Basic is 'basically' a below-average movie. It attempts to be mysterious and twisty with its multiple retelling of the story from various viewpoints as participants in a training exercise tell the story of murdered Rangers. John Travolta went from brilliant to sub-par sometimes in the same scene. Connie Nielson did a terrible job with an American accent. The Danish actress did an okay job acting, but the on-again-off-again accent was really hard to follow. Oh yeah and taking Roselyn Sanchez and putting her in camo and making her act tough was a total miscast. (Remember her from a few posts earlier - Boat Trip... Ok, I will refresh your memory with a picture)



Here she is in Basic..



In the end, all the intrigue and twists were a build up to a lame resolution. The writing was the only thing about the movie that was 'basic.' James Vanderbilt could have gotten away with the script had he left it 'basic' - instead he tried to write above his skill level and was exposed.

Weak - weak - weak... oh yeah, and to all you wannabe filmmakers... PLEASE STOP USING THE DAY OF THE DEAD FESTIVAL IN YOUR FILMS!! It is way overdone!

RATING 6 out of 10

- posted by Chris @ 4:17 PM