if you love Owen Wilson... From the very first scene you know that this film is going to showcase Owen Wilson being Owen Wilson. I happen to enjoy his mixture of arrogant playboy with being insecure and endearing, and ever-flippant. He mastered this in film successes like Shanghai Knights, Shanghai Noon (both with Jackie Chan), and I Spy (with Eddie Murphy).
As to whether this is "based on a true story," it is true that the real U.S. F-16 pilot (Scott O'Grady) who was shot down in Bosnia in 1995, sued 20th Century Fox in 2002 for "invasion of privacy." The irony to that is that his chief complaints were that they got the story wrong and portrayed him in ways that were unlike him. Owen Wilson (named Chris Burnett in BEL) cussed throughout the film and makes a blatantly stupid decision upon being shot down. O'Grady maintains that he did not act that way.
Aside from that reputation-protection, this film is one more great Owen Wilson flic, that will not only keep you smirking, but this one will make you feel like your finger is in a wall socket until the end.
Why not a 5 star? Hollywood needs to learn that we viewers roll our eyes whenever they show us Mr. Hero getting shot at by a gazillion bad guys, and not one bullet hits our main man. (To see a satirical look at the absurdity of this, see Arnold in The Last Action Hero.) BEL even has tanks shooting at our evasive star scampering away on foot. Come on, a scratch on the cheek doesn't make those scenes realistic. And the scene where he decides to go ahead and trip every booby-trap wire to ruin the day of his obviously-going-to-be-killed followers, was ridiculous.
Yes, the worst was the final scene. Enemy tanks, rocket-launchers, machine guns all ablaze at goin'-Owen, and not one frickin' bullet hits him. Ok, even if I can accept that, why did not one bullet hit the three Marine helicopters who just kept dusting the enemy chumps who were shooting away? And his leap off the cliff (with one arm having just been shot) to grab the foot of some dangling Marine on a rope was a bit too much to believe. And I couldn't swallow how Gene Hackman relaxed upon the "success" of now having their man "safe." Off they fly into the sunset, with our invinsible hero, holding on for his not-bored-anymore life. Oh well, enjoy.
I agree with the reviewer who noted the poor character development of anyone but Owen Wilson. Even Gene Hackman comes off quite wooden. The internal military conflict comes through that guy who played the latin-lover spy in Clear And Present Danger. In this flic, I felt like flicking him off the screen, he was so blah and annoying. And who the heck was he, anyway?
Hey, you'll get to see Owen Wilson's nose without enough make-up to cover the deformity from his previous breaks.
Somehow, I can't forget the image from Shanghai Noon where he is dreaming of having his ear nibbled by a sexy saloon babe, only to wake up to the reality of being buried up to his neck in desert sand and a vulture is doing the nibbling. Behind Enemy Lines gives him a similar wake-up call.
A Touch of Intrigue and Lots of Action I was concerned that this movie would either be influenced by the continued backlash from Viet Nam or would be so incredibly over-the-top as to be completely unbelievable. I was pleased that the movie combined a bit of political intrigue with generally realistic military action to yield a very enjoyable movie. There are a few moments where the movie is unbelievable, but those moments are few enough to get you to the end.
Lt. Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) and his friend and partner Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) are flying a routine mission over Bosnia. They fly into territory into which they are not permitted. During their flight they see something on the ground that causes them to take a closer look. Using their new digital image recording system they take high-speed pictures of an area that incriminates Serbians in aggression towards Bosnians. The Serbians shoot down the F-18 with SAMs, later blaming the incident on rebel Bosnians.
Once the plane is shot down the two vulnerable pilots are quickly found by Serbian forces. Stackhouse is quickly executed, causing Burnett to yell in anguish and anger, which of course was a serious mistake because Stackhouse's executioner hears Burnett, and the chase is on.
This movie is all about the chase. Burnett runs for his life, trying to reach an extraction point. The Serbian executioner that murdered Stackhouse chases Burnett almost to the end of the film. During the chase there are several incidents that were very creative, though incredible in their coincidence. One example happens when Burnett has a large group of Serbians on his heels. The chase is being watched from Burnett's aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson. When Burnett trips and falls according to the infrared image, the anxious crew of the Carl Vinson are sure he is dead, yet the chasing Serbians miraculously do not find him. You'll have to watch the movie to see why.
Burnett tries continually to make his way to the rendezvous point for extraction, and is continuously stymied. Eventually the Serbians convince NATO that Burnett has been killed by the rebels, and the Carl Vinson prepares to head for home. But, as we all know, Burnett is still trying to get out. I'll not spoil the ending, which is the one portion of the movie that is really over-the-top, reminiscent of James Bond.
While the movie contains flaws in how the action is portrayed, for entertainment and patriotism it is a good bet, particularly if you enjoy military action movies.
