Basic was John McTiernan's last film before development delays on several projects he was working on, and a conviction for lying to the FBI, has halted his directing career. After the disaster that was Rollerball, McTiernan partially makes amends by helming this 2003 contemporary military thriller.
It's an over complicated Rashamon-esque story told largely in flash back as Army Policewoman Connie Neilsen and swaggering, drunk DEA agent John Travolta piece together the testimonies of the survivors of a combat training mission that has seen the rest of the squad, including their bullying Sergeant Samuel L Jackson, murdered.
The problem is that both the screenwriter and McTiernan are trying too hard to impress. It IS a clever story and it does have electric characters dsoing clever things...but it's all so frantically paced that the plot twists, lies, bluffs and counter bluff all become a bit overwhelming...a bit like trying to cram three episodes of Scooby Doo into half an hour.
On the directing side, McTiernan is playing it safer than in the highly experimental Rollerball, but there are still problems. It's still cut a little too fast for his fluid camera style, the sound mix is inadequate with the rain and storm sound effects frequently obscuring dialogue and the jungle action is frenetic and muddled rather than slow and gripping. On a plus note he has the best use of lens flares here before JJ Abrams trumped him with 2009's Star Trek.
Still, it's a solid thriller with a strong cast, Neilsen is both tough and sexy as hell in her tight fitting military garb, and the ending is at least a good twist in a movie that has many.
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