Twentieth Century Fox presents a film directed by John Moore. Written by David Veloz and Zak Penn, based on a story by James Thomas and John Thomas. Running time: 93 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for war violence and some language). Opening today at local theaters.
Can an old-fashioned, flag-waving war film that looks to some as if it were an extended U.S. Army recruiting commercial successfully challenge its rivals at the box office, including the forbidding Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? Most critics are suggesting that Behind Enemy Lines can, even though they have few positive things to say about the movie. Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News, for example, writes that the script is no more than high-Rambo in its simplistic, patriotic zeal. Rita Kempley in the Washington Post comments: This baby comes equipped with all the bells and missiles. Given the standard-issue plot, it's about all it can be. Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune, while acknowledging the director's successful efforts to build excitement into the drama, concludes that it falls into a category of action fests that are lost in their own high-tech no man's land: big-sell videos disguised as movies, recruiting poster films full of knee-jerk characters and calculated frenzy. Noting that the movie's premiere was held aboard the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert comments: I wonder if it played as a comedy. But the film does receive a couple of prominent salutes. Stephen Holden in the New York Times comments: Even with its occasional lapses into melodramatic fakery, its cool, machine-tooled mixture of jargon, gadgetry, offhanded machismo and war-is-hell imagery feels far more authentic than in most Hollywood war movies. And Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal calls it stirring as well as eerily pertinent, and fills a bill I would have thought to be unfillable for a long time to come -- a Hollywood production that appeals to our patriotism while respecting our intelligence.
as i read through the rather contradictory professional reviews, i am reminded of the effusive plaudits an ordinary table wine received from the pros when it was presented to them in an elegantly labeled bottle.thus, i tend to regard most criticism as little more than prose poetry.however, as i can recall no marked desire to tar the writer, director, or producers, you will probably be fairly safe with it, but no more.