DVD Movie Rating for: Behind Enemy Lines

4 out of 5

Movie Plot of: Behind Enemy Lines

Fighter navigator Chris Burnett wants out: he was looking for something more than the boring recon missions he's been flying. He finds himself flying the lone Christmas day mission over war-torn Bosnia. But when he talks pilot Stackhouse into flying slightly off-course to check out an interesting target, the two get shot down. Burnett is soon alone, trying to outrun a pursuing army, while commanding officer Reigert finds his rescue operation hamstrung by politics, forcing Burnett to run far out of his way.

DVD Production Details of: Behind Enemy Lines

Director: John Moore

Format: Color

Studio: Fox Home Entertainment

DVD Easter Eggs

Extra Footage

Access The Egg

From the main menu, go to the special features menu, then select the 'pre-vis ejection sequence'.

From the 'pre-vis' menu, press up. This should highlight one of the stars of the flag. Press enter to watch a short comment from the director to the studio, and a hidden take.

Cast of the movie: Behind Enemy Lines

• Owen Wilson .... Lt. Chris Burnett
• Gene Hackman .... Adm. Leslie Reigart
• Gabriel Macht .... Stackhouse
• Charles Malik Whitfield .... Master Chief Rodway
• David Keith .... O'Mally
• Olek Krupa .... Miroslav Lokar
• Joaquim de Almeida .... Admiral Piquet
• Vladimir Mashkov .... Sasha
• Marko Igonda .... Bazda
• Eyal Podell .... Petty Officer Kennedy
• Geoffrey Pierson .... Admiral Donnelly (as Geoff Pierson)
• Aernout Van Lynden .... Aernout Van Lynden
• Sam Jaeger .... Red Crown Operator #1

Photo Gallery of the movie: Behind Enemy Lines

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Behind Enemy Lines Wallpapers

Reviews of the movie: Behind Enemy Lines

Smart casting and sensible plotting make Behind Enemy Lines an above-average military thriller. Perfectly timed to bolster patriotism, the film is partly set (during a hypothetical "day after tomorrow") on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Carl Vinson, which was on alert status in the Persian Gulf when this film was released. Proving his versatility as an unconventional movie star, Owen Wilson plays a navy navigator who is shot down over Bosnia during a reconnaissance mission. Pursued by rebel Serbian forces, Wilson must fight for survival while his commanding officer (Gene Hackman) plots a daredevil rescue. After a successful career in TV commercials, Irish director John Moore makes a promising feature debut on Slovakian locations, borrowing a few techniques from Saving Private Ryan while adding impressive flourishes of his own. The gung-ho ending's a foregone conclusion, but it works like a charm after the movie's exciting game of cat and mouse

Lots of neat action, sound, and photography, but not a particularly great film.
some SPOILERS -- "Behind Enemy Lines" is a fine recent example of how films are tailored to audiences. By most measures Ebert and IMDb viewers are right -- this film has a dumb story, sometimes silly dialog, and a main character who does seemingly dumb things at just the wrong time. But my 29-year-old son, a pilot and photographer, loves this film, and last night with me was perhaps his 3rd or 4th viewing and it still excites him. Because he doesn't care so much that it is a dumb movie. It has planes flying, missles chasing them, slow-motion shots of an enemy getting blown away, thrilling sound effects, great bass in the subwoofer during explosions, interesting camera work, and the good guys prevail in the end. For my son, this film is a "10". For me, it is probably a "3" for story and believability, and maybe a "9" for action and sound. So a real rating of "5" to "7" by most of us would be about right.

The setting is Bosnia, although it was filmed in Slovakia. Pilots are photographing a mass grave and other war crimes when a couple of clever missles finally get to them (I didn't realize those missles had so much fuel!!), they eject, one survives, and the chase is on to see if he can both retrieve the hard drive with the photos (in the ejection seat), evade the enemy firepower, and get to a safe zone for a rescue. The climactic scene is a great battle among enemy ground troops with lots of guns and tanks, and three friendly helicopters with lots of guns and launch missles.

Owen Wilson of crooked nose and deviated septum fame is the star, the pilot who survives against all odds and 20 million rounds of gunfire at point-blank range. Gene Hackman is the carrier commander who takes almost all of the 100 minutes of the movie to do the right thing and rescue his man against orders, even though it means losing his command. Not quite the same character he plays in "The Quick and the Dead."

The DVD is great, surround sound superb, the LFE makes the chair you're sitting on shake, a perfect DVD to demo a surround sound system. There's even an interesting "making of" special. Just a good "guilty pleasure" of entertainment, if you like that kind of action, but overall not a particularly good movie. Still, I'm glad my son made me see it.