Basic

 

Three things, first you don’t have a choice, second I’ve never taken a bribe in my life, and third… I’m still a little drunk from earlier so if I skip over the witty banter and move straight on to coming on to you… I hope you don’t take offense. 

Basic is a military movie but based around the investigation side of the military.  The opening scene has a group of Marines in a helicopter with the voice of West in the background.  West is played by Samuel L Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Star Wars Episode 1-3, A Time to Kill) and his voice is heard to be giving orders of what appears to be a mission.  

The second scene starts again with a helicopter, only this time it’s here to pick up the Marines from a training exercise.  The pilot and the spotter both hear distant gunfire and fly over to the area where the spotter identifies a Marine carrying another who is obviously wounded over his shoulder when he is seen to turn and open fire on another Marine.  The spotter in the helicopter states that they are open firing on each other and they have to get down as soon as they can.  The seen again changes and flips between Kendall who we now know was the wounded and Dunbar who was carrying him and has now been arrested and is being questioned about the death of one Marine and the disappearance of another three and their commander, West!

It is now that we meet Hardy, an ex Marine who now works for the DEA.  Hardy is played by John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, Taking of Pelham 123 & Ladder 49) and is living it up in a festival filled town drinking his cares away. 

Styles is the commander of the base and has contacted Hardy to come and investigate the case much to the disgust of Osborne who was the officer in charge of the investigation.
It is now that the questioning starts and the scenarios are painted out by Dunbar and Kendall.  Flashback scenes of their encounters help you to visualise it and it all fits in so perfectly.  The plot really starts to thicken here as the blame game starts and it’s up to Hardy and Osborne to figure it out.  We also find out that West is a link to everyone involved, including Hardy.  So the plot thickens again.  It’s almost at a thick soup consistency.  As the investigation continues the mention of performance enhancing drugs known as Combat Cocktails.  They help the Marines push passed pain, to help with strength and energy.

During the course of the movie you try to start to put the pieces together and see who was in the right and who was lying.  I had a suspicion but actually had no clue about the whole thing.  It’s definitely a film that has you guessing while enjoying the action flashback scenes.  It’s a movie that I gladly watched a second time to make sure that I missed nothing.  A movie that has a great ending that I will honestly say very few would guess.

Basic is a movie that is definitely not basic, it has more twists and turns than an amusement park full of roller coasters.  Intrigue is the thing that has you hooked and watching every second.
A movie that has been directed well and overall cast well.  Not to say that the actors involved didn’t do a good job but with Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta starring as two of the main characters the budget for casting would have been thin.  It is the only fault I can find with Basic if you can even call it a fault.

So overall I give Basic, 8.75/10 Duff points.