Behind Enemy Lines - 12.13.2001

The 80's and 90's were flooded with carbon copy films, especially action movies, and along the way the technology got more advanced, the effects became both cheaper and more expensive, depending on who you were... and action stars came out of nowhere... sometimes by accident.

Behind Enemy Lines is a conglomerate of a few different films. You get some Top Gun, Die Hard, some Saving Private Ryan, Iron Eagle... tons of different things... but they come off as echoes, not copies.

I've liked Owen Wilson a lot, since Bottle Rocket. Iloved his writing with Wes Anderson on Rushmore, and I'm very much looking forward to The Royal Tennanbaum's. His other work is spotty but entertaining.

I liked him in Armageddon and Bottle Rocket. But I also thought he was wasted in Anaconda, The Haunting and Meet the Parents. I've yet to see Shanghai Noon or Zoolander, but I'll give them a shot sooner or later. It should be noted that he's already signed on to star in a sequel to Shanghai Noon, called Shanghai Knights. He's also starring opposite Eddie Murphy and Famke Janssen in the movie rendition of the hit 60's show I Spy.

I also enjoy Luke Wilson's work, his brother. Both are in The Tennanbaum's, and that should prove to be a really fantastic film.

Wilson played his usual quick talking self, but what suprised me the most was how easy he was able to fit into this kind of action role. I didn't think that he would be able to pull it off as well as he did, but as I said, he surprised me.

For those of you who do not know it, Gene Hackman is will be 72 in January. 72. Seventy-two. He's starred in over 80 films, not once getting behind the camera, and has played some of the most incredible roles in film history. Lex Luthor, Little Bill Daggett, Coach Norman Dale and Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, just to name a few.

He's got a personality about him that makes him, even as a villian, an incredibly complex and enjoyable character. He's played the Captain, the General, the Commander so many times... I look forward to his work. He, too, will be in the Tennanbaum movie. The dynamic between him and Wilson, even though the majority of it took place over radio, was well played.

Not sure where they got this director from, John Moore, but by the looks of the film I'm sure he came from directing videos. There was a sleekness to the film that ran throughout. Almost like this guy watched every war movie he could get his hands on, every action movie that had big explosions... took notes and then went to his producer and said "This is what I want to do with that shot we were talking about... it would be soooooo cool."

This is his first feature and I have to say that I was impressed with a lot of the direction in this film. The actors... honestly, I think they were able to take care of themselves... but the look of the film really wowed me in some spots.

This story was written by the brother team of Jim and John Thomas. The two men have also written the scripts for Predator, Executive Decision, Wild Wild West and Mission to Mars.

The script was penned by David Veloz (Natural Born Killers, Permanent Midnight and Undone) and Zak Penn (Last Action Hero, PCU, Inspector Gadget, Reign of Fire and X-Men 2).

The film has got some cliched moments... (I don't think there are very many original films that have come out in the last two or three years save Mulholland Drive, but that's a different story all together...) but it also has a nice simple story that is structured so the pacing comes fast and furious. With their previous work in mind, I think the team did a fine job with this film, and I was glad to see that the slickness of the director played off well against the pace of the script.

Brendan Galvin was the DP on this shoot, and it looks like this was his first mainstream film. He's worked on two others, in Ireland, and they were seemingly smaller budgets than this film. I'm not sure if the director and the DP knew each other prior to making this film... it would seem they would have had to... but the final product makes me believe they trusted each other enough to make the film they wanted to make, with the look, the speed, the excitement that the script provided.

All in all, a fun action movie.