Basic w/John Travolta
 

Definatly worth watching in my opinion. Story can be hard to follow at times. I had to pay attention. If i wasnt sober i think the movie would have lost me. The ending was one of the best I have seen.

That ending was extremely crazy, it was certainly unpredictable for me. Your right the story was kind of hard to follow at times but it was worth watching, IMO.

i thought it was pretty good.

edited to notify for spoilers
 

I thought Basic was not well done at all, and I wish I hadn't watched it. I have a basic theory that says "If you can't get a basic idea of what a movie is about from the trailer (i.e., it is just slapped together action and publicity shots of the stars), then the movie is probably not worth watching." It is not right 100% of the time, but pretty damn close. Well, the trailer from Basic was exactly like that, but I couldn't help but be intrigued. Travolta, Sam Jackson, and Connie Neilsen? How bad could it be? I resisted and resisted, but then one of my friends rented it. Ouch, I'm just glad I didn't pay for it. Here is an itemized list for those who can't wait to flame me for this:

*SPOILERS*




1. Travolta and Jackson share the screen for about 60 seconds total. I feel that this movie was portrayed as a showdown between their two characters and that never happened.
2. If actors and actresses can't maintain an accent for an entire film, they shouldn't try. Both Travolta and Neilsen do this throughout and it is very distracting. Neilsen is very good at eliminating her natural accent, so why try to make her use another? Furthermore, it was irrelevant that either of them were from the South, so why even bother?
3. What the FUCK was going on with Giovanni Ribisi's voice? Talk about distracting.
4. In a movie that features flashbacks and multiple points of view of the same events, especially when some or all of them are fabrications, it is generally a good idea to actually show what really happened.
5. The manner in which the characters behaved was ridiculous and totally out of character. Ex: Nunez prancing about with her gun raised "We...just...want...to...look...at...your..pack!" I'm sure that the testing and training and psyche screenings would weed out someone who would act in such an absurd manner long before they made it into the final stages of Ranger training.
6. When you have a major plot twist (Pike/Dunbar switching the dogtags), it is a good idea to have a reason for the twist.
7. I'm sure that if there was a badass, elite, covert Ranger unit operating off of a U.S. army base in Panama, and they discovered that the base commander was smuggling drugs (highly likely all by itself), then they would definately 1)Tell him they knew. 2)Wait for him to order some of their fellow Rangers to kill them. 3)Concoct an elaborate plan that involved killing the traitors during a training mission in a hurricane rather than killing them while they slept, or turning them in.
8. I'm sure that badass, elite, covert military squads recruit directly from the new trainees, before they have proven themselves in combat or even finished their training.

I could go on, but I think I have explained myself well enough and this movie has already taken up way too much of my time.

pretty good movie

a very good "mindscrew" movie

i was totally caught offguard by many of the twists and such

i'd recommend it

I wasn't sober the first time I watched so alot of the back and forth twists just didn"t sink in. Watched it again the next day and was able to follow the story. I really liked it but, as most have said, you have to pay attention to what's going on. The ending was the best part for me. It's a great mess with your mind movie.

I thought it was pretty poor.

And it's quite derivative. Not the first time this has been done.

Travolta has gone downhill since Pulp Fiction...


Mr Mephisto

Basic was kind of ridiculous.

I've got to agree with many of grayman's points.

And apologies to John Travolta fans but I don't think that guy really knows how to act. I think he must have gone to the William Shatner school of overacting.

While I feel that grayman is a little too harsh on the film, I'll agree that it sucked. I thought the things they showed, the order they showed them in and the things that they left out were done as best as they could be. My biggest problem was that I saw the ending coming from MILES away. How could it have not ended that way?
And I'll definately agree with Mr. Mephisto, John Travolta can't act!

I was gonna give this a try and after first three posts thought ok. Then read on and dont think i will bother. Cheers grayman for the pointers.

I think Rashomon did it better, but I was entertained. A decent rental when you are the mood for something kind of action-spy-thirller sort of thing, but you don't want to think too much.

sucked, big time

If you get the idea of what a film is from a trailer, from point to point, who the characters are, a general idea of what the movie will be, i think its a failure as a film. i for one like twisty movies in particular, provocative stuff that actually forces you to use your brain and deduce what just transpired, then put the pieces together, then come to a sudden conclusion "ohhhh!". case in point, The Usual Suspects, or The Game. Basic was a bit more convoluted than most, but at least it didnt spend the last 15 minutes of the movie explaining all the things you might have missed (see "Vanilla Sky", would have been so much better were the conclusion not so blatant). Straightforward movies have their places, but just because you dont "get it" from the trailer doesnt mean its going to suck.

I avoid any movie that has John Travolta in it.

I think Jackson being let loose to do that whole charismatic hipster thing at the end tricked you into thinking you'd just watched a better movie than you actually watched.

Still, I am somehow able to enjoy these kinds of movies for what they are.

I think you are missing my point. I'm not saying I want the entire movie laid out for me in the trailer, but I would like some idea of what type of movie it might be. Just from watching the trailer, what did you know about Basic? That Travolta, Jackson, and Neilsen were in it, that it had something to do with the military, and that it rained a lot. What genre is it in? Is it a thriller, an action movie? I am all for twists and surprises in a movie. I really enjoyed The Game and The Usual Suspects is one of my favorite movies. I just think that many movie studios try to cover for bad movies by having the trailers not tell you anything about the movie, and then they can trick people into seeing it. I also think that many movies throw in twists and turns for no ryhme or reason, just to make movies seem more interesting. Certainly, there are exceptions to my rule (as I stated above), but if a movie has a decent set-up, why wouldn't the studio let you know what it is, so you want to see it?