Behind Enemy Lines: Review By B. Alan Orange

Code Orange Alert #38516: Behind Enemy Lines

Owen Wilson continues his calm breeze up the food chain, proving himself to be one of the most likable players offered off-rate for our consumption. Usually placed in the comedic peripherals of side-lead, he scootches over nicely to command a Gene Hackman cameo that ups the intensity of all actions involved. Owen puts on a Hell of a show, he's solid gold. This is going to be one bankable bitch. Drifting above the fumes set forth by Three Kings, it hits at fives while almost seeming less proficient. The movie fails in lifting acute awareness and significant subtext in a personalized storyline centered around wartime Bosnia. It shifts at mid-point, slowly pulling down a mask of importance, but knocks that notion clean off its face to deliver a "Popcorn Movie" of unfiltered fun. It trades significant, historical meaning in a democratic sense for true "Rah-Rah" posturing. That's fine by me. I'm ready to fist the goodwill preaching offered as per norm these days. This is what I want. This is what I need: Pure kick-ass action that locks up the knees and leaves you short on breath. Eleven months in, this is the first film of the year to deliver on its balls-out action promise. A spiraling seashell of bad situations, it recalls the best of Walter Hill in a truly unique line formation. Its calling card falls out of the pocket at bam-bam-bam.

Coming on like a supped-up version of Hill's cult classic, The Warriors, director John Moore pulls out a sub-genre of biblical proportions; the cat and mouse shoot-em-up road picture. This theme hasn't been seen since Emilio and Cuba got lost in the hood while on their way to a boxing match in Judgment Night. Writers James & John Thomas unmercifully dump their hero in the wrong part of town and expect him to jump the fence with his kidneys in tact. A clever goal made all the more important by Wilson's strong relationship with the audience. I'm surprised Hill's name isn't somehow associated with BEL's call sheet; he owns this brand of tongue-biting reverb. Strip away the Top Gun aesthetics and let Wilson's co-pilot live, you've basically got Hill's Southern Comfort in Bosnia.

Moore hasn't merely ripped off his predecessor; he's taken the material and stretched it in loads. Once glass breaks and things kick into gear, Behind Enemy Lines peeks at relentless. Magical hands whip Wilson and stir him so far down into the mud, he has no clue which way is up. The trailers don't lie. This thing is pretty non-stop in it's execution of technically fulfilling chase scene arrangements. The opening moments cause a giddy anticipation of what's to come.

Sure, we have to shuffle through fifteen minutes of foreplay before that first big set-piece, but it'll have you climaxing in your seat faster than the tail end of a bukaki. The movie is hinged with semi-new editing techniques, offered up merely to assure us that it's fresh and of the moment. While it plays with some blaringly obnoxious tweaks and fiddles, it has two rather nice instants that haven't been seen before. The "life flashing before your eyes" c*ckpit stop-pause a second before missile impact hits at dropping jaws to the floor, while the trip-wire explosion in slow-mo recalls the opening of Travolta's Swordfish in a very unique package. It's all great stuff that keeps Enemy from being a mere throw away. Sure, it might be seen as cinematic trash to some, but it's the kind of trash you buy at a Beverly Hills swap meet and keep on the fireplace mantel when no one's looking.

The problem sh*t-f*cks are having with this movie is that it "almost" wants to be about something, but doesn't know how to get there. I've heard certain scenes were cut to keep its basis on a lower level. We don't want our audiences thinking. It gets its point across, but has no lasting effect. The dead locals in the mud bank are less important than the actual act of Wilson running through gunfire to get photographic evidence. We cheer because he's made it through a haze of bullets, not because the digital disc will legitimize America's wartime efforts in other countries. If you're looking for peace and inner meaning through jacked-up cinema, you best look elsewhere; Blackhawk Down might be a decent place to start. Those in search of a good time while shifting in their seats, you can't do better than this. Guaranteed.