CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

DeuceWild_77 Writers Jim & John Thomas ("Predator"), must have been fans of the jungle war movie, "Bat*21" ('88), the Peter Markle directed film starring Gene Hackman and Danny Glover, based on a book by William C. Anderson, which composed the basis for the story that originated "Behind Enemy Lines", with the help of screenwriters Zak Penn & David Veloz. Throwed in the jingoistic / patriot upbeat feeling of the all american pilots from "Top Gun" ('86) and a cat & mouse game, featuring a sniper, that reminds a bit of "Enemy at the Gates" ('01), released earlier in the same year, and the cult classic, "The Most Dangerous Game" ('32) and the end result is an entertaining action / popcorn flick, far away from some kind of realism, but it's never boring to follow.Gene Hackman leads the picture in a reverse role of his Lt. Colonel Iceal Hambleton from "Bat*21", here he's taking the Danny Glover's role, helping the navigator Owen Wilson escape from an army of angry Serbians, behind the enemy lines, after his McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet has been shot down in no man's land. Owen Wilson was an evident bad choice for the role, he can't act and his screen personna doesn't fit in a movie like this, but in the actor's defense, he was in good shape and surely can run for his life.Gabriel Macht is good in his brief turn as the pilot, Wilson's partner, and David Keith and the portuguese actor Joaquim de Almeida, can do their respective military / commanding roles in their sleep, but Russian actor Vladimir Mashkov stole the movie as the bloodthirsty tracker / sniper in a memorable performance in terms of wickedness. He looks and feels like an emotionless predator hunting his prey and sweats charisma on screen.The movie makes use of a competent cinematography (especially in wide shots from the air) and so-so action scenes, that brings nothing new to the table, but at least it maintain the viewer awake. The C.G.I. is often used and abused... the movie could have been way better if the production used more practical effects and stuntwork.In short, "Behind Enemy Lines", wasn't made to be a rather serious war movie on the subject matter, but just an escapist action film to please a lazy sunday afternoon at the movies. Some reviewers here got it wrong, sometimes a movie is just a movie, things that happens in fantasyland, and thinking to much into it, will destroy the experience. Grab a few beers and a pack of smokes and just enjoy it for what it is, and i guarantee to you that this movie will never bore...I give it a 6.5 !!

tacticalshooter-62514 I am going to keep this short so lets get started this film is one of the worst films i have ever had the displeasure to watch.The main problem is it is so boring and predictable you can tell what is going to happen 40mins into the film also the acting is dreadfully bad.This film shouldn't be under action since it barely contains any. after watching it i would give this movie a 2 star thanks for reading my review.

Matthew_Capitano Where these sumbitches ever found that ugly and no-talent Owen Wilson, I'll never know -- or care.After his horse-play with the navy catapults, his wanton disrespect for authority, his stupidity at evading capture, and his refusal to obey orders in the field, I couldn't wait to see Wilson get gunned down. Unfortunately, whenever he's a clear target, all the enemy soldiers instantly become the worst shots in history.I watched this film to see Gene Hackman, one of my favorite actors. Gino wasn't at his best here, but he was still better than anything else this little oil slick of spectacularism had to offer, including moments of errant fantasy, like when the black guy in the war-room punches his fist through the tracking map. . . . . yeah, right. Security, throw him in the brig.One more bit of lameness.... Wilson yells out to his buddy who is injured in enemy territory. Um, like, you NEVER do that! There could be enemy soldiers around. Then, Wilson leaves his buddy sitting right in the middle of a meadow while Wilson saunters off to do whatever. It's "Um, like" time again.... Um, like, HIDE THE DUDE IN THE SURROUNDING FOREST FIRST! Geeeez.OK to view on the couch with some beer and a big bag of cheese puffs.

jimbo-53-186511 Lt Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) is a Navy Navigator who has now become uninterested in further pursuing his career in this role. He effectively resigns and hand his notice in to his commanding officer Admiral Leslie Reigert (Gene Hackman). Reigert informs him that he'll allow Burnett to stay on for a further two weeks after which time he will be relieved of duty. Following this, Burnett along with his colleague pilot Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) are sent out on a holiday mission, but things take a turn for the worse when they enter an unauthorised area and find themselves under attack from Serbian militants. Their plane gets shot down, Stackhouse gets killed and Burnett finds himself on the run from the militants. Reigert does everything in his power to rescue his navigator, but his superiors refuse to authorise a rescue. With Burnett battling against impossible odds, will he survive this nightmare ordeal? One major problem this film has is that it's very weak in terms of story telling- we have a very sketchy narrative about the war in Bosnia, the genocide that occurred in Bosnia is almost completely glossed over (there are one or two flashbacks, but the film doesn't do much to emotionally engage the viewer - which is quite poor when you think about the atrocities that occurred and how much of an impact could have been made on the viewer). It's also clear that no-one is likely to accuse the writers of being objective in their story telling -there definitely seems to be a lot of bias and 'flag waving' going on from what I saw.The positives that can be drawn from this film are that, despite its misgivings, it is actually a suspenseful and engaging film. When watching this film, I was reminded of The Naked Prey which was basically one man's survival against a large number of people against all odds with limited resources. Burnett's rather elaborate escapes were clever and entertaining and therefore I did enjoy this aspect of the film (albeit from a somewhat superficial perspective). The visuals and cinematography were also impressive. In some ways, these things are great as they do make the film enjoyable and great to look at, but in some ways they also have the opposite effect by over powering the film and limiting the story - evidently I see good and bad here.As far as acting goes, Hackman was as solid and reliable as ever. Wilson was also fairly good. The ending was a little overblown and 'Hollywood' and it wasn't helped by a somewhat cheesy final line from Burnett.This is a fairly enjoyable film if you look at it as a suspenseful 'one man against the odds film' but outside of this it's a film that should have had a much stronger narrative and it should have had more of an emotive core. It's OK as far as action and suspense go, but it's weak in its story telling.