This is an action flick, and in that regard it delivers everything that it's supposed to and more.
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
As steel-toed, tin-eared, flat-footed, jingoistic military thrillers go, Behind Enemy Lines marches in formation, clomping down familiar roads.
Here, it's all about the people who are fighting, not about what they're fighting for, and nobody seems to care about justice or freedom.
Moore, just up from television commercials, relies too heavily on a pastiche of stylistic elements cribbed from others.
All those arguments about how desensitizing video games are certainly apply here.
Engaging junk, replete with plenty of flag-waving, one-dimensional villains and big-bang payoffs that will delight action movie fans.
A piece of jingoistic claptrap, but one expertly calculated to appeal to viewers' emotions, particularly at the present moment of national crisis.
An implausible military technology adventure that takes about 10 minutes to get started, then climaxes for an hour-and-a-half.
The Bosnian War becomes a video game, Gene Hackman turns into a pseudo-John Wayne, and Owen Wilson and Vladimir Mashkov impersonate The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote.
It is loud. It is formulaic. It’s also, more often than not, a thumping good time at the movies.
[Wilson] either retools his lines into uncanny comic gems ... or pumps enough life into the typical monosyllabic action dialogue to make it enjoyable.
...the American masses...seem to want our entertainment and our wars to be simplistic, expeditious, dangerously shortsighted, and goal-oriented to the point of tunnel vision.
A very timely movie, it features some of the best aerial combat footage ever filmed.
I had a blast watching it and that's pretty much all that I was looking for in this film
The exhausting obsession with gizmos and gotchas only accentuates a baffling disinterest in the story's emotional crux.
Uncomplicated war movie with straight-ahead, MTV-style action mixed with simplistic politics.
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