Behind Enemy Lines

December 11, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 105 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Behind Enemy Lines

Owen Wilson isn’t the first name that comes to mind when I think “action movie”. After seeing Behind Enemy Lines his name still isn’t the first one to come to mind, but at least I won’t flinch if it happens again.

Owen is Lt. Chris Burnett, a Navy pilot on assignment in the Adriatic Sea running routine patrols over Bosnia. In fact, the duties are so routine that he’s decided to leave the Navy when his current tour of duty ends in a couple of weeks. Admiral Leslie Frank (Gene Hackman) isn’t thrilled to see Burnett leave even though he is a bit of a goof off both off and on the ship, but we’d expect a commanding officers to want to hold on to a highly trained man.

Burnett and his co-pilot Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) are assigned to a photo reconnaissance mission on Christmas day but their intelligence report misses the mark a little and there’s nothing to photograph at the assigned location. However, just a little off the flight path bubba notices activity in what is supposed to be a neutral zone and talks Stackhouse into taking a look. Did I mention that was also supposed to be a no-fly zone?

A couple of SAMS later and Burnett is walking around Bosnia hoping to get rescued. Things don’t work out as planned due to some political maneuvering and he has to stay on the run while being pursued by Serbs intent on killing him before he can get home and report on what he saw.

If this sounds like standard movie fare that’s because it is, but Gene Hackman is always a pleasure to watch in a military movie and Owen actually does a pretty fine job portraying a Navy lieutenant who isn’t quite sure why he’s in the Navy. This isn’t a great movie, but it’s a decent way to kill a couple of hours.

Posted by John | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, DVD, David Keith, Gabriel Macht, Gene Hackman, Olek Krupa, Owen Wilson, PG-13