Behind Enemy Lines is junk food, but it's patriotic junk food, and it's tasty enough.
Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:127
Fresh:46
Rotten:81
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: The plot for Behind Enemy Lines is more jingoistic than credible, and the overload of flashy visual tricks makes the action sequences resemble a video game.
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
US Box Office: $58,767,833
Synopsis: On a reconnaissance flight over eastern Europe, disillusioned naval pilot Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) and his partner, Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht), photograph a scene they were not meant to see.... On a reconnaissance flight over eastern Europe, disillusioned naval pilot Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) and his partner, Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht), photograph a scene they were not meant to see. When their plane is shot down and Stackhouse is quickly captured and executed, Burnett must struggle to survive in unfamiliar hostile territory with a cold-blooded assassin and hundreds of enemy troops on his heels. Meanwhile, on an American battleship in the Adriatic Sea, Burnett's commanding officer, Admiral Reigart (Gene Hackman), attempts to negotiate his soldier's return amidst tense political and military maneuvers. Soon Burnett discovers exactly why he's being hunted, making his situation--and Reigert's actions--even more perilous. Benefiting from Wilson's straightforward performance and Hackman's typically engaging presence, BEHIND ENEMY LINES proves itself with a solid story (loosely based on real-life events) and excellent action sequences. Shot in a cold, icy light, John Moore's film features a nail-biting aerial chase, a tense race across a grenade-filled wasteland, and a stunningly explosive final battle. Wilson, typically cast in quirky comedic roles, is an unlikely action hero who turns out to be the movie's secret weapon. By avoiding excessive macho posturing, BEHIND ENEMY LINES is smarter, more exciting, and better looking than most Hollywood military thrillers. [More]
Starring: Owen Wilson, Gene Hackman, Gabriel Macht, Charles Malik Whitfield
Starring: Owen Wilson, Gene Hackman, Gabriel Macht, Charles Malik Whitfield, Joaquim de Almeida, David Keith, Olek Krupa, Vladimir Mashkov
Director: John Moore
Director: John Moore
Screenwriter: Zak Penn, David Veloz, John Thomas, James Thomas
Producer: John Davis
Composer: Don Davis
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Reviews for Behind Enemy Lines
Cliches, cliches, cliches -- they keep coming as fast (if not faster) than the assaulting action.
In many ways resembles a methodically played game one step removed from a real drama.
A rip-roaring, flag-waving, gung ho war drama with a surprisingly effective turn by Owen Wilson
An unapologetic flag waving military action flick that just happens to suck really, really bad.
The film is an exhausting collection of airplane CGI Firefox-style and heroic slow-motion establishing shots with shutter-staggered sprints through minefields.
Calibrate your filter, sift through the stuff you don't like, and you might enjoy yourself.
Sure, the film's flashy visuals (apparently geared to engaging video game-impaired attention spans) are entertaining, but its cynicism is distasteful.
Provides about as intense an immersion in military ambience as a Hollywood movie could hope to provide in just over 90 minutes.
The script's labored efforts to push the proceedings into a thought-provoking military drama -- and draw some clear moral issue -- are, at best, flimsy.
A perpetual din of screeching metal and roaring jet engines; if we wanted to hear planes this loud, we would enlist.
Takes a simple premise and simplifies it even further; it's a comic book with very few of the frames colored in.
A video and commercial maker as well as a military-hardware buff, Moore knows how to mount a visual assault.
It sent two of America's most watchable actors -- veteran Gene Hackman and Dallas native Owen Wilson -- to war without a script.
With his perpetual smirk, average-guy physique and appreciation of the apparent hopelessness of his situation, [Wilson] makes Burnett an Everyman to whom we can all relate.
A sleek, slick war movie that works as an adrenaline-pumping action ride and as a great recruitment ad for the U.S. Navy.
The premise is familiar and the storyline formulaic, yet the execution is effective enough that it keeps us involved for the running length.
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