A Hollywood-slick military mystery-thriller packed with over-scripted, less than cogent twists, Basic is so full of cheap red herrings that watching it feels like gorging on a Long John Silver's all-you-can-eat buffet. John Travolta stars as a cocky ex-Army Ranger who is tapped by his former commander (Timothy Daly) to interrogate two survivors of a Special Forces training mission which went awry and ended in either a friendly-fire accident or a deadly showdown over the chain of command--depending on who's telling the story. Throw in a possible narcotics cover-up, flirtatious head-butting with a tough-cookie MP (Connie Nielsen), a transparently gimmicky script that withholds plot points to spring as "surprises" later, and a steady barrage of highly implausible contrivances (two soldiers trade identities and dog tags), and what you've got is a supposedly clever movie packed with fundamentally stupid flaws. The picture's only saving grace: Samuel L. Jackson as the ruthless commando in the mission flashbacks. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director John McTiernan, the 22-minute “Basic: A Director's Design” making-of featurette, the 16-minute “Basic Ingredients: A Writer's Perspective” featurette with writer James Vanderbilt, cast and crew filmographies, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a disappointing film.] (R. Blackwelder)
Basic
Columbia TriStar, 95 min., R, VHS: $107.99, DVD: $27.95, July 8 Volume 18, Issue 4
Basic
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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