Breach of Conduct

No pun intended - a neat little thriller that is quite predictable to say the least. I doubt you won't be able to say where this is going early on. But it is not so much about the destination, but the road ahead ... and the road(s) taken. Still not the best thriller out there - what it does have going for it: the main "villain". Great actor whom you may have seen in other stuff before ... or after seeing him here! He is better than the part he has to phone in here.

That all being said, if you are down for a thriller of the week ... well you could do worse I reckon. The army background gives us some interesting set pieces ... other than that, the by the numbers thing is ok too.

From the promotional poster, Breach of Conduct looks like a pretty stupid movie. But this low budget made-for-tv thriller directed by Tim Matheson turned out to be better than I had anticipated.

The story is that of a psychotic military commander, Andrew Case (Peter Coyote) who runs a pretty autocratic military base. He is an eerie fellow, possibly schizophrenic. If above all else, he values being in charge no matter what.

He's got this scam going, where he takes the officer's wives out to this bunker in order to fullfill his unusual sexual fantasies. It looks like everyone who knew about it, went along with it. And Helen Lutz (Courtney Thorne-Smith), the new wife on the base, should not be mistakened for the bubbly, helpless type. Because she's about to risk her life to try to stop Case's crimes, which proves to be quite a dangerous task when no one is willing to challenge Case for the sake of their own careers (and lives) even though they may believe Lutz.

The movie presents itself in a rather tricky fashion for the viewer. I forgot that I was watching a thriller when, in the introduction, you just see this panicked housewife, Lutz, trying to locate her husband on the base as well as get herself settled in the strange, new town (okay, so yeah, that's the beginnings of a thriller--the suspicious eerieness of the visitors who approach Lutz). And when Lutz is seduced by Case, or however you want to describe it, it looks like just a dreamy love story and one movie that could follow that route. But it doesn't, and once Case's sick mentality is revealed to Lutz, the fun begins.

It is not the most wonderful thriller, and does borrow on some formula, but for a low budget made-for-tv thriller, it does the job.

This movie was so far-fetched that it wasn't enjoyable. I saw it during a "guilty pleasure" afternoon on the couch in front of Lifetime Movie Network, so I was even in the mood for cheesy early-90's chick flicks, and this one was just abominably terrible. The entire premise was ridiculous, the things that happened, from start to finish, were ridiculous, the resolution was ridiculous. Stupid, stupid, movie.

The acting wasn't terrible but it wasn't great--just forgettable.

Do not waste your time unless you feel like being blown away by ridiculousness.

I mean, I know sometimes movies require you suspend your disbelief, but this goes so far into unbelievable that it's not entertaining, it's just dumb.

I felt sorry for Peter Coyote in this. Given an almost impossible role to play and giving as much honesty this fine actor could give. Writing didn't help. Tim Matheson directing it was okay. Courtney Thorne-Smith was awful. Melodramatic in her acting and absolutely clueless in what the movie was all about. A bimbo with a purpose. Tom Verico as her husband kept a straight face throughout the picture. Tom Mason was in a fog most of the time as was the movie. Hard to believe this could happen, but I guess anything goes, right? This went nowhere. I was hoping the leading lady would get killed along the way and we could just end the trite. Mr. Coyote gets high praise for handling the most ridiculous role ever written for an actor to play.

I have to say... as an Army wife I found this movie entertaining. I also found it highly insulting. The story is certainly interesting... a colonel goes haywire and uses officers' wives to satisfy his needs. But unfortunately, this flick simply has NO basis in reality. There's no way a colonel would get away with what's depicted in this film. What's more, it really insults the professionalism of military officers and makes them look bad. It's not based in truth AT ALL.

Watch this movie if you're interested in being entertained. But PLEASE don't assume that anything in this movie is based on truth. It's not. There's nothing at all about this movie that's truthful.