Customer Reviews

Behind Enemy Lines

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(92)
3 star:		(44)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

I just saw this movie tonight(opening night) and I thought it was the best action movie I have seen at the movie theater this year. The story is about a Navy officer(Owen Wilson) who is about to quit the Navy due to the lack of excitement and the fact that there are wars going on so he only gets to go out in a plane and then come right back. But when the Navy commander(Gene Hackman) sends him out on another mission, Wilson travels into a Bosnia war base where his plane is shot down. After wilson and his partner land, the Bosnians find his partner and kill him, leaving Wilson all alone to defend himslef and try to stay alive behind enemy lines. Every scene has something exciting heppening. There are great twists and the plot is just perfect for a war/action movie. If you are looking for a good action-packed war-type movie, Behind Enemy Lines is the best one to find.

Wow! is this a thrill ride or what. The disclaimer at the beginning of the movie made me sit up and pay attention, because I knew the movie was on to a sensitive subject. The action sceens were fantastic. The SAMs chase of the Navy jet was awesome. The flight for home was a good mixture of reality and a little fantasy help from Hollywood but you are sure to be entertained by this hard hitting gritty action movie. It's parallel to past situations in western Europe make for a great hero movie. After you see this movie you will want to start it over from the begining. Great stuff!!!...

This is a very entertaining and visually pleasing film, one that will capture your interest and propel it along for the almost two hours of the movie. Yet it is really just an escape movie that happened to be released in the aftermath of the 911 events, and so capitalized on the pent-up feelings of patriotism everyone was experiencing at the time. As a thinly disguised although highly fictionalized representation of an actual case of an American flier rescued after evading the Serbs for several days during the Bosnian police action, this might have made some sense.

Yet the depiction of the Serb ground forces as brutal and conscienceless bogeymen is a bit overdone and not very accurate; most of the Serbs treated downed American fliers with consideration and in a very friendly manner. Of course, had this been depicted as part of the Kosovo effort, the scenes depicting the Serbs might have been more accurate. As it stands, however, the story is hardly representative of the reality on the ground during the Bosnian campaign.

Still, taken at face value as action entertainment, the movie isn't half-bad. Yet as anything like serious drama it has too many implausible elements and too many coincidences to hold water. So, while this is no "to Hell And Back', it is an exciting escapist excursion you will enjoy watching. The scenes filmed on the carrier are especially graphic and well done, and the shots of the planes coming off the deck are breath taking.

So too the aerial photography is very well choreographed and accomplished, and the action shots of the plane being engaged by ground batteries fairly realistic in its technical details. The cast is quite good, with Owen Wilson playing the downed flier and Gene Hackman the Carrier skipper who is trying to get him back. This is good stuff to wile away a Saturday evening as long as you don't take any of it too literally. Enjoy!

This was a surprisingly thrilling story about the rescue of an American pilot in the war in Bosnia. The pilot's mission was to take photographs of the, "Killing fields.". Upon rescue of the pilot, he also manages to rescue the photographs. The Serbs are the bad guys. There is no gray.

The movie is loaded with special effects and explosions. Gene Hackman is pretty good in this one, even I have to admit. I liked the actor, Owen Wilson, who played the pilot. He looked and acted very different than most male actors would, especially in a military role. He seemed like an average, regular guy, with a normal personality, which I felt drew a lot of credibility and sympathy from me, to his character.

The film was based on a true incident. Some of the technology shown was amazing. I hope for our sake that we really have such capability.

If you're looking for a movie with action, suspense, blood, and big guns, you'll love this movie. The effects are incredible, especially the first part of the film, before they get shot down over enemy territory. The acting is great and, boy... what an ending. You'll love it!

Behind Enemy Lines is one of those movies where you know it's going to be a typical, Hollywood made movie where every cliché in the book is used. But, it's also one of those movies that you don't really care and you just want to feel good about it.

With great performances by the two leading men, Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson, Behind Enemy Lines is a good movie that keeps you interested throughout and makes you feel like you're a part of it.

John Moore does a fairly nice job as director. There wasn't really anything spectacular done. It was a pretty basic form, but I'm not complaining. It worked.

The action sequences were a bit unbelievable, and that is why I give this film only four stars. Also, I don't think the scenes were produced all that well and cleanly. I've definitely seen better. But to me, the action was only a sideshow to what the movie was really about. It wasn't about people getting shot up and killed; it was about survival and how one man will stop at nothing and use his brain instead of weaponry to get himself out of a sticky situation. 4 Stars

I'm not a big Owen Wilson fan, so I almost passed this film up....good thing I like Gene Hackman, or I might not have gone...

Wilson plays a Pilot who is shot down in hostile territory after taking spy photos of soldiers filling in a mass-grave. Since they are supposedly not engaging in Ethnic-Cleansing, they can't afford any evidence to the contrary to get back to NATO. The rest of the film follows Wilson's efforts to get to friendly territory so he can be rescued by Hackman, who's engaged in a different type of fight against NATO brass who think it's better that 1 man die than a nation go to war.

I was curious why Wilson was cast, but after seeing the film, it was obvious: He brings an everyman quality to the role that a bigger star wouldn't be able to. When he's being pursued by the silent Bosnian sniper, the sense of danger he conveys is very real. Hackman does his usual great job, and the film itself is beautifully directed and photographed.

If you're looking for a great escapist film, grab a bucket of popcorn and hunker down for a good time.

Don't watch this expecting anything more than an action-packed, melodramatic, shallow, attention-holding, rootin'-tootin', flag-wavin', cheesey, cat-and-mouse, shoot 'em up. You'll be disappointed. This is no Jane Austin adaptation. Or We Were Soldiers for that matter. There's not much serious drama going on here. Look elsewhere.

Owen Wilson plays a Naval fighter plane's navigator. His performance is not Oscar-worthy, but more than adequate. He was funny and convincing. (I don't understand all the protests over the choice of him to play this character in these reviews. Who would they rather have? Stallone?) He and his pilot are shot down during a routine reconnaisance mission over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Gene Hackman plays the Admiral and commander of their carrier, and is handcuffed by NATO politics while trying to rescue his boys. The race is on to extract Wilson before he's caught by the... uh, Bosnians--err, no wait.. the Serbians--uh... whatever, the bad guys.

I was pleasantly surprised by this films entertainment value. Yes, it's a bit of a Navy commercial, but it's done well and looks great. It's very fast-paced and loaded with thrills. It held my attention throughout. The special effects were impressive, albeit rather cheesey in their implementation. Like a whole battalion shooting at a one running man and never hitting him. But it's spirit and thrills makes up for that type of deus ex machina convention. The effects sequence where their plane was being chased by a surface-to-air missile was nearly as good as can be done.

The picture and audio quality of the DVD are top notch. I've listened with only the DTS audio on, but I'm sure you'll find the other options done well also. The extras are a little spare, offering commentary, a short "featurette", and a couple trailers.

Overall I give this a 4 because it succeeds at entertaining, which is too infrequent of a quality in movies.

this is one of the better action/military flicks to come out lately, the special effects are pretty good and the story carries on at pretty decent quality, i just wish the ending had been a little better/smarter/though out, its just abit too arrogant to think 75 or so guys armed to the teeth with a tank, mind you, shooting at one man running straight ahead, all happen to miss, but strangely i didn't feel the ending ruined the movie for me, cause it was an action flick to begin with. All in all:

definitely worth renting/on the dvd issue u can judge for yourself.

As it is written in the movie's review I don't want to repeat the story again.So I begin from my point.
Although the story,events,etc... do not deserve any word better than "classic hollywood" action movie,the thing that makes this movie unique is for sure the directing.As John Moore-an ex-commercial director- had mentioned it,the movie is generally based on how realistic and good a movie can be made by small budget.Throughout the movie there is dominantly way of 360 degree camera movements,professional aerieal shots,and fast forwarding editing movements makes the movie a good directed but as I said a lousy plotted movie.I think for movie fans who seek for good directing and photographing in a movie, aircraft's being chased by intelligent missles,the flash backs are trully must-see pieces .