DVDs

Behind Enemy Lines

Region 1

Region 4

By Richard Moore

Well, for a good old piece of action-filled entertainment you could do a lot worse than putting this title on your DVD player.

For Behind Enemy Lines is a surprisingly exciting tale of a smartarse naval air navigator who is fed up with the lack of activity and action while peacekeeping over Bosnia.

Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) is so peeved with his un-military career that he hands in his resignation to the grouchy old admiral Leslie Reigart (Gene Hackman).

Reigart gives him a fair old bollocking and then sends him off on a Christmas Day reconnaisance patrol over a safe area of the war-torn Balkans nation.

While flying over a demilitarised zone, the aircraft accidently photographs something it shouldn't and the pleasant Serbian troops below - a mob well know for being nice to enemies - shoots off a couple of air-to-surface missiles to stop them getting away.

Despite a full-on adrenalin pumping scene of evasive manouevres the Americans are shot down and while trying to signal his carrier for a rescue mission Burnett watches as his pilot is executed in cold blood.

From then on in it is a race to survive as the Serbs set off in hot pursuit to stop Burnett getting away to report on what he has seen.

What follows is an hour and a half of pretty exciting stuff as our boy does his best to remain alive in an area well known for atrocities, brutality and general insanity.

One fantastic scene involves him trying to get through a field of mine tripwires while being shot at by the Serbs.

From being fairly non-committal about watching Behind Enemy Lines I found this to be a movie I can recommend for pure excitement.

Owen is terrific and carries the role really well. He goes from being a self-important know-it-all to a please-let-me-survive chap within the length of the movie and does so with credibility.

Hackman is Hackman - in other words at the least very good - even if he doesn't really have a lot to work with.

The photography is excellent and the video transfer is superb. Soundwise, this DVD is an absolute ripper - particularly when the mines start going off.

Behind Enemy Lines is excellent entertainment.

Conclusion:

Movie: 85%

DVD Extras: 20%