John Moore (13) (1970–)

A lackluster film, and the by far worst entry in the franchise. McClane continues his road from everyman badass towards bland superhuman (which in fairness, he's been on with every new installment since the original), but the film's main issues have little to do with that.
It's chief failing is a forgettable, straight-forward plotline. On paper, it does retain the Die Hard formula (crime A is being done to hide/aid the true crime B), but it is played out in such a businesslike fashion as to render the few twists it does have rather underwhelming. The Die Hard formula is also otherwise limping in this film, as it bends the "all set in a single day" rule to allow for a (mostly unnecessary) prologue scenes and two transatlantic flights.
The humour, thankfully, is still present (perhaps more so than in the otherwise superior fourth film), and I do chuckle from the jokes here and there, though without the grounding of McClane's character in a real sense of danger and concern, his wisecracking feels more shallow. than before.
As for the new elements, putting McClane in a different country could have worked if it played up a fish-out-of-water element, putting the character on the defensive, scrambling for advantage, which is where he should be. Instead, he coolly breaks Russian laws in public with no hesitation, and the language barrier and culture differences are never really any problem at all.
His son is OK, but like so much of the film, blandly forgettable (the same goes for the villains, this in my opinion being the first in the franchise without at least one memorable baddie). This is a problem, as he's effectively the co-protagonist. The daughter was barely a plot device in the fourth film, and yet she had more personality in her few moments on screen there than her brother manages to scrounge up in an entire film here. (She does have some minor appearances here -- bland, like so much else in the film, but appreciated nonetheless for drawing on the positive memory of her character from the previous installment. Inexplicably, the "extended cut" option on the Blu-ray deletes her appearances entirely, extending instead the already way-too-long car chase sequence.)
The brother does get to shine in a few moments of banter with his dad, though -- and indeed, this is when McClane, too, has some glimmers of his former charming self. Thanks to that, what little twists there are in the bland plotting, and some relatively cool action sequences, the film is a decent enough way to spend 90 minutes. But if not for its status as the fifth entry in an otherwise quite good film series, I don't see a reason why I (or anyone else, really) would ever bother with watching this more than once.… (more)

From the box: Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson score "a solid victory" (Time Magazine) in this high-flying action thriller filled with explosive excitement at every turn.

The war was supposed to be over, but the battle to survive has only just begun. Whe U.S. Navy pilot Chris Burnett (Wilson) is shot down during a recon mission over Bosnia, he must fight to stay alive and evade hostile Serbian forces. With time running out, Burnett's commanding officer (Hackman) risks everything by launching a renegade rescue mission - against strick NATO directives - to bring an American hero home.

2001/Color/Approximately 105 minutes/PG-13

To view the preview on Netflix, simply click on the following link, then use the "back" button on your computer to return here to the Neighbors Lending Library of Verrado on LibraryThing.com.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Behind_Enemy_Lines/60021992?trkid=222336&lnkctr...… (more)