and I have no problem admitting that I was often at a loss as to what was really going on; Basic did not insult my intelligence in any way shape or form; it challenged it constantly and delightfully humbled me in the process.
At the center of the story is a Special Forces training mission that goes horribly awry. Only two of six soldiers make it out of the Panamanian jungle, one of whom is injured and the other of whom isn't talking. The base commander Styles (Timothy Daly) calls in his old buddy Hardy (John Travolta) to interrogate the witness because he feels the job is over the head of Army investigator Osborne (Connie Nielsen). Before the feds get involved, Styles wants to know why the unit leader Sgt. West (Samuel L. Jackson) and four soldiers are lying dead somewhere out in the jungle. Hardy is a former Ranger who served under and hated West, but he is now an agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency. Hardy gets the one soldier to tell his version of events, only to hear a much different story from the injured soldier when he wakes up in the hospital. So begins a quest for the truth that has Hardy and Osborne running back and forth between witnesses, discovering unexpected aspects of the case such as the existence of drug-smuggling operations being carried out inside the base and hospital, and discovering that the big fish they are striving so hard to reel in is one big whopper indeed.
Do things become confusing? That's affirmative, but I see this in a positive light. This movie makes you stop and think, turning over what you have heard in your own mind not so much to predict the future as to merely stay caught up with the twists and turns you have just seen revealed before your very eyes. In the final analysis, one or two little aspects of the presentation, which occur largely in the form of dream-like flashbacks, may have a weak leg to stand on but never come close to collapsing or falling over. Some will probably be tempted to just throw their hands up in the air and give up trying to understand everything, but those who love a challenge, especially one presented in such a theatrical and awe-inspiring way, will find themselves energized and inspired to a degree few movies can hope to duplicate. For my money, Basic is one of the most intelligent, suspenseful thrillers I've seen in a long time.
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I am the kind of film viewer who has the knack of losing a plot. Very quickly. So when I came to the end of Basic for the first time, thoroughly confused and befuddled, I supposed it was just me and that I needed to get my brain in gear next time. But it wasn't just me and no amount of brain power seems to help sort fact from fiction in this foggy mystery. Travolta and Nielsen play ex-ranger Tom Hardy and Captain Osbourne who are thrown together to investigate the disappearance of Sgt. West (Jackson) in a training exercise. Cue a baffling maze of twists and turns in which some of the key players are there and then not; some are killed off and then not; one turns out to be **** not? And so on... but you do have to admire Osbourne for sticking it out and unravelling it all at the end. If it was me overseeing this mess, a bottle of wine and a darkened room would be where I was headed. I enjoyed the dark jungle action sequences, Jackson getting mad and the sort of chemistry Travolta and Nielsen had in their roles, but a lot of this was lost in the fog that shrouded much of this film. If like me, you are attracted by the Jackson / Travolta combo, you may be disappointed to find they share about five minutes on screen. Just don't expect to care much about either of their characters by the time it happens.
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Une bavure lors d'un entraînement militaire au Panama sous la houlette du méchant instructeur Jackson (qui s'amuse beaucoup), Travolta qui débarque comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles en improbable duo avec la capitaine Connie Nielsen : ces deux-là mènent alors l'enquête avec et contre les témoins -et suspects- restants à la manière d'A l'épreuve du feu.
ça fonctionne plutôt bien pendant (presque) les deux tiers du film malgré le cabotinage regrettable de Travolta, puis c'est la foire aux rebondissements débiles et aux révélations sorties d'une pochette-surprise jusqu'à la fin qui se vautre dans le ridicule, pour ne pas dire dans le foutage de gueule.
J'aime beaucoup Connie, sa jolie silhouette et son visage hypnotique, ce qui me pousse à une indulgence certaine. La réalisation de McTiernan est correcte mais sans plus et assez loin de celle de Predator (putain, c'est loin Predator, ça ne nous rajeunit pas !) mais ce foutoir qui sert de scénario est une mauvaise farce qui n'en finit plus de se prendre les pieds dans le tapis.
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Awards
The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards
• 2 Nominations
Golden Trailer Awards
• 1 Nomination
