Basic

December 9, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 105 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

With John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in a movie together you know it has to be a good one, and Basic doesn’t disappoint.

Basic

A group of six army rangers are dropped in the jungle during a hurricane for a training exercise and only two come out alive. Not only that, but they weren’t fighting an outside enemy, they were fighting each other. This is all too much for the base commander to handle on his own, and when one of the captured rangers insists that he will only talk to another ranger he calls in his old buddy Tom Hardy (John Travolta).

Tom is a DEA agent with a shaky reputation who is currently under investigation for bribery. No matter though, he’s an ex-ranger (who apparently was kicked out for some reason) and a great interrogator. At this point the movie finally gets started with Tom quizzing the prisoner and us getting to see what happened via flashbacks during the story.

At this point I need to stop telling story points as there are more than a few plot twists along the way, and just at the point where you think you’ve figured it all out it will throw another one at you. This isn’t a great movie, but it was enjoyable and much more interesting than the dreadful Tears of the Sun, thus we’re giving it 4 stars.

Posted by John | Filed Under 4 Stars, Connie Nielsen, Harry Connick Jr., John Travolta, R, Samuel L Jackson, Taye Diggs, Theatrical, Thriller