Behind Enemy Lines, 2001

This was one of the few Owen Wilson films that I actually liked. In fact, I cannot think of another off the top of my head. A couple times he kinda gets into his Wilsonisms ("Whaddya mean...."), but for the most part, we saw more of Chris Burnett then Owen. I never thought of Hackman as an Admiral, but I thought he did a good job. And even though Joaqim makes a good commanding officer, he is a horrible American commanding officer. Bad casting.

The subterfuge revolving around Joaqim's character (Admiral Piquet) was quite intriguing and I appreciated the plot twists that sprouted as a result. Some of the action scenes were excellent; perhaps I had an overly cynical and pessimistic expectation of Owen's ability to do this type of role well, but I think he pulled it off well. I enjoyed Vladimir's performance of Sasha, but the cloud of mystery and enigma interwoven into his character was a bit too thick. Ok, so he came from a prison camp. What was he doing running around like some kind of loner arch-enemy who can do anything?

I enjoyed most of the cinematography. The action scenes were great, and the stop-motion cuts were tasteful, not to mention the dramatized, granular details of the jet explosion. I detested the scene were Chris Burnett was "sneaking" through the mine-infested industrical area. I hate the "realistic" non-steady-cam, not to mention the fact that absolutely nothing was happening while Owen was pretending to run and hide behind debris in the middle of the field. That sequence added nothing, in fact brought the movie down a notch or two.

The supporting cast was great. I thought Hackman's Admiral character was a bit too gushy at the end, hence unbelievable. But a good movie overall.