Behind Enemy Lines

In its own flashy sort of way, Behind Enemy Lines stretches credibility a little too far. Sure, I can live with the one-and-only Arnold having thousand of bullets fly in his direction and not get hit. I can even live with the Sly himself being fired upon countless times and each and every bullet seemingly whizzing by his forehead and missing. Maybe those are my Commando or Rambo juices flowing, but it was nearly impossible for me to regard this film highly when, of all people, Owen Wilson was the soldier with the force field.

I like Owen Wilson. He's got a charisma about him that I'd be hard pressed to explain. However, Wilson constantly registers as being slightly miscast for this role. While Gene Hackman is conceivable as the rugged military general, Wilson's most notable attribute (his sly style of humor) is woefully underused. But, many jokes would not have been appropriate for a film of this type. Plainly put, Wilson probably should not have been cast in this role. It's not his fault, it looks like it might have been fun, but someone a little more gritty might have been more convincing.

The director does, however, manage to keep the film in a fairly light mood. Even with the obvious atrocities being displayed on screen by the leaders of the Bosnian-Serbian conflict, the story moves right along at a brisk pace. It's constantly exploring new settings as our hero runs from danger. We meet several new characters that are interesting (then are promptly forgotten, presumably by editing) and keep the political side of the conflict up front.

While Behind Enemy Lines is nothing extraordinary, or even anything worth remembering several hours after viewing it, it still ranks as being better than a lot of the trash being released in theaters this year. It's an easy film to just sit down and watch for a couple hours simply for escapist entertainment value. With its decidedly patriotic feel, isn't this what many people are looking for at this time?

On a scale of 1 to 10 renegade soldiers : 6