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Top Movies Eight Below Date Movie The Pink Panther Curious George Final Destination 3 Firewall Freedomland When a Stranger Calls Big Momma's House 2 Nanny McPhee New Releases Curious George Final Destination 3 Firewall The Pink Panther Date Movie Eight Below Freedomland Something New Failure to Launch When a Stranger Calls Top Celebs Reese Witherspoon Brad Pitt Paris Hilton Mariah Carey Lindsay Lohan Scarlett Johansson Phil Collins Britney Spears Angelina Jolie Jodie Marsh	Basic  Release Date - March 28th, 2003  Distributor - Columbia Tristar  Duration - 1 hr. 35 min.  Type - R for violence and language.  Writer : James Vanderbilt, Cathy Rabin  Producer : Mike Medavoy, Lee Nelson, Dror Soref, Michael Tadross  Director : John McTiernan  Starring : John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Harry Connick Jr., Taye Diggs  Synopsis Agent Hardy (Travolta) of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) is brought in by an old friend to investigate the disappearances of several Army Ranger cadets and their legendary drill instructor, West (Jackson), during an exercise at a basic training camp, Fort Clayton, in Panama.  Critic Reviews "Basic" came into focus for me when John Travolta did a Michelle Pfeiffer. That is, while interviewing an Army Ranger involved in a mysterious incident during basic training, Travolta stretched himself seductively across a table -- just like Pfeiffer in that hot red dress, draping herself across a piano in "The Fabulous Baker Boys." This is the confident Travolta, the one who graced "Pulp Fiction" and "Face/Off," not the bloated, lazy blob from "Swordfish" and "Lucky Numbers." Unfortunately, while Travolta may be paying attention, writer James Vanderbilt and director John McTiernan aren't -- or aren't enough. What could've been a really first-rate sting movie comes off as less complicated or focused than it should have been. And given a vacuum onscreen, Travolta starts chewing scenery and doing a little fancy prancing. (He first appears in a bathrobe that keeps flapping open, threatening indecent exposure.) Roguish DEA agent Tom Hardy (Travolta) is asked by his old friend Col. Styles (Tim Daly) to come to an American Army base in Panama to investigate the disappearance of several cadets and their hard-nosed leader, Sgt. West (Samuel L. Jackson), during a routine training exercise in the jungle. The two survivors, Dunbar (Brian Van Holt) and Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi), agree that everybody else is dead, but their versions of how they got that way differ sharply. ("Rashomon" anyone?) The film gives us both stories in extended flashbacks -- drenched in rain and mud and yelling and gunfire -- that mostly show West sadistically picking on one of the new recruits, played by Taye Diggs. On a mystery-suspense level, the movie works pretty well. McTiernan moves things along, and Jackson -- though he has less screen time -- is feeling just as bouncy as his co-star. But there's something too familiar about the makeup of West's squad -- the African-American, the privileged rich boy, the Latino, the redneck, the tough gal. Meanwhile, back in the present, Connie Nielsen's portrayal of the base's no-nonsense provost marshal is a disaster. Nielsen got a lot of work out of "Gladiator," but she's as bad here as she is in "The Hunted." And Ribisi acts like a giggly little psycho out of a '50s melodrama. The movie strains to be showy and smart. Every "funny" piece of dialogue is punched up, as if the cast were doing a floundering "Saturday Night Live" skit. Further, there are "issues" -- stuff that's suitably Freudian and dealt with in a crushingly obvious manner. "Basic" isn't a total waste of time. Some of the plot twists are quite good, evoking memories of "Primal Fear" and "The Sting." But the film is so clumsily -- and often confusingly -- told that you find yourself working awfully hard to stay with it. However, that's what Travolta is there for. Whenever your mind starts to wander, he'll do some cocky little bit of business and you're pulled back in -- at least for the next few minutes, until things slow down and he does something else.   For rating reasons : filmrating.com, mpaa.com                                    For Parents : Parentalguide.com
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