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CALDWELL'S DVD REVIEW: Mr. Kennedy in "Behind Enemy Lines" - Let's talk things out while we hold guns Jan 13, 2009 - 2:26:10 PM
There's nothing more frustrating than when a movie leaves loose-ends dangling in the breeze with no resolution offered.
Other than Mr. Kennedy pulling off a strong supporting actor performance in "Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia," that was the major take-away from WWE's first straight-to-Walmart-shelves movie release.
The movie checks in at a breezy hour-and-a-half with a story that's pretty easy to follow, but frustrating due to the lack of character development for half of the cast.
One of the central characters is Commander Scott Boytano, who joins some random military officer, Nicole Jenkins, in the obligatory "mission control room" directing covert Navy SEAL operations in Colombia.
Nicole is randomly thrust into the movie, lacks screen presence, and simply follows around Boytano as he loses control of Mr. Kennedy's team and is subsequently relieved of his duties.
It would be like Chris Jericho being fired, then WWE forgetting completely about its top star with no follow-up or resolution. With Boytano, we never find out what his background is (due to a lack of character development) and we never find out his fate with a proper follow-up.
The movie stars with some classic "international paradise" shots to establish the setting. It's serene and peaceful and wonderful and wouldn't you like to come visit our tourist bureau?
Suddenly, life comes to a halt when a Colombian man's wife and child are killed by an explosion. The man, Alvaro Cardona, then joins a rebel operation to seek revenge on his killers. Little does he know he starts working for the group that actually killed his wife and kid.
The movie follows Cardona through emotional scenes that culminates with a randomly-placed "stand-off/let's talk things out while we hold guns" moment in the middle of a jungle.
Cardona comes face-to-face with his commander, who reveals he actually organized the killing. He's left with a choice to kill the ugly Americans (Kennedy and co-star LT. Sean Macklin) or take out the dude he thought was on his side.
Based on the previews for the movie, you would think this is a fast-paced blow-'em-up movie like John Cena's "The Marine." There are certainly elements of that, but it's more like the Bourne Trilogy.
WWE seems to be basing their entire Studios operations on the Bourne series. Perhaps it's because I watched two out of the three again this weekend, but even the poster for Cena's next movie, "12 Rounds," looks exactly like the Bourne imagery and Cena looks exactly like Matt Damon.
"Behind Enemy Lines" has the obligatory "control room" scenes, the military operations, CIA hot-heads who bark more than they bite, and conflicts over how to handle potential terrorists.
The only issue is that the writing, dialogue, and action sequences are so intricately designed in the Bourne trilogy, while "BHE" never takes itself seriously enough to enter Bourne-dom.
As Kennedy said in an interview with Kevin Eck of the Baltimore Sun earlier this week, they weren't trying to put together an Oscar-winner or be anything more than your basic action movie with some sophomoric lines from the sharp-shooting Kennedy and a basic plot setting up three or four major action sequences.
Kennedy plays his role well of the guy who always makes sure his SEALs team gets out alive, but gets himself into trouble at the bar when it's all over. His sarcasm is mild, but effective to get a few smirks here and there during the movie.
The movie includes plenty of "high-tech military" camera shots to glamorize a very real, dirty job. Reminds of watching Jeopardy the other night when Alex Trebek interviewed a legit Crime Scene Investigator, who sarcastically said every CSI is well-groomed, involved in multiple love affairs, and has millions of magic boxes to help solve cases just like on TV.
But, the movie creates an easy escape to suspend disbelief and buy into this fanciful storyline, even one with un-developed characters and many loose ends hanging in the air.
For a "don't-take-it-too-seriously," straight-to-DVD action movie where they couldn't even hire a legit news reporter to give a fake news report - opting for some random dude standing in front of an obvious green screen - it's a fine movie.
[Mr. Kennedy art by Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]
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