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The movie deals upon a commando of brave soldiers . During the training , the sergeant (Samuel L. Jackson) is killed . A previously soldier and now DEA agent (John Travolta) has to solve who is the killer . He investigates the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry . He's helped by an officer (Connie Nielsen) . They will have to face off difficult enigmas until to find out the truth .

The picture blends action , suspense , whodunit , thriller , emotions and is pretty entertaining . The flick is tense and mysterious from the beginning till ending and is neither boring , nor dull but entertaining . The screenplay of the film has a twisted plot and the final gets an extraordinary surprise . Runtime film is overlong but is fast-moving and for that reason is amusing . The movie is similar to classic ¨Rashomon¨ (by Akira Kurosawa) and ¨The Outrage¨ (by Martin Ritt) , regarding deeds since various points of sight as people explain them . Every time the story of the bunker is retold , each person has a different partner . Interpretation by John Travolta is top-notch likeness to Connie Nielsen . Samuel L. Jackson's acting is limited , he has a secondary but excellent role . Direction by John McTiernan is outstanding and stunning . The picture will appeal to mystery enthusiasts and suspense lovers . Rating : 7/10 above average. Well worth watching.

Tagged by many critics as overly predictable despite trying to be the complete opposite, BASIC is nevertheless a strong, original and entertaining film.

The cast, from big names John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson to lesser-knowns Connie Nielsen and Taye Diggs, ably unravels the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a reviled army sergeant during a hardcore training outing. The episode is recounted in as many ways by as many witnesses, an interesting method that has worked so well in other films such as COURAGE UNDER FIRE. It may all seem confusing at first, but gifted director John McTiernan gradually weaves everything together, though perhaps not as seamlessly as one would ideally prefer.

BASIC is not without its flaws, but they are not as glaring as one might think from professional reviews, or even many of the comments on this website. Its originality is welcome at a time when so many films follow the same cookie-cutter formula.

Basic engages your attention pretty early on and keeps you guessing throughout with the twists and turns in the storyline and its refreshingly unexpected ending.

As you would expect Travolta and Jackson are both superb, as is Connie Neilson. The characters build well, the writing is very solid, and the story is quite original.

All in all 'Basic' is a good thriller that is a little complex and confusing for the casual movie fan.

Definitely worth watching, but not a classic

7/10

"Basic" takes a lot of plot twists through the steamy jungles of Panama. They are often impossible to follow. No, literally. Impossible. As in they literally do not piece together. You can try to analyze them, but when you do, you find out there is nothing really to be analyzed. But the film, by confusing and tricking the audience, makes it appear as if something is there, which is almost as good as if something really is there. Therefore, the movie, though frustratingly difficult to follow at times, is entertaining. Confused yet? Yeah, that's what the movie will make you feel like.

The film opens up in a rain-drenched Panama jungle at night on an Army training mission headed by Sergeant West (Samuel L. Jackson). Most of the film--ALL of the film, for that matter--takes place at night, during a rainy hurricane, and adds to the nonexistant plot. What is so intriguing is that the plot isn't really there, but the writer tries to manifest one, and we feel as if we are staring at some nonexistant, material wad of words and flashbacks and images thrown together in a blender, the writer hoping for it to come out smelling of roses. But I already went over that, didn't I?

Flash forward to the next day. An Army chopper picks up two men from the training mission, one injured and one very much alive. The injured man, Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi), is sent to a hospital, and the alive man, Dunbar (Brian Van Holt) is sent in for questioning by the very sexy and very Southern Osborne (Connie Nielsen). Dunbar refuses to speak to anyone except a Ranger. So in comes Ranger Tom Hardy (John Travolta) to piece together the events surrounding the death of Sgt. West and his team.

The writer of "Basic," James Vanderbilt, has so many twists and turns that the film is impossible to keep up with. I like movies like these, where you see different characters telling their version of one event, but the mistake Vanderbilt makes is that he overuses the plot flashbacks in the middle of other events. It becomes hard to seperate present from past and what's real from what's not. So many revelations happen that I feel like I'm in the middle of the writer's mind, as he comes up with new ideas and tries to squeeze them in time after time after time. There is a limit to how many times you can use "surprise" revelation endings. Vanderbilt uses three of four in a row, piled on top of each other, time after time after time. Just as we think the plot twists are done, and we start to smile because we think we might finally understand the basis of the plot, something else happens, and we zoom in suspensefully on John Travolta's face as he, along with the audience, realizes something. Which leads me to something else.

The end of the film leaves more open than concluded. So many plot holes are never ironed out. With the ending being the way it is, you can look back at certain events and think, "Why did that surprise (so-and-so)," and "Why did that event happen as it pays no relevancy to the plot?" The answer to all this? Simple: It's called audience manipulation, and James Vanderbilt uses it a lot. He throws the audience a bone to keep them happy, continues with something else, throws another bone, and when it's all done and over, we're choking on all these bones and he doesn't realize it. Interesting how he said he named his character Tom Hardy after the Hardy Boys. If I recall, the Hardy Boy novels, which I was an avid reader of at one time, usually revealed a lot at the end. "Basic" tries to, but does not.

The film has an excellent director at its helm, John McTiernan. A man who chooses his projects carefully and wisely and, unfortunately, sometimes horribly ("Rollerball" was exceptionally bad). But "Die Hard" and "Predator" are two of my all-time favorite action films, "Predator" being my all-time favorite "alien" movie. Who wants McTiernan to return to his roots and film a "Predator 3"? It would be good, but don't count on it. Like I said, he chooses wisely, and if I assume correctly, he's the kind of director who doesn't like to return to old projects.

"Basic" confused me, but after the film was over and my mind was in a knot trying to figure out all the different plot twists, I realized how much fun I had being duped by this film. I laughed to myself as I came to realize that this movie has a paper-thin plot, and the filmmakers all tricked us by taking so many twists and turns and throwing so many confusion bones at the audience and making us believe that the underlying plot of the film was something deep. I really enjoyed this movie, even if I still don't really understand it fully. Then again, I don't think you're really supposed to.

3.5/5 stars -

Even though I had some doubts about this movie before watching it, I definitely wanted to give it a try. There were several reasons for that. One of those reasons is because Samuel L. Jackson plays an important role in it. That man on his own is already reason enough to watch a movie, but I also knew that it was directed by John McTiernan, who also made "The Hunt for Red October", "The 13th Warrior" and "Die Hard: With a Vengeance". Three movies that I've seen and liked very much. The only one that didn't really do it for me was "The Thomas Crown Affair", but with an average of three out of four, I could only hope for the best with this movie.

"Basic" starts with showing us how army sergeant West takes six of his special troops on a training mission into the Colombian rain forest, from which only two return alive. When the rescue mission arrives, they see one soldier killing another and carrying a wounded comrade. As soon as they are back on the base, the interrogation of Dunbar - one of the two survivors - starts. But he refuses to talk to anyone else than another Ranger who he doesn't know yet. That's where former Ranger and current DEA agent Hardy comes in. He is able to get a confession out of Dunbar, but as he digs deeper, he only finds more and more prove of contradictions and illegal practices...

This is one of those movies that you have to watch when you can keep your mind to it from the beginning until the end. If you think that you'll need to take a break in between, you better don't even start watching it because the entire story is so confusing and so many plot twists make it almost impossible to watch it, unless you can keep focused. But don't think that this means that this movie isn't any good. It's especially thanks to the many twists that I kept watching, because the interrogation scenes and the 'action scenes' on the base didn't always do it for me. What I also liked about this movie was Samuel L. Jackson's performance. He was really nice as the tough sergeant West. You could see that the man enjoyed playing this role. John Travolta wasn't bad either, but I've already seen him play better roles.

Overall this isn't a bad movie. Thanks to the mysterious story and the many twists it is hard to keep track, but when you are able to do so, you'll have fun watching it. Still, not everything about this movie was that strong and that's why I give this movie a 6.5/10. It isn't the best movie in the genre, but could have been a lot worse than this.

John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson star together in this drama/action/thriller. Sure, it's not quite as good as when they starred together in Pulp Fiction, but this still delivers. This story is basically about a platoon of armymen and their Sgt. (Jackson) on a training mission that goes wrong. People wind up dying or dead and the military calls in an expert to assist in the investigation (Travolta). The story takes a few unsuspecting turn of events leaving you wanting to watch more. Connie Neilson, Giovanni Ribisi, and Harry Connick Jr deliver good supporting roles. What makes this movie great though, is the ending.

It was like a good TV movie. Yes it had too many twists and yes it made little sense but it worked in a weird way. Travolta, who I am not that fond of as an actor...still has a way of capturing your attention. Jackson just phoned it in sadly, but for some reason I liked it.

For the most part of the movie I was thinking about rating it with an eight but towards the end it got way too confusing that I had to change my ratings. The end deserves a six so overall the average is a seven for me. It's one of those movies with plenty of action, but not the kind of easy entertainment, you really have to focus all the time as there are so many twists and turns it just becomes difficult to follow. I like twists and turns but too much isn't necessarily a good thing. The acting is what you expect when you see the big names in the cast, it was good for most of the time. All in all I had a fun time watching Basic, it's just the second part that brought the ratings a bit down. Maybe I'll watch it again in the future, maybe it won't be that confusing if I stay more focussed.

Man, I can't believe I almost overlooked this because the major film critics panned it. Basic is seriously good and the kind of mystery/suspense story I don't see anywhere near enough of. I enjoyed every minute of this movie. I couldn't figure it out and was surprised at the end. For me, it doesn't get much better in the entertainment department than a movie like Basic. John Travolta does what John Travolta does best, playing a wise guy better than anyone, and Connie Nielsen delivers a great little performance and she's hot to boot. This movie has an amazing number of plot twists and the pacing is quick so try to keep up with it. I loved it!

Basic is a twisty and overwrought mystery thriller that makes the classy move of assuming the viewer can keep up with its plot. Well if you can, then good for you. I kind of grasped everything, but still had to go read the last few lines of the film's synopsis on Wikipedia.

John McTiernan needs no introduction. He's a wizard when it comes to directing action movies and his skill shines through here, with many tense scenes and some good action scenes.

The plot is good. Even if it is confusing and a little hard to follow, it's a good premise, and it is an entertaining mystery. The actors commit to it and make it work, and this is probably one of my favorite Travolta performances. Samuel L. Jackson is amazing once again, and his just too charismatic.

This is described as an action film, which I guess is fair. All the action consists of battle scenes that take place in flashbacks, but they're violent, visceral, and entertaining. Don't expect loads of action, though.

It's ultimately a good movie, and worth a watch. It's actually probably worth one or two extra viewings to fully realize the complexity of the plot. I recommend it.

now a days, you see a movie and in the middle of it, you already know the ending, so it's really refreshing to see that 'basic' defies that! i was really having a blast, was loving it, and when the end came i was blown away, but for only one second, because then the brain kicked in, and realize that the plot was wrong, didn't made sense! there were so many twists (and i love that in a movie) that even the editors got confused, if that ending was meant to be, than there were things that happened earlier on, that don't make sense, that are just wrong.

despite all that i liked the movie, i enjoyed't when i was watching and even more when i came out of the theater room and debated with my friends, trying to make sense on why some scenes happened, i bought the DVD only to get to the sad conclusion that i was right and there's something wrong with the story. if only the story would have matched, it would be, one of my favorite action movies!

This is a really good, classic, enjoyable movie. That's it. I thoroughly liked the plot, the twists, the acting - great way to spend shy of 2 hours. Don't expect to reminisce about the ending years afterwards, just strap in and enjoy the ride. Travolta and Jackson deliver performance as delightful as expected.

I'm still shaking my heads hours after seeing this lousy movie. First of all, the acting was great. End of compliments. It's one of those movies where something mysterious happens. By way of flashback, we see one soldier's version of the story, and then another soldier's. But then Soldier #1 changes his story to defend himself against what #2 had said. The writer/director at this point hope to get you to go, "Hmmmm, now THIS is getting interesting. I wonder what REALLY happened out there?" At this point, you really do wonder. But then both soldiers change their stories, they implicate a doctor who tells (then changes) HIS story. They implicate a colonel who tells(then changes) his story. Then both soldiers, for the 42nd time, change their stories. By this point, you'll be like "Who the hell cares what happens." You'll no longer wonder...you just won't care. It's a good thing that you don't care what happens, because the ending makes no sense whatsoever.

From the trailer it was hard to make out how intricate the movie actually was. I had earlier taken it to be an army movie that was sure to showcase some war-like situations. However I was proved wrong when I actually found the movie to be a sort of a thriller. The story retains a training program which turns out to be chaotic when all those rangers who had stepped down to train in the formidable forest area end up shooting each other except for two fellow rangers. The mystery was slowly revealed by two fellow Rangers as to what really happened in the woods while training, both leading the story to a different direction. They both were trying to complicate things by telling their part of the story which although seemed true but in fact wasn't. John Travolta was called on to interrogate the two rangers who had survived from a training facility region(which turned out to be a battleground as there were those who shared a grudge for Samuel Jackson while those who considered it inhumane to kill him) and ended up killing the rest in an accident as the story of those survived rangers suggested. Connie Nielsen however had the habit of snooping around and so figures out the rest of the mystery eventually which was an eye-opener. Find out for yourself what the actual mystery was as I was really surprised to find out the consequences eventually myself and would recommend everyone to watch the movie. I'd rate the movie 7 for the suspense as I kind of like watching movies that has something thrilling to offer.

This movie is dope! The twists are confusing but still awesome.

This movie started out as 'The General's Daughter II, Electric Boogaloo' but as the plot thickened and the characters became more developed, I became more and more intrigued. The last 25 minutes of this movie had more twists than Marlon Brando's intestines. Great ending to save a mediocre movie!

The storyline was'nt as hard to understand, as there was told. John travolta could have done it some better, i had hoped travolta and jackson, where playing together some more, that would have been much better. but i have enjoyed this movie enough to like it.

While performing a military training in Panama before the arrival of a hurricane, four soldiers and his sergeant West (Samuel L. Jackson) vanishes in the jungle. Only two survivors are found. In the investigation conducted by the former military and presently DEA agent Hardy (John Travolta) and commandant Osborne (Connie Nielsen), each one of the survivors tells a different version for the event. I liked this movie: the story, with many plot points, showing different versions for the same event, is a non-declared tribute to Rashômon. I intend to see this DVD again to verify if there are flaws in the complicated screenplay. It is necessary to pay attention in the name of each soldier to understand the plot. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Violação de Conduta' (`Violation of Behavior')

Throw in a bunch of dark scenes, rain, noise, indistinguishable characters, constantly changing plot, a few snappy lines and you basically have a mess.

Acting is ok in spite of the twisting illogical plot. Watchable but annoying.

I can't help but always forget how good of an Actor John Trov really is but honestly he's amazing , his accent , his mannerisms , his Build , his acting his amazing , Yes the story can be confusing but it wasn't for me , yes the ending may be dull but it wasn't for me , The ending and story and Mystery and build up was more than I expected from a 6/10 IMDB. It deserves a hell of a lot help but always forget how good of an Actor John Trov really is but honestly he's amazing , his accent , his mannerisms , his Build , his acting his amazing , Yes the story can be confusing but it wasn't for me , yes the ending may be dull but it wasn't for me , The ending and story and Mystery and build up was more than I expected from a 6/10 IMDB. It deserves a hell of a lot better.

I read a review in my local paper saying that this film was boring. But I like John Travolta and wanted to see it to form my own opinion and my opinion was that it was really good. I think there were a lot of plot twists and turns and you really had to pay attention to see where things were going, if you didn't watch every second of it then you were going to miss something crucial to the plotline. I think this is one of the best movies of the last year, no matter what other people say. I liked it, and so did my whole family. Two thumbs up!