John McTiernan showed that he had a lot of talent for directing in his early career. 'Die Hard' to this day is one of the landmarks of the action genre as well as being a wonderful film in general, and 'Predator' and 'The Hunt for Red October' are also great. 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' is very enjoyable. Sadly, the 2000s in particular saw his career do a 180, with 2002's dreadful 'Rollerball' making one shocked that it actually came from him.'Basic', from 2003, turned out to be McTiernan's most recent film before his personal life and legal troubles got in the way. It is certainly much better than 'Rollerball', then again almost anything is and it is difficult not to make anything better. However, there is still that disappointing sense that such a promising career start declined as drastically as McTiernan's. Is 'Basic' a terrible film and as bad as critics have said? Not quite. Could it have been much better? Yes. It suffers from the opposite problem of 'Rollerball', that film had the feeling of not that much effort was put into it whereas 'Basic' suffers from trying too hard.There are good things. 'Basic' actually starts off well, there was a little tension and has enough to make one intrigued in wanting to continue. It is a slick looking film, despite scenes being darkly lit even for a film where there are a lot of night-time scenes, giving a genuinely moody and gritty thriller look.Klaus Badelt provides an atmospheric music score. John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Nielsen and Tim Daly make the most of what they have and actually do quite well, Travolta in particular seems to be having a good time while not overdoing it.However, McTiernan seems out of sorts and lost here, and he shouldn't have been because 'Basic' is not a change of pace film like 'Medicine Man' was. He should have been the perfect person to direct considering the genre, but clearly bit off far more than he could actually chew, he struggles to make the film compelling and loses control. The script is sluggish and over-stuffed, with many awkward moments, suffering too from trying to do far too much.Despite starting off well, 'Basic' derails quickly and gets increasingly tedious and convoluted to the point of incoherence. The final act in particular almost single-handedly wrecks the film, it tries to take on far too many twists and pretty much every single one of them attempted is confusing and ridiculous and then it ends on such an incomplete-feeling note. Taking away the twists, the story actually is pretty basic and thin, giving the sense that the piling on of the twists was trying to disguise that the story was very bare bones underneath. There is no reason given to allow anybody to care for the shallow characters or the severely flawed story, while Harry Connick Jr feels out of place and Giovanni Ribisi is in parody mode that one can't take him seriously.Overall, not a waste of time but could have been much better because the potential was there. 4/10 Bethany Cox

BASIC is a very dumb military thriller and the last film (to date) to be directed by John McTiernan, the former great who brought us DIE HARD and PREDATOR. This film's a far cry from those movies and even from John Travolta's previous military film, THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER. It's an attempt at a RASHOMON-style narrative in which the disappearance of a group of soldiers is told in flashback in different ways by multiple witnesses, but the script is badly-written and gets bogged down in one silly twist after another, eventually causing the viewer to lose interest in the exercise. The actors are on autopilot here, including Samuel L. Jackson, and the end result is tedium rather than excitement.

A decent movie got it on amazon for 4 dollars ("used" plus shipping). Its a military movie with a very good ending. The ending is definitely worth waiting for. I liked the rain i liked the scenes. But there is so many takes on the story its tough to follow along without getting lost. I thought the script was very smart. Travalta was good and believable. The reason I said the script is very smart is because I had to watch it twice to understand the movie. A good watch if you want to understand a movie and if it is worth watching twice. I ALMOST GUARANTEE YOU YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND IT THE FIRST TIME. I will give it a 6 for how hard it was to follow and for the script.

Then this would be a reasonably entertaining thriller. No matter how muddled or confusing this film, Basic ends up being, there is no denying how smart the film is. The script could have used a major overhaul because there are so many twists, but somehow I was able to stay on page. Yes that gave me a headache, but I couldn't help but be intrigued by the characters, especially those played by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. The directing is excellent and so are the technical side of things.John McTiernan, known for directing Die Hard and Predator, directs a film and it's about how a group of army rangers head to Panama for training during a hurricane and ends up in disaster. When two survivors are picked up and each tell different stories, it's up to DEA Agent Tom Hardy to figure out who is telling the truth.The acting is pretty good for the most part. John Travolta was excellent and quite sinister as Hardy. I always love when Jackson plays a badass and he does that here as the Master Sergeant. Connie Nielsen is decent as Captain Julia Osborne. For the rest of the crew, they were good but nothing memorable.Overall, I found Basic to be a good movie. I generally like twists in my thrillers, but too many of them can hold a movie back from greatness. This film had potential, but the screenplay failed to justify that potential. That being said, it's an intriguing thriller with great acting, great direction, and of course is action-packed so it won't get boring. But with a twist too many, this film can settle for mediocrity. I rate this film 7.5/10.