Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

I don't think this is really considered a "war movie" in the normal sense but it might as well be since it involves all military people and the focus is an American Navy pilot who is shot down over Bosnia and runs for his life while waiting to be rescued.

Outside of Owen Wilson ("Lt. Chris Burnett") blaspheming about a dozen times, I thought this was a very entertaining film with spectacular sound and a couple of very intense action scenes. I always find man-on-the-run stories good, anyway.

The missile-jet scene has some of the best surround sound I have ever heard in an action scene, along with super visuals. Wilson's travails, as he tries to stay alive in hostile territory while red-tape holds up his rescue efforts, are fascinating. The action scenes are quite different, too.

This is a film I guarantee will not put you to sleep and, at the same, doesn't overdo the action. The end has the usual credibility gap with what I call "Rambo mentality," but overall is a gripping story.

Fmovies: Sure, this movie is unrealistic, slightly jingoistic, and not exactly Dr. Zhivago when it comes to a deep plot, but it's fun to watch. I'm a serious student of the military studies in a professional sense, and I fully realize that the technology (especially the missile chase) and doctrines are unrealistic, but I am also capable of suspending my critical eye when I just want to sit back and enjoy an action flick. I'll save the brain power for something that actually matters, not for a movie, which is just another form of escaping from real life for an hour or two. So yeah, this movie gets a thumbs up for a fun film to sit back and enjoy the surround sound and big screen TV while chomping on some popcorn and a Coke.

Don't a movie seriously that isn't supposed to be taken so seriously!

Having just watched this film (based on the participation of an actor I admire) I have to say that this film was can only be described as unintentionally funny throughout. Full of clichés (ie European general who doesn't care about the troops, gung ho Americans itching for action). Oh dear. The worst bit about this film is not the political idiocy of it, the emptiness of the plot, the disdain for life or the appalling editing (slow motion shots which are a reminder of the A Team) but the music. What does it say when a civil war in the former Yugoslavia is accompanied by rock music? Well, it says that this is essentially a movie for American teenagers who haven't a clue where Yugoslavia is (or was) but who do need to be made to sit still in the cinema. Result: with an action movie where random death happens to people they don't know about or care about but American lives are precious. Ultimately, this is a recruiting film for kids who think that they can be involved in foreign wars they know nothing about, get shot at, but come home safely. Dire.