Reviews

I saw Basic at a press screening last week and I must say it's damn AWFUL. Poorly written, poorly directed (Whatever happened to you, John?) and even poorly photographed (How can a Hollywood movie look so ugly?). The film is like "The General's Daughter", but with a bunch of unbelievable twists and turns attached to it. Nothing makes sense in this movie. The screenwriter builds the whole film around false flashbacks (like that's hard) and keeps pulling the rug from under your feet so many times that halfway through the movie you don't care anymore. He tries to make "The Usual Suspects" or "House of Games", but the writer is no Christopher McQuarrie or David Mamet. He cheats shamelessly (with the Point of View, with the Information you're given, with the character's motivations...). This is one of those movies that, when the final twist comes, you look back at the whole film and realize that nothing makes any sense.

Even worse, you do not care about the characters (they are non-existent, just walking card-board figures), you do not care about the investigation (there are no true facts that you can hold to), you just want the movie to end. McTiernan has definitively lost his gift for action: everything is noisy and confusing. Spielberg can direct action (see Minority Report), making it dynamic and frantic, but clear at the same time. McTiernan cannot. It's all chop, chop, chop.

Because the whole action takes place at night, under the rain, during a hurricane, the film is really ugly and LOUD. The wind keeps howling, the character keep yelling, the sound effects of the machine guns are deafening... I can assure you something: by the end of the film, you'll have a head-splitting headache.