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I have good news and I have bad news. The
good news? John McTiernan's Basic is not nearly as terrible as his
previous "work" Rollerball, quite possibly the worst movie in
the long and storied history of Hollywood movies. The bad news? Do not
go into Basic expecting the same sort of John Travolta-Sam Jackson magic
that we witnessed many years ago in Pulp Fiction. It is just not there.
Basic is another one of those military movies where there has been
scandal in the army and Travolta is called in to clean up the mess and
find out the real truth. He is here to find out the real truth because
everyone in the army lies. The only problem this time is the real truth
comes out after so many twists and turns that by the time the final
twists and turns are revealed, you almost don't give a flying
"f" anymore. I know by the time we learned the
"real" truth, I had a pounding headache and just wanted to go
to bed.
Travolta plays DEA officer and former army Ranger Tom Hardy, the man
called in by the army to investigate the murder of four members of an
elite force headed by Sergeant Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson). This is
not the normal Travolta we have all come to know and love. No, not this
time. Travolta is now slim and buff and has had that hairy carpet that
adorned his body for so many years waxed off. And not surprisingly, about
ten seconds into his first on-screen appearance, we are
"treated" to a wet and shirtless Travolta, no doubt a clause
he had written into his contract to stroke that ego that is probably
twice the size of his enormous head.
What I will say about Basic is that it is probably more suited to a
Friday or Saturday night rental and opposed to a trip to your friendly neighborhood
theatre. And if you are a working man (or woman) and have
to work during the week, you will probably fall asleep if you rent it on
a weekday. It is just not that great of a movie, but not really
terrible. It does keep you guessing, which is good I suppose. But if it
was trying to be this year's A Few Good Men, it failed miserably (although I did find it much better than one of Travolta's earlier
works, The General's Daughter). As for the performances in the movie,
well, Travolta comes just as advertised - no surprises there. Jackson is
not really in the movie as much as we would like. Giovanni Ribisi was a
disappointment to me as a homosexual army drug dealer. And was that
really Andy Garcia playing one of Travolta's army friends because if it
was I didn't even recognize him. Connie Nielsen as Lieutenant Julia
Osborne was okay but what was with that brief fight scene between her
and Travolta. I just did not get the purpose of that one. Thank God they
did not start making out because if they would have I would have pounded
my head on the steel railing in front of me.
All I can really say is do not go into Basic expecting the wheel to be
reinvented. Proceed with caution. Expect mediocrity. And if you are a
huge Travolta fan, expect, well, mediocrity.
  
- 5.5/10
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Brendan Cullin - Senior Editor
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