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Basic Scrubbing
Today is Canada Day and what better way to celebrate then writing a brand new column? It features the script review of Basic, the highly anticipated re-teaming of Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta. Unfortunately though, they only share one scene together. I also wrote a little piece on one of my summer TV discoveries. We'll be back tomorrow with a review of MIB 2.
Basic Script Review
"Dr. Strangelove here with a review of the script for the new John Travolta/Samuel L. Jackson flick Basic. I'm sorry to say that the script was really disappointing.
You don't have to be a genius to know that John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson hit the big time (for the second time in Travolta's case) in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. I don't have to tell many of you that Pulp Fiction was a great film, but I do have to say that their follow up reunion sucks.
As Roger Ebert stated in his negative review of The Usual Suspects in response to understanding the plot "To the degree that I do understand, I don't care." This is exactly how I felt with James Vanderbilt's Basic. (I did love The Usual Suspect though.) The plot, when not mixed with cliché moments, becomes overly complicated and attempts to save itself with a "blinding revelation" every ten minutes. It's like the end of The Usual Suspects repeated in Rashomon style, every ten minutes. The overlapping voice over of explanation, the differing stories, a weaving of tales all centered around a bunch of cliché and one dimensional characters. It tries to hard to be clever and fails miserably.
The script begins with a military training exercise that goes incredibly wrong. During a hurricane, a bunch of recruits are brought on a training exercise by the legendary Colonel West (Samuel L. Jackson's part), when they return, all but two survive with the military watching as one of their own soldiers shoots another recruit. This is another blow to the reputation of the Marines and the officer in charge, Styles (Andy Garcia) decides he can't brush this one under the rug himself. To help with the investigation, he brings in an old friend and former police officer, Hardy (John Travolta) and a bad ass G.I. Jane in the form of Osbourne (Connie Nielsen). They begin to interrogate their two witnesses and discover they each have differing stories (which we see through flashback), all of which show what a hard-on West was and why everyone had a motivation for killing him. This is all done in a rip off of Rashomon. We hear the testimony of one person, see it in flashback, and while they share some of the facts, the person telling the story always has the ability to manipulate the facts. As one character says:
KENDALL
There are degrees of truth, Lieutenant, always degrees. Things are not always what they seem.
Where Vanderbilt goes wrong is telling us this. Showing is always more powerful than telling. We already know this from the differing accounts, the sweeping under the carpet. It's like A Few Good Men in a For Dummies book form. They have to over explain everything and in the end you get lost in some screenwriter's overly complicated double/triple/single cross. Sure, the revelations are cool, but they make no sense in the character's motivation. They are there to give the audience a big scratching of the head and an "OHHH! He/She did it!"
I don't want to dive much more into the plot, I might expose one of the HUNDREDS of revelations. I'm gonna hit on characters briefly. When I first started reading the script, I had an idea of who Jackson and Travolta would be playing. I got a mental picture and I hated what I saw. I thought I saw Travolta as Style, the military commander (which would have been a good choice, I can't see him as the bad ass cop after Battlefield Earth) and Jackson as Hardy. Hardy, the bad ass cop, seems to be a direct rip off of Jules in Pulp Fiction at times. During an interrogation scene, Hardy comes off cool to the audience by telling Osbourne about the "character in people". This threw me backwards to the scene in Pulp Fiction when Jules and Vincent talk about the character in the pig in Green Acres. Then I found out Jackson was playing West, the bad ass drill instructor. This is a horrible casting choice. Granted, Jackson can be a bad ass, but I cannot see him yelling racial slurs at other black men (as written in the script) or putting himself in such a poorly written script.
I cannot believe such a horrible screenplay has attracted these types of stars (okay, maybe Travolta is a gimme) but Nielsen, Garcia, and more importantly Jackson? Even the director, John McTiernan (Die Hard) is attempting to redeem himself after Rollerball with a project of equal shit. Looking at the IMDB, I can only hope that the co-screenwriter they've brought in to help Vanderbilt has made some changes (or even Vanderbilt himself because the draft is dated from two years ago). I don't mean to knock everything Vanderbilt does, I did find some of the revelations really quite good, but he needs to learn where to stop and quit turning things around, making an unrealistic plot. He has some talent, that much is evident, but he needs to learn control. This being his first screenplay, it is understandable. I can only hope his control sets in before this flick begins shooting.
It's not that this flick won't make money. It's probably going to make a killing. It has great talent attached in the acting (and directing if you look back at Die Hard), it has decent action sequences, and a lot of mystery. But, the plot is nothing special and I believe people grow tired of being old the same thing "murder is basic and the truth isn't always what it seems". Let's find a new formula and move on."
(Review submitted by Dr. Strangelove)
Summer Laughs
The summer season is probably the most boring one on television. There's nothing good to watch from June until mid-September. A miracle happened 2 years ago with Survivor, but lightning rarely strikes twice in the same decade. So basically, we are stuck watching reruns. Sometimes we can discover a new show that we wouldn't give a chance during the rest of the year. I discovered just such a little gem last week. It's called Scrubs (NBC, 9:30pm).
One of the reason behind my ignorance of Scrubs is that it plays opposite my favorite new show 24. Now that the season has ended I've been channel surfing around. NBC, for some weird reason, decided to do an hour block of Scrubs twice last week. Once on Tuesday and again on Thursday night. I absolutely loved the first hour. It was sharp, funny and well-written. The second hour was even better. Guest star Brendan Fraser brought some serious dramatic depth to the episode. He played a leukemia patient to perfection. It was heart-warming yet hilariously strong. I was extremely impressed.
Good writing, great direction and a very talented cast. The highlight for me is fellow Canadian Sarah Chalke. She's drop dead gorgeous, intelligent and a laugh godess. I hope she's doing some movies this summer. Hopefully her profile will rise with the show's success. Anyway, I think everyone should give this little show a shot. It's worth your time and laughs.
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
