|
|
Basic
Click on
picture to order this DVD
As Always, a review of The
Film and The DVD (extras)!
The Film:
When I made a list some time back, of the Top
10 Biggest Mistakes in Modern Film, one flaw would be irrefutably at the
top of the list. Nicknamed by this film critic as "The Scarlet
Pumpernickel Ending" --not unlike the
Daffy Duck cartoon of the same name-- it's when a movie script has absolutely no idea how to
end the story. They "solve" this dilemma, by tacking on an
ending which makes no sense whatsoever. The trouble is: Daffy Duck
intended such mistakes as a joke. What is the intent of such
finales, when used in an alleged "drama" like Basic...?
The story (what little you can gather of
it) involves a batch of recruits going with their drill sergeant to a
training exercise, where only two come back. One of them is seriously
injured; the other was shooting at his fellow soldiers
on his way to the rescue helicopter. As for the rest of their team, their
bodies have yet to be found, presumably because of the hurricane blowing
them away. It doesn't help that this team of MIAs includes a highly
decorated drill sergeant. For now, they are presumed dead, with the surviving soldier the
key suspect.
What happened here? That is what Tom Hardy
(John Travolta) has been sent in to investigate. He's an ex-soldier, brought in as a favor
for his old friend,
Col. Bill Styles (Timothy Daly). Styles wants this potentially embarrassing
situation to be as hush-hush as possible, until they confirm what went
wrong, before the
government gets involved and the whole case gets leaked to the media.
Therefore, the only two soldiers on the case are ex-ranger Hardy and Julia
Osborne (Connie Nielsen), who demanded to remain on the investigative
team. They must find out what happened, and if necessary,
"whodunit."
That's about all one can decipher from a
story whose sole cohesion is its excellent star power. The obnoxious (and now
MIA) drill sergeant is played by Samuel L. Jackson, in a style not quite
as good as Louis Gossett Junior's An
Officer and a Gentleman performance, yet is still very engaging and
effective. The injured soldier --the only known survivor, other than the
murder suspect-- is played by Giovanni Ribisi, who offers yet another fine
young-soldier role. Even Harry Connick Jr. is on hand for a cameo, as a
military doctor and ex-boyfriend of Julia's. Add to this a director like
John McTiernan (Die Hard), and you have a film that would seem
unlikely to fail...even though it does.
Such failures stem from the apparent need
to force-feed a plot twist into the mix. No, make that two plot
twists...or three! In the process, the final reel of the film is total shock value fluff, just to
make the audience very shocked, even more confused...yet not very
thrilled. It cannot be said enough: these plot twists make no sense.
Without giving too much away: why wasn't plot twist #1 averted with a simple background
check...? As for Plot Twist #2; if this was the "solution" to
this mystery, what role did the injured soldier have in all of this...?
The reasons for his injuries are never made clear. This is capped off by
a third and final twist that is so inept, one can't help wonder if Auntie
Em, Dorothy, and Toto would pop in at any moment, asking Julia to kick her
ruby slippers together three times to reach home. What type of ending is
more fanciful than The Wizard of Oz...? See
this film, and be enlightened.
However, what really irked this critic
enough to give the film a dead-bottom rating, was its portrayal
of ALL soldiers as easily corruptible and totally untrustworthy. Sure, you
can have one bad seed, though to this film, such corruption is more like a meadow of weeds.
When even the hero/heroine (without spoiling the plot twist) decides to
cave in to the villain's pressure, one can't help but feel utter bile for
the way Marines are depicted here. The message seems
to be that he/she would be better off
accepting his/her kind offer, than to bravely fight for what's right.
WRONG. Does the scriptwriter truly feel soldiers are this easily
influenced...? If they were, we'd be a Nazi-occupied, communist
government, for sure. There is clearly someone who needs to be enlightened
about The Real World here...and it isn't me.
The DVD:
While I enjoy a sense of humor now and again, I get a bit irked when a DVD
design team is overly cutesy. Featurettes on this disc, for example, are
titled "Basic: A Director's Design" and "Basic Ingredients:
A Writer's Perspective." I would've preferred a feature about the
"Basically crappy ending" though that's just me. The point is:
the first extras noticeable here are two separate featurettes. Wowee. There's
also audio commentary by director John McTiernan, and as always the
obligatory original theatrical trailers. I'd bother reviewing these
features though given my distaste for the finale, I already have one foot
out the door. See you in a more favorable review.
---Techtite
Click
on picture to order this DVD
| All text, Title
graphics, and pix not of reviewed products, are created by Techtite,
copyright 1999-2001; all rights reserved. Picture of DVD cover is used only for the purpose of review (and to make shopping for
product easier); it by no means represents any affiliation with Techtite
and the distributors of this product. For further "legalese"
& disclaimers, click here... |
|
Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
