Basic

Basic (2003) starring John Travolta, Connie Nielsen, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Before...considering before I looked at it on the shelf and thought it was a different film altogether, there is nothing much I can really write in this box, as watching it on Wednesday night, seemed to me like the first time I had watched it. It was brilliant, this barely ever happens and so I was looking forward to the film. Travolta and Jackson, back together after 8 years!! AWESOME!:D

Tom Hardy (Travolta), an ex-Army Ranger turned DEA agent, is drawn into an ever-widening mystery surrounding the disappearance of the feared and often hated Sgt. Nathan West (Jackson), as well as several of his elite Special Forces trainees on what appears, at first, to have been a routine training exercise during a hurricane in the jungles of Panama. Capt. Julia Osborne (Nielsen) struggles with her investigation. So base commander Col. Bill Styles calls in ex-Ranger Hardy, an old friend and a persuasive interrogator. What happened to West and his Ranger team? And what were they really doing out there in the jungle? As each layer reveals more lies and greater deceptions, Hardy and Osborne inch towards the horrible truth about the fate of the missing Rangers.

My wife's view..."A puzzle of a movie. Cryptic and clever, without giving too much away it keeps you thinking till the end. Poirot without the moustache. Probably will love it even more the second time, when I will have forgotten how it all ends up anyway. Don't watch it with a hangover...not that we did! ★★★★☆"

Where to start...clever, complex and intelligent, this movie gripped me immediately the credits started to role. Jackson plays a crazed army sergeant and does it brilliantly. You immediately want to hate him, and that is the point. Travolta plays an equally uneven and slightly off the wall DEA interogator, who immediately rubs Nielsen's Osborne up the wrong way. The cast of this film gels together really well and are all utterly believable for me.

The plot is highly complex and to some might seem convoluted, however to them I say all you need to do is concentrate. As my wife says, trying to watch this hungover or drunk is not the way to go with this film, your complete concentration is needed in order to fully appreciate this film. The twists are turns it makes might need multiple watchings in order to appreciate them, but I think it is well worth it.

Deep down this is a murder mystery whodunnit type film, and I am a sucker for these types of films, I love to watch them play out before my eyes, and with this one it is no different. Clever twisty and very enjoyable. It is a thinker but definitely worth it, which is why I am giving this film...

★★★★☆