Synopsis
A DEA agent investigates the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry.
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Cast
- John TravoltaDEA Agent Tom Hardy
- Connie NielsenCapt. Julia Osborne
- Samuel L. JacksonSgt. Nathan West
- Giovanni RibisiLevi Kendall
- Brian Van HoltRaymond Dunbar
- Dash MihokMueller
- Taye DiggsJay Pike
- Roselyn SánchezNunez
- Tim DalyCol. Bill Styles
- Cristián de la FuenteCastro
- 58
Portland Oregonian
Basic essentially is a fun movie, surprise ending and all. To take it too seriously is to miss the point. Travolta is charming, his performance recapturing the old charisma. - 50
San Francisco Chronicle
Just not worth revisiting, unless one wants to tie one's brain into a knot for no discernible reward. - 50
Philadelphia Inquirer
Basically, it's a muddle. - 50
USA Today
The tepid result is like "Courage Under Fire" without the compelling Meg Ryan angle, or Travolta's 1999 "The General's Daughter" without the sexual squalor. It all feels a little moldy. - 40
TV Guide Magazine
As the mismatched interrogators, Travolta and Nielson seem to be in two different and incompatible movies. - 38
Charlotte Observer
When the film stumbles to its last and silliest conclusion, you realize much of the plot line was unnecessary -- or couldn't have happened at all! - 38
New York Daily News
Travolta is the least of the film's problems. With a script by James Vanderbilt, whose first credit was for a movie about the tooth fairy ("Darkness Falls"), and directed by John McTiernan, last seen struggling with "Rollerball," Basic is a fundamental failure. - 38
Boston Globe
Falls flat on two fronts: It's neither deep and interesting enough to be a brainteaser nor sufficiently thrilling to count as a mindless diversion.