Customer Reviews

Basic [VHS]

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

John Travolta plays Tom Hardy, a ex-military Ranger now DEA agent brought in by an old friend to investigate the disappearances and/or deaths of several Army Ranger trainee's and their legendary drill instructor, Sgt. Nathan West (Jackson), during an exercise at a basic training camp, Fort Clayton, in Panama.
Once Hardy gets there a series of different storys are told and changed by the trainee's that he question's on the events that occurred at this training camp. Which starts to form a huge question in the audiencies mind, WHO'S TELLING THE TRUTH? However by the end there is a huge climax and everything is explained and leaves you in half shock, half amazement. I recommend this movie to anyone who liked 'A Few Good Men' or 'Mission:Impossible'.
'Basic' has terrific performances by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta although a shaky performance by Connie Nielson. It also has great supporting acts from Giovanni Ribisi, Taye Diggs, and Brian Van Holt.

Taken as a whole, this movie is a pretty good one, with plenty of plot twists and turns that aren't too transparent or predictable; for the better part it will keep you guessing as to who the real killer or killers are. While I must admit that I've never really been a big John Travolta fan, I would have to say that his performance in the movie was better than his norm. Samuel L. Jackson's performance is, albeit brief, poignant and in good keeping with his usual high standard of performance. Connie Nielsen does a wonderful job of playing a Provost Marshall. With actors of such high caliber and a high profile director like John McTiernan, whose work includes "Die Hard", "Predator", "The Hunt for Red October" and other such high profile films; this movie does move along at a high pace and it is a well told story.

Conceptually this movie is highly plausible, the plot is well written, the actor's performances are well done and the soundtrack is well suited to the movie. I do have one major problem with this film though. Without searching the credits, I'm going to have to make one of two assumptions about whether or not the filmmakers hired a technical consultant with knowledge about the United States Army or not. I'm guessing here that they didn't hire one because if they did, they wouldn't have had a scene where Samuel L. Jackson is wearing BDU's (Battle Dress Uniform), yelling and screaming at his soldiers, with them calling him Sergeant and then you look at his collar and he's wearing the rank of a Specialist, which is a junior enlisted member, "below" the rank of Sergeant. Later of course, he's wearing the stripes of a Master Sergeant which would be in accordance with how he was being addressed. Then there is the issue of a Ranger squad having a female as a member. While the films producers addressed this, quite briefly, in one of the special features, where they basically said that they knew she didn't belong, but they threw her in the bargain anyway. These two issues and the "soldiers" referring to their ruck sacks as packs, instead of "ruck," blew a lot of this films credibility with me, a soldier with several years in the Army.

The premise:

Samuel L. Jackson plays a Ranger Master Sergeant, in Panama, prior to our pulling out that country, and he's in charge of training what looks like a platoon of Rangers in jungle warfare. As the movies main title rolls, we see Jackson and a squad of his, in a Huey (an aircraft long since relegated to the National Guard), flying over the canal, preparing to drop in and run an exercise, all the while, a hurricane is raging around them. The scene cuts to another helicopter searching for the Ranger squad which is well over due for their check in and then they spot one Ranger carrying another and being shot at by another of the Rangers. Here is where the murder/mystery kicks in and the Colonel, played by Tim Daly, calls in John Travolta to interrogate the witnesses to determine what happened out there in the field.

What follows from this point is an intriguing movie that gets rather fascinating as the plot carries forward and you're trying to figure out "whodunit." Outside of the "annoyances" of improper Army uniforms, terminology and tactics, this movie is good film to watch. {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

- Director's Commentary
- Filmographies
- Theatrical Trailers

- Featurettes:
* Basic: A Director's Design
* Basic Ingredients: A Writer's Perspective

The movie is full of twists and turns, in fact just two minutes before the end there is another twist. This is the beauty of this film. While watching this movie, whenever you try to believe something, it turns out opposite and only to find later that it was not correct either. This one is definitely not the typical war movie. It's not the actions, but the script that keeps the audience riveted throughout the movie, and critics will have a hard time in pointing out for a moment that was boring in the entire run.

John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson were average. I mean their performance was as good as any of their other movies. However, the real credit in acting will go to Connie Nielsen. If you have liked the movie "A few Good Men", you will like this movie too. Highly recommended.

Basic was panned by its critics and rightly so. It is opportunity squandered on a nonsensical ending. Basically the story is not so basic. In fact it is the opposite of basic and makes no sense at all. The story is about a group of trainee army recruits who must survive a training exercise only their drill instructor is killed during the task and then the recruits start killing each other and the premise is a sort of "who dun'it" with two survivors left to tell the tale and an ex-ranger brought in to interrogate the suspects. The first half of the film is great and above average for a murder mystery. There is a good story there that will keep you tuned in. The characters are farcical and the dialogue really macho vs one-liners, but the over the top treatment works for awhile. However the man who brought us Die Hard and Predator, John McTeirnan, has really gone down the tubes much like John Carpenter and William Friedkin. The ending stinks so bad that the movie is lost into 1 star purgatory. Basically it has this double twist ending and then a final third twist and at that point you just want to get your money back. It really is that stupid. Do not say you have not been warned. Basic ends in a way that casts shame on all involved.

What a waste.

This movie has a relatively interesting premise with good actors and relatively good execution. The problem with this movie is that it makes no sense.

If you like plain action, this might be ok, however, I found myself pausing this movie every ten seconds to ask the person I was watching it with what had just happened. The movie consists of the same scene repeated ten times, from a different point of view.

The characters are believable, the only problem is that the watcher has no idea what is to be believed. The twists are so numerable, and minor characters unknown and vague that it is impossible to follow. (Toward the end two characters even switch names!)

Once again, John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson are the central characters in another military action movie. The plot is as follows: a hard-time sargeant, played by Jackson, comes up with a live-fire drill in the forests of Panama, but the exercise goes terribly wrong; everyone but two of the army soldiers end dead, and the two remaining won't agree on what really happened during the drill. Hardy, played by Travolta, is the ex-army interrogator summoned by the commander of the barracks to solve the mistery.

OK, the premise is good. The film is told in flashbacks, the same scene repeated many times, different according to each and new version of the story, as they come to light. The acting is quite good, especially by Jackson (no surprise here). Direction is also OK, by John McTiernan (Die Hard). And the movie is quite enjoyable, at least until the final twenty minutes, when a series of endless and completely absurd, unbelievable plot twists (full of plot holes) ruin the entire film. If you want to have an idea of the absurdity of the plot, just access the IMDB page for "Basic" and its message board section.

Watching the credits, I realised the screenwriter, a certain fellow named James Vanderbilt, made his debut with "Darkness Falls", which I consider to be one of the Bottom-Five movies I've ever watched. "Darkness Falls" is ridiculous. The screenplay of "Basic" is almost as ridiculous. I really, really don't understand why a cast composed of such good and acclaimed actors say "yes" to such a poor writing.

After the movie ended, I was angry, I felt cheated and I promised to myself I will NEVER watch another movie that has a screenplay by Vanderbilt. I don't like to be treated like an idiot, and that's what this script did to me.

Grade 4.0/10

The hell of this entertaining movie is that one likes it despite the fact that it is centered around such a preposterous plot that one finds the denouement at the end so unbelievable as to wonder if one had confused a "caper" movie" like "The Heist" for a gritty melodrama in which soldiers and others are butchered, murdered, shot point blank, etc. as are some of the protagonists in this strange tribute to Travolta's sheer star power and screen magnetism. Yet it does work, much along the lines of other preposterous action plots Travolta has been involved with, such as "Broken Arrow" or even "Phenomenon". And as with both of these other previous outings, the intrepid John-Boy surrounds himself with an excellent supporting cast, which helps to frame the action and spin the yarn along toward its unlikely and unexpected conclusion.

Thus, Samuel L. Jackson plays the central figure in the unfolding drama, an unforgiving, unapproachable, and somewhat sadistic Drill instructor who takes the trainees out on a dangerous exercise in which all but two wind up dead. The two left are somehow involved in all that has transpired out in the jungle, and Travolta is called in to help sort it out for an old friend (Timothy Daly), who is now the Base Commander. With the aid of the scrumptious Connie Neilson, the chase for the truth is on. Yet while the viewer is taken on a whirlwind cascade of facts so contrived, confusing, and calculated that one wonders if there is a manufactured maelstrom machine operating here. It is, as they say, an enigma wrapped in a mystery and confounded by a riddle. When one discovers just what is really going on, one realizes he or she has been suckered by the screenplay and the actors, and that according to the director's depiction, nothing is really what it seems to be. It is a neat way to spend a diverting hour or so watching Travolta do his star thing, but nothing anyone could possibly mistake for reality-based drama. Pass the popcorn, and enjoy!

SOME of the acting is good, if you can overlooked the fact that the provost Marshal's accent comes and goes in every other scene, but the ending ruins a fair movie.

WIthout giving away the "twist" if you accept that the ending, then the entire rest of the film makes no sense what-so-ever. If your one of those people who asks "then why would he have done that?" DONT see this movie.

This film spins around and around and around.... First its a murder mystery, then its a conspiracy thriller then its a psychological thriller then it turns into something else entirely at the end.

The producers of this goofy film forgot the basics of filming mysteries: audiences enjoy them more if you actually give them clues and offer up logical plot twists. This mess does'nt do any of that.

Basic is anything but that - it proves to be the very antithesis of its title with its bizarre and constantly twisting and changing storyline. I believe Newton once said: With every cause, there comes an equal or greater effect. Well, while watching this movie you're constantly refiguring the outcomes when the variables continue to change - so much so that it almost makes you dizzy! Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson are dead on as Army Rangers - the supporting cast is superb as well. I was pleasantly surprised by the cleverness of the plot and the good acting.

If you mix Black Hawk Down with The Usual Suspects you come out with Basic. Worth a look-see for all military buffs - just be prepared to pay VERY close attention to detail. One of the best movies I've seen in a while. Enjoy.