Seal Team Eight: Behind Enemy Lines (2014)

So much average

Good movie but grossly overrated

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

After 30 minutes I just couldn't take it anymore. I very nearly bailed after only 10-15 but didn't want to give up that easily. In fairness, it looks like the production team was really TRYING here, and there really is some pretty good cinematography, and pretty cool visuals. They clearly had a decent budget and were trying to make good use of it, with many elements that might have been high-production value, but were just trashed with poor direction. I'm not blaming the actors - they were OK when they had good direction and decent lines. This was a massive fail by the director - it was beyond his abilities - and then some. What just KILLED this movie for me, was some early fight scene - and it HAD been pretty interesting - to me. Part way into the scene they chose to suddenly incorporate some kind of incredibly inappropriate gangland rap music as the score. Really? Are you KIDDING ME? At that moment I lost my enjoyment and just never got it back. Well gosh I just hope that I've got the minimum # of lines to allow this to be posted because this has gone on long enough and it's time to find something worthwhile to do. Maybe killing zombies? Hmmmm ...Good luck! And move on ... this isn't worth your time.

I can watch rubbish and still enjoy it. I lasted 40 minutes before turning off. I cannot find anything right about the film. The script is clichéd and looks and totally lacks a proper storyline. It looks cheap and unrealistic. None of the SEALS would last 10 minutes in a war zone. What a shame as the first film was brilliant. This is a total insult to the franchise. There are no spoilers in this review as I am sure everyone would struggle to watch such dross. There is better action in a power rangers episode so don't waste your time. I would suggest watching Platoon, Full Metal Jacket or any other war film. This film makes Battleship look good.

OK, the good.Cinematics: Really the camera work was well done. There were some impressive camera angles and zooms that were very good. Specifically the shot where it was zooming through the hollow building, very cool looking.Acting: There was some good acting, some bad. I felt that Shrapnel was very good, he can't help that he was given a bad script. He did well considering what he was given. Sizemore on the other hand was just OK. Again, some of that was the script/writers. But in comparing him to the work he did in Saving Private Ryan... don't expect that level of quality.The bad (and frustrating).Realism: One man with a pistol versus a whole town with automatic weapons? All of those weapons unloading for 30 seconds without him getting a scratch only to have him turn around and single shot them to the head with that pistol from 50 yards? Then when he finally does get hurt it's due to a glass shard from the window he jumped through. Silly. At least he had to reload.... at that point it hardly seems worth it. Might as well have given him infinite bullets since he only needed 1 per target anyways. :P Sarcasm aside, there was no attempt to make it realistic. This was recurring in one form or another in most every action scene in the movie.Tactics: I'm not military. I do however have profound respect for what they do, and to represent the Navy SEALs this way is disrespectful. There are a ton of scenes where the whole squad was standing fully exposed and firing at anything that popped their heads up, all the while being fired upon. Whenever they were faced with a challenging situation the solution was almost always, "Stand up and blast it". From all that I've seen, our SEALs are good because they train hard and study hard. They know their craft. In this portrayal the characters were just lucky the bad guys didn't know how to shoot.Consistency: One thing that bugged me was that the uniforms were all over the place. It was almost like the production team said, "Oh this looks like a military uniform, we can use that!" All in all I would say: Don't waste your time. I waited it out and felt that I spent most of the time rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all. There were some good points, but it was mostly a stinker. 3/10

Nice directing job by Roel Reine, who also was the director of photography. All the actors did decent jobs and held their weapons properly. Lots of great shots in South Africa. The Operation Delta Force movies from 15 years ago also filmed in South Africa and I remember that same bridge being used. Cool explosions and great use of slow motion during the battles, especially from the .50 caliber machine gun firing very big holes. The opening raid on the evil general's compound was very well done. Gigantic body count - showing just how bad ass these Seals are. The boat chase and waterfall scenery was fun to watch. The story was pretty simple - if anything, just watch it for the cinematography and the battle scenes. I never knew that tower in Johannesburg was hollow in the center. A well done Special Forces adventure. After renting it, I might buy it.