bnorthup
04-02-2003, 11:52 PM
Basic (R)
At the Gaslight
1.5 stars
Hey, dude where’s my grenade?
By Brent Northup
The final scene of “Basic” is one of those shocking, surprise endings designed to make audiences appreciate being fooled. Sadly, that ending is wasted on a film that is so convoluted and intentionally deceptive that it’s just not worth the wait.
John Travolta stars as a DEA agent who is assigned to solve a military murder mystery that took place in the jungle during a storm. A survivor is unwilling to talk, but the shrewd agent Hardy (John Travolta) pries the truth from his lips…sort of.
This is one of those familiar flashback screenplays where each time a person recounts the crime, we relive the murder according to testimony of the latest witness. By film’s end every chamber in the pistol has a different version inside – and we really don’t care which one contains the live round.
I love a good mystery that I can follow, whether at the time or in retrospect. But I agree with Roger Ebert who calls this a “jerk around script” that messes with our minds for no apparent reason. The final “solution” is almost preposterous, given what we’ve seen before.
The script is entirely designed to fool us, without the least concern for developing believable characters. Travolta walks through his role, without much conviction. Samuel L. Jackson plays a mean Sergeant, but he’s not asked to do anything but snarl.
The female in the film is Lt. Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen) who turns out to be somebody whose boots were made for kickin’. She plays a resentful officer who greets the arrival of guest-interrogator Travolta with an I’d-rather-do-it-myself sneer. Eventually, she admits that Travolta has “grown on her.” Like a fungus, perhaps.
Unfortunately, the movie had no such effect on me. It’s just a long and winding road to a dead end.
END
At the Gaslight
1.5 stars
Hey, dude where’s my grenade?
By Brent Northup
The final scene of “Basic” is one of those shocking, surprise endings designed to make audiences appreciate being fooled. Sadly, that ending is wasted on a film that is so convoluted and intentionally deceptive that it’s just not worth the wait.
John Travolta stars as a DEA agent who is assigned to solve a military murder mystery that took place in the jungle during a storm. A survivor is unwilling to talk, but the shrewd agent Hardy (John Travolta) pries the truth from his lips…sort of.
This is one of those familiar flashback screenplays where each time a person recounts the crime, we relive the murder according to testimony of the latest witness. By film’s end every chamber in the pistol has a different version inside – and we really don’t care which one contains the live round.
I love a good mystery that I can follow, whether at the time or in retrospect. But I agree with Roger Ebert who calls this a “jerk around script” that messes with our minds for no apparent reason. The final “solution” is almost preposterous, given what we’ve seen before.
The script is entirely designed to fool us, without the least concern for developing believable characters. Travolta walks through his role, without much conviction. Samuel L. Jackson plays a mean Sergeant, but he’s not asked to do anything but snarl.
The female in the film is Lt. Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen) who turns out to be somebody whose boots were made for kickin’. She plays a resentful officer who greets the arrival of guest-interrogator Travolta with an I’d-rather-do-it-myself sneer. Eventually, she admits that Travolta has “grown on her.” Like a fungus, perhaps.
Unfortunately, the movie had no such effect on me. It’s just a long and winding road to a dead end.
END