Basic Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES
Deception is their most dangerous weapon.
Seeing is deceiving.
There are degrees of truth.
Back to Basic [Denmark]
An Army sergeant (Samual Jackson) takes six of his special troops on a training mission into the rain-soaked Colombian jungles and only two come out alive. When the rescue mission arrives, they see one soldier (Brian Van Holt) killing another and carrying a wounded comrade (Giovanni Ribisi). As the interrogation begins, the soldier refuses to talk to anyone other than another Ranger. The investigating officer (Connie Nielsen) protests, but her commanding officer (Timothy Daly) nonetheless brings in a former Ranger and current DEA agent (John Travolta) to help. The agent is currently on suspension from DEA for allegedly accepting a bribe. From this point on, the plot continues to twist and turn and offers numerous surprises that keeps the story interesting.
| John Travolta | Hardy |
| Connie Nielsen | Osborne |
| Samuel L. Jackson | West |
| Timothy Daly | Styles |
| Giovanni Ribisi | Kendall |
| Brian Van Holt | Dunbar |
| Taye Diggs | Pike |
| Dash Mihok | Mueller |
| Cristián de la Fuente | Castro |
| Roselyn Sanchez | Nunez |
| Harry Connick Jr. | Vilmer |
| Georgia Hausserman | Pilot |
| Margaret Travolta | Nurse #1 |
| Dena Johnston | Nurse #2 |
| Nick Loren | Helicopter Pilot |
| John McTiernan |
6.20 out of 10 (14451 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Aha!
posted on 10 Aug 2009Just when I thought I had this movie worked out as complete garbage, it really annoyed me and started redeeming itself, then got silly again.To me, John Travolta has always been a bit schizophrenic in his choice of movies. I'm old enough to remember when John Travolta was in movies that set standards and broke records,and he proved his wide range of talents as an actor, singer, and dancer to even the most critical. Sadly, since then I've almost dreaded watching his movies, and kinda get a kick when a good one comes along.I mean .... the talking babies, the night-club in Russia, that jello-face thing with Nic Cage, the aliens ..... all things that are good to watch just after you've opened a vein in a tub full of hot water and you're having second-thoughts.But then I watch Pulp Fiction, Swordfish, Primary Colors, or Get Shorty and all is forgiven.*** Caution: There be spoliers beyond this point!! *** This flick just seemed like an excuse to get Sam Jackson and John Travolta back together in a film, but the longer the movie goes on the longer it looks like an effort to keep them apart.It seems fairly stylized, with the requisite amounts of eye-candy, but the director was smart in keeping this to a minimum - a rare treat nowadays. Connie Nielsen holds up pretty well against a sometimes-polished/sometimes-not Travolta, who seems to have buffed-up a bit recently - I'm at least thankful they didn't try to cast a sumo-wrestler and make us believe he was a Ranger.... just about my only real beef with Apocalypse Now, the movie which appears to have been at least some of the inspiration for this.Judging by the majority of what most people who watched this movie think, I figure I must be retarded or something, because I actually enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting Olivier and James Earl Jones, I was expecting explosions, gunfire, loud noises, and something to switch my brain off at.This movie gave me just over 90 minutes of just that, and I'm content that there were no talking babies, aliens, or surgeons-with-master-plans.
Aint John just great??
posted on 08 Aug 2009You know an action film is gonna be good when the highest recorded votes on the IMDB came from females under the age of 18 and females over the age of 45.
It was another over the top Hollywood classic which delivered everything you've come to expect from the culture crushing film factory.Fortunately I grew an extra couple of fingers during the film and was able to keep up with all the twists and turns it spat out at me, although I was pretty drenched towards the end. I wouldn't pay money to see this, but thats more because I dont have any......a pizza and beer film more than anything else.
The deep lesson of history
posted on 06 Aug 2009Panama after the Reagan's military intervention. The American armed forces are trying to keep the main passage of south American drug up north to the US under control. But that does not mean it is really what happens. In fact drug is flowing abundantly but not freely. Things have to be organized in the hands of the US citizens here, at least some of them, under a uniform or not. In one of the military special, very special units the sergeant discovers the truth and wants to stop it when on a mission. He will end up dead and several other members too, but the transportation of the drug out of the jungle and onto a plane to the US, along with one of the bodies will nearly succeed, though it will fail because the special agent and the female captain he is teaming with find out some details neither knew that imply the colonel is taking his share to let the drug go through. But nothing is that simple and that captain is going to discover even more and then she will be disarmed – psychologically though not militarily – and the film closes the way it had opened on Ravel's Bolero, that music that is a constant cyclical return of just a few notes. Will she go along with the survivors, and the special agent who seems to be the real coordinator, including of the killing of the sergeant? Difficult to know, though she accepts to eat with the administratively absent ones. It is interesting to go back to these films of an older time. 2003 was the time of another military adventure after a previous one a year before. The film was more or less trying to foresee the future of a military adventure in a foreign country. A real catastrophe because it brings rot right into the deepest inner circle of the republic, the armed forces. Five years later the lesson is clear cut and brilliant. Any military adventure that is based on the invasion of a country in order to bring down the local leader and take him to prison in a way or another for any reason you can imagine, in Panama it was drugs, in Iraq it was weapons of mass destruction, can only end up in rot and a full deception. What did Noriega want to do? Nationalize or take control of the Panama canal? Ronald Reagan when he was the Governor of California said: "the Canal Zone is not a colonial possession. It is not a long-term lease. It is sovereign United States territory, every bit the same as Alaska and all the states that were carved from the Louisiana Purchase. We should end those negotiations and tell the General: we bought it, we paid for it, we build it, and we intend to keep it." When he became the President of the US he toppled Noriega and took control of the canal zone. And in may 2008 the son of the general who nationalized the canal was praised by Bush for all the good work he is doing to develop the canal that is a national enterprise of Panama. You can never stop history. You can slow it down, but not stop it. It will go on in its direction and those who will have tried to stop it and will have slowed it down will also have brought onto the world a dire vengeance. History always has the last word. When you see practically the whole South America in the elected hands of what Ronald Reagan would have called communists you wonder if it was really worth it to invade Panama and to invade Granada and a few other things like that. When we see the Panamanian fiasco thirty years later we can wonder what the Iraqi fiasco is going to be in thirty years. The film is telling us that any invasion of a country produces in the medium run the completely reverse effect than the one expected in the very short run. And in the end it is those who resist the rot, corruption, in other words the innocent, that end up dead in such an adventure.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
hmmmm not to shabby!
posted on 27 Jul 2009I normally don't watch army movies for the simple fact that I don't them however judging from the trailer I thought this seemed like a rather entertaining flick and decided to check it out. From the other comments that this movie is receiving I still do believe that people are being a little to hard with it, either that or I don't watch enough army movies which means I am a little to easy to impress. Story is not that complicated to follow although it might seem that it is, John Travolta plays an ex-army interrogator called into investigate a training mission that went wrong in Panama with his ex-mentor and trainer played in style by Samual L Jackson. The film does a great job of setting the mood and the setting for lies ahead and there is good use of story telling as we each hear the events that unfold. John Travolta was as cool as ever so his fans won't be let down also Connie Nelson also performed well along with Samual L Jackson. It moved at nice pace with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing although I felt Travolta was a little tooooo sharp in most places however which I felt was done in order to stop the movie from slowing down however it rolled along nicely although I felt that the ending was a bit of a let down although it was nicely done in a twisted format, it kind leaves you scratching your head at the end of it. To sum it up Basic has the ingredients of a good thriller that keeps on twisting like a theme park ride so you stay in your seats, it is by no means the best thriller made but it made me sit down and follow and focus on a plot which is not that difficult to find out most of it for your-self . All in all it is a pleaser for Travolta fans and defiantly worth a rental on a dull Wedensday afternoon.BASIC 8.6 OUT OF 10DECEPTION IS THEIR MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON.
I liked the plot - can find good things
posted on 21 Jul 2009Something tells me this would have been a good book. Unfortunately it didn't translate so well to film. Travolta is ok, Connie Nielson performance is only passable as well. I wonder if direction was the problem, I think both are capable of better. Watch when Osborne (Nielson) is driving the Hum-V. She moves her hands as if turning the steering wheel - but the wheel doesn't turn. OUCH! That is a big no-no! What was the director thinking?Samuel L Jackson is superb in the few moments that we actually see him.
This is offset by Harry Connick Jr, who unfortunately is another weak point in the movie.If not for a fairly good plot, this movie would be a real stinker. With the right cast and direction this would have been a really good movie - it is still worth watching for the plot - watch out for spoilers, they'll ruin the whole movie for you! So all I'm going to say is - a team of soldiers go out on an exercise and only 2 come back. Travolta is Ex Military DEA and is asked by the base commander to help interrogate the 2 soldiers. But that makes no sense! Watch and find out why... 9 / 10 for the plot 5 / 10 for direction and acting over all a weak-ish 7 / 10
Good premise, terrible execution
posted on 23 Jun 2009Basic starts out as a fun and engaging popcorn flick. Travolta, Nielsen, Jackson, and the rest put in decent performances, and the chaotic jungle scenes are fun to watch. After the first half hour, the film really goes downhill. The writers seem to throw in twists for no apparent reason. Many of these twists are completely unnecessary and make no sense. It feels like the writers thought this was the only way to keep our attention. The pieces of the puzzle do not fit together, and the movie is more confusing than anything. Plus, the film feels to similar to "Rules of Engagement". The direct contradictions and terrible twists turn what could have been a really fun movie into a below average one.I give "Basic" 4/10, mostly for the good premise.
Basically bad ending
posted on 15 Jun 2009I just finished watching this movie a few hours ago, and I must say it was fine until the last 30 minutes. I feel like I watched an extended comic book with typecast professionals. Travolta as the cool DEA agent. Sam Jackson as the 100 decibel, cursing drill sergeant/hitman/pimp/ whatever other character he plays when he has to yell a lot. And Connie Nielson couldn't keep her accent if it was an Oscar. The story was going good all the way until the end. Remember Mission: Impossible? When the surprise at the end was just like "oh, come on"? That's how this one ends. And then it makes you wonder if the rest of the film you watched was worth it. Bleh. IF you like rain, watch this movie. If not, forget it.
Travolta dominates the screen
posted on 30 May 2009`Basic' is a relatively entertaining mystery movie that delights in pulling the rug out from under its audience at regular intervals. This is one of those military thrillers in which a sadistic, hotheaded sergeant (Samuel L. Jackson), who is uniformly despised by the men in his squadron, dies under mysterious circumstances while leading a basic training exercise in Panama.
A DEA officer (John Travolta), whose own moral code seems to be in question what with rumors of drug dealings lurking in his background, is called in to investigate.For long stretches of its running time, `Basic' feels like a puzzle in search of a key to its solution. The attempt at a `Roshomon'-like flashback structure - in which the same event is viewed through the conflicting testimonies of multiple eyewitnesses - often leads to more confusion than clarity, resulting in the audience scratching its head wondering just what is actually going on here. One of the primary reasons for this air of incomprehensibility is the fact that the filmmakers don't do a sufficient job differentiating the minor characters from one another so that we can't always understand who is doing what to whom and why any of what we are seeing on screen really matters. However, the trick turnabout ending goes a long way towards clearing things up – or making them even more confusing, depending on how you look at it. For that's just the kind of film `Basic' is; it exists entirely to deceive and trick the audience and make us thank it for the privilege of being bamboozled – and that it does reasonably well.
Actually, the key to enjoying a film like `Basic' is to go with the flow and not worry overmuch if every plot detail makes perfect sense when seen in the grand scheme of things. `Basic' is noteworthy mainly for the terrific, deliberately over-the-top performance of Travolta, who seems to be having the time of his movie acting life playing this highly charismatic, no-nonsense, slightly seedy rogue investigator. Travolta commands the screen in a way that few members of his acting generation are able to do these days. He alone is reason enough to check out `Basic.'
Basic, maybe it should be called Advanced (spoiler)
posted on 26 May 2009Since so many other viewers had posted the basic (no pun intended) plot of this film, I'll refrain. I liked this movie when I walked out of the theater, but as my friends and I were talking about it, I realized "Hey, I really didn't like this movie." Any movie that leads its viewer down so many wrong roads, only so say, "Ha, fooled ya!" Should have a more satisfying ending. The long cirquitous path this movie takes to an unbelievable ending made me wish I read these boards before seeing it. With Travolta & Jackson leading the cast, and McTiernan directing a modern-day military thriller, how could one go wrong? Sheesh. This movie asks too much from its viewer.
mediocre flick by McTiernan
posted on 18 May 2009When a tough Army drill sergeant is murdered on a training mission and all, but two of his entire squad is missing and assumed dead, the Army brings in a interrogator to find out what happened. Unfortunately, the truth is going to be hard to get to because both survivors are telling completely different stories. Decent script that has good pacing and keeps you going with the story trying to uncover the truth, but the end is a let down. The acting is great, but you can never go wrong with powerhouse actors like Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta. Connie Nielson isn't that great, her southern accent is there one moment and gone the next. Well directed, John McTiernan is usually hit or miss and with this one he does a decent job, although why he felt the need to change the original ending to what it is on film is beyond me. ** out of ****
Uh... Come again?
posted on 14 May 2009Recently I wrote that "The Life of David Gale" had too many plot twists towards the end, each new one obliterating whatever logic had been attached to the one preceding it. Well, now I think I owe that movie an apology, because "Basic" is in a convoluted league of it's own. I couldn't "spoil" it if I wanted to, since I still don't understand what I saw. I'm like Alice after hearing the Jabberwocky poem: "Well, someone killed something; that much is clear, at least" .... although in this case I'm not sure even that much is clear.Supposedly it concerns a small group of Army Ranger trainees who disappeared in Panama during an exercise, with only two returning. John Travolta plays an ex-Ranger now working for the DEA who gets called in by the base commander, it seems they're old friends. The script sets up an immediate and pointless clash with the chief legal officer, played by Connie Nielsen whom I just saw in "The Hunted" in a similar role; I guess she's Hollywood's "cojones chick" for now. They spend so much time bickering that it's boringly clear they'll be an "item" eventually. Meanwhile they try to piece together what happened based on conflicting stories from the survivors, whose versions of the events are played out for us in the umpteenth movie variation of "Rashomon." The key figure is a legendary brassballs "black hat," i.e. Airborne/Ranger instructor, juicily played by Samuel Jackson who keeps getting called upon to reprise his Jules character from "Pulp Fiction." To Jackson's credit, he makes it credible each time. But it's like visiting a McDonald's: you know in advance what you'll get and it's not disappointing, but there's nothing new either.If they had just taken one plot point and stuck with it, e.g. the hated taskmaster gets "fragged" and now they all have to figure out what to do next, that could've made for a pretty compelling flick along the lines of "Attack" with Jack Palance, Lee Marvin and Eddie Albert in an amazing pre-"Green Acres" performance. Instead "Basic" takes the path of yet another pointlessly frenzied who-dunnit using it's military backdrop just as a come-on. We learn nothing from "Basic" about what really makes Rangers tick, just as we learned nothing from "Tears of the Sun" about navy SEALs or from "Blackhawk Down" about the Delta Force guys. I'm a little weary of seeing our elite fighting units getting turned into props for corny melodrama, especially currently with the real-life units risking their lives over in Iraq and Afghanistan at this very moment.Travolta's performance is stitched together from other roles such as "Get Shorty," "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off"; he's an old pro with lots of charisma but can't seem to find the center of this character, not that the script helps much. Nielsen's Southern accent seems to come and go. Harry Connick Jr. steals the movie as an unembarrasedly sleazy medic with some extracurricular activities. By the way, since when are there female Rangers? Not that I'm complaining about Ms Sanchez' presence, she can take her place along with Jennifer Goldstein in "Aliens" and Michelle Rodriguez in "Resident Evil," but those two flicks were futuristic fantasies. Unless things have changed since my own army days, the Rangers have only two Military Occupational Specialties, Infantryman & Medic, & women can't be infantry (yet) & I didn't hear anyone calling her Doc, so I doubt she was a medic.****************************POSSIBLE SPOILER************************"Possible" because I'm not confident I got this right, but when all is said & done at the end, all the shenanigans seem to have been staged for the "benefit" of just one character, in a kind of prolonged job interview. Otherwise, a five-minute conversation early on between Travolta and Nielsen could have obviated the need for much of what plays out. Or maybe the whole thing was just so Travolta's character can get a date with a younger woman. The problem with the huge largely unchecked influx of narcotics into this country via South America also gets breezily discarded once it serves it's plot point. It's not clear why they bothered to set it in Panama instead of Florida, where it was mostly filmed. Nobody even mentions Noriega or the Chinese taking over the canal or anything. Not even a "What the hell was that idiot Jimmy Carter thinking?"Favorite moment: Travolta trying to explain to an infidel the allure of baseball. He didn't have time to delve into strikeout-to-walk ratios or team batting average with runners in scoring position....
I expected more
posted on 04 May 2009What I didn´t like was the end. It is not that real thriller what I expected to be. It is just a damn good manipulation of the audience and that´s it! There is one twist after twist. It began not bad but then there were always the same questions. I mean the film didn´t develop the story deep enough and there could have been done more. Well there is a surprisingly but not realistic end that didn´t convince me at all! John Travolta did a fine job but I am asking why he took this part in this average thriller?
For these reasons my wife and I vote 6/10.
Talk about a twist in the plot!
posted on 20 Apr 2009"Basic" was definitely not one of John Travolta's best movies. The conversations between him and the main actress were sooo corny! The editors of this movie should've caught that from the beginning. The movie wasn't completely awful, but parts were. I don't want to give away the ending, but it was crazy confusing. The whole plot was a lie. At the end of the movie, you have to take a few minutes to collect your thoughts and figure out what the hell happened.
Umm...not Basic
posted on 14 Apr 2009A movie filled with so many twists and turns than the average contortionist, your left baffled in your seat by what you just saw. My friend thought it was anti-American and inapropriate considering the latest events. I thought it was pure entertainment with a few flaws.Lets see, this movie is about a DEA agent played by Travolta who is called in by base commander Daly to investigate the disappearance and mysterious death of drill seargent Jackson. Or so it appears. And don't forget the crew who have vanished as well. Cop investigator girl Nelson (who by the way pulled off a horrible accent)is determined to break this case and the journey begins with her and Travolta interrogating the two soldiers left standing with their own versions of the story. Very interesting if you can follow along.Now, I won't give anything away but what helps this story is how its told who's POV your getting. In this case, we get two different versions of the situation but the entire movie is being seen in Connie Nelson's point of view. We're so intrigued with a basic ending but like government, its all a game and in the end, we as the audience get played. Knock out performances by everyone. Risbi's character was the key performance here,and the new guy who plays the other soldier being interrogated was a winner. Damn, he even looked like a soldier. Diggs did good, the Nunez girl did good. And of course Jackson. Overall, its just really fun to watch. You can wait to see it though.
Differing versions of what happened during basic training.
posted on 10 Apr 2009The acting holds your interest as each character, during interrogation, tells a radically different version of what happened one night in basic training in the jungle.No one seems to tell the truth. The different versions don't mesh. Well into the story this seeming lack of culmination becomes irritating. The viewer has no idea how to piece together the whole.The ending is as pathetic as "and then I woke up". Lame as a drug movie. Lame as an action movie. Only half there as a war movie. The setting isn't spectacular. Stereotypes of military personnel were barely humanized. Good thing they were able to attract a skilled cast, with the exception of the lead actress, or this movie would be a total bust. I don't know the lead actress's work, so I don't know if it's her or the directing, but the line delivery, flirtation, anger, was bland. It seems like a lot more could have been done with the character. This ain't Lynndie England. No complexity. You aren't left wondering what hit you or who was that.Considering the importance of the role to the movie, you should have wondered or at least been impressed her by the end. As stands it looks like the casting guys decided that long legs and big boobs will a fine female coworker make.The movie demonstrates that the DEA has a big training budget and room for lots of creativity in the training of each candidate. Okay, military personnel, is this realistic?
Better than I thought!
posted on 06 Apr 2009Before I saw this movie I thought it was going to be terrible! Mostly because of John McTiernan's last film, Rollerball, which was probably one of the worst filmed and thought out movies made. Another reason was because of John Travolta's downward slope since the absolutley unbearable "Battlefield Earth". The only reason I went to see 'Basic' was because of Samuel L. Jackson is one of my favorite actors of all time. But, when those credits started to role at the end of feature, I thought to myself, "That wasn't that bad. Actually, it was kind of good." The film had very interesting plot twists. The plot twists never stopped though. Hell, it had more twists than a bag of pretzels. The story is about a army trained DEA Agent Tom Hardy (John Travolta) who with the help of Lt. Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen) investigates the disappearance of a training Sgt. named West (Samuel L. Jackson) and his soldiers during a training mission in a rain forest. Only two of Sgt. West's soldiers are found Dunbar (Brian Van Holt) and a General's son Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi) and they are questioned by Tom and Lt. Osborne, and both survivors give different stories about what happened in that rain forest. But who are Tom and Lt. Osborne going to believe? The film also stars Timothy Daly, Taye Diggs, Roselyn Sanchez, Harry Connick, Jr., Dash Mihok and Cristian de la Fuente. The film is good, but isn't very good. I recommend you wait for DVD. Grade: C+
Do not believe the critics go see this movie for yourself!
posted on 06 Apr 2009I have read the scathing reviews on this movie. But I decided to go see it for myself. I was very suprised. This movie is excellent. I feel that John Travolta had given his best performance in years. This movie keeps you guessing throughout and that is what I like best about it. To compare this movie to battlefield earth as some critic did is grossly unfair. This movie is a must see.
Mind Bogles!
posted on 02 Apr 2009We thought this movie was great. You had to really sit and work it
out. A dash of "The usual suspects" a bit of "The generals Daughter" and a slpash of a few other Military movies. Listen to the clues and watch the screen closely. Good acting by all we thought. 7 out of ten
Travolta takes a step up, but maybe too large of one...
posted on 21 Mar 2009BASIC seemed to be John Travolta's booster seat that he's been looking for for a few years. Let's face it, the guy hasn't gotten the best screenplays dropped into his lap.But BASIC seemed to be what renewed our respect. It was a very fast paced and engaging movie, and it had its "OH!" and such moments that made it stand out a bit. But the movie itself seemed a little too fast-paced for most of us to follow at times. Yes, the main idea was that "nothing is what it seems," but once you get heavily involved in a story, and then something supporting the weight turns out to be false, you're left kind of dazed and confused.While you're trying to sort it all out, it changes again, and with the end of the movie, you're left trying to sort out all of the plot and trying to figure out what was actually true and what wasn't. But perhaps that was their idea in the first place...I think that they may have overdone it a little bit.
Worst of 2003, so far
posted on 26 Aug 2009The movie plot, was so smart, that it turned out being stupid. Watching this film with not giving away the story I was saying yeah right every ten minutes. The casting is very PC, it looks and acts more like Star Trek the next generation than real rangers. Watch Black Hawk down to compare. The ending is awful, and John just keeps the money and runs. Will he ruin his career again? Jackson has a strong performance. Not worth even renting.
4/10