rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States, Germany; 2003
Directed by John McTiernan; produced by Mike Medavoy, Arnie Messer, Michael Tadross, James Vanderbilt; written by James Vanderbilt
Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Tim Daly, Giovanni Ribisi, Brian Van Holt, Taye Diggs, Harry Connick Jr.
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'Basic' twists and turns so many times that in the end I was wondering what
just happened. I have to admit that the first hour or so kind of works. The
film plays here as a mystery that is intriguing and I found myself guessing
where it was going. The film goes wrong near the end where the only goal is
to mislead the audience. The films ends at least four times, just to come up
with one final, or not so final, twist.
The story, as far as I can explain, starts with a training mission in Panama
during a hurricane. A sergeant named West (Samuel L. Jackson) speaks to his
men before going out of a chopper. What we see next is one of the man
carrying another and shooting a third. The first man is Dunbar (Brian Van
Holt), the one he carries is Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi). They are the only to
survivors of this mystery and it is to Hardy (John Travolta) and Osborne
(Connie Nielsen) to solve it. Hardy asks questions to both Dunbar and
Kendall and it is pretty clear things are not as they seem. One thing we
know for sure, West was not a pleasant man.
In the first hour I was talking about we see the mission gone wrong, the
introducing of Travolta and his first couple of interrogation sessions.
Things are pretty interesting here since the film can go many ways. Slowly
possibilities are killed by the facts we learn and we feel that a twist is
on its way. I could have lived with the first one, but then there are more.
There is a point where I thought the film would choose an interesting ending
after all, but then another twist. In the end it is just too much.
I liked Travolta, who makes everything a little more intriguing since we
understand he is not the cleanest man either. Jackson as the drill sergeant
has some nice moments as well. You might like this film because of them and
the first hour. Maybe you like the second part also, but for that you must
not feel cheated very easy. I would not really recommend this film, but you
might give it a chance.