The USS Carl Vinson, an Aircraft Carrier out in the Adriatic Sea. A bogie is detected and the Alert-5 F/A-18 is taxied out on the runway, the pilot and wizzo quickly go through their pre-takeoff checklist (to the background hard rock music). Just before they are catapulted into the air, they stand down. It was only a NATO aircraft.

So starts "Behind Enemy Lines", an action film starring Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman. It's late December and the Carl Vinson Battle Group has been part of the NATO forces trying to maintain the peace in Bosnia. A new peace accord has just been signed and tensions are high because peace never seems to last in this region. US forces are scheduled to be relieved on New Year's Day so spirits are high throughout the ship.

That is, with the exception of Lieutenant Chris Burnett (Wilson). He's tired of this routine, as we find out when he's summoned to Admiral Reigart's (Hackman) office. The Admiral had high hopes for Burnett, a stellar pilot until a couple of non-disciplinary incidents earlier this year. Burnett replies that he's tired of it all. Tired and frustrated. Peace-keeping missions, that's all they ever seem to do. And what's the point? They'll just start fighting and killing each other as soon as they leave -- all they're doing is providing respites so that they can reload.

Well, Burnett has two weeks left. Until then he better be a model officer. Meanwhile, Burnett and his pilot are assigned to a Christmas Day recon flight, perhaps as punishment and perhaps not. So off they go on a routine flight. There are strict air corridors that they must use and Admiral Reigart has been warned to stay out of the no-fly zone or he risks destroying the peace process. But navigational problems know no boundaries and Burnett finds himself flying over prohibited airspace.

Well, as long as they're here they might as well check that armor formation that should not be in the DMZ. They fly over, taking pictures all the way. That's when a couple of SAMs arc up at them. What follows is some of the best special effects in the film as the F/A-18 jukes and shakes trying to lose the missiles, at least long enough to get out a distress call. But they're shot down over Bosnia and now they have to avoid the Bosnia (or Serb, I don't remember) troops long enough to be rescued. It's going to be more complicated than that though, cause they took pictures of something important. Important enough to have the Bosnian Army chase them down and kill them.

That's the setup of a pretty good action movie. It has really good special effects. Again, seamless special effects but you know they're CGI because of the detailed camera work. Wilson is not a bad actor. His nose is kind of weird though, like it's been broken and didn't heal quite right. Owen doesn't have quite the aw-shucks image that his brother Luke has, but it's still there. Hackman of course has great screen presence. When he gets angry you don't want him angry at you, that's for sure.

The plot is very straightforward. Owen has to get back and as he wanders around the countryside and sees things, he starts to get why he was shot down. Meanwhile the bad guys chasing him are split up into two groups: the regular army troops led by some sort of Captain and the General's personal sniper. The sniper and the captain don't like each other and making them work together is the only chance that Burnett has. I didn't spot any obvious plot holes.

After The Fellowship of the Rings this was the exactly the kind of movie I needed to see. Uncomplicated, great camera work, lots of action. A film that knows what it is and delivers it in a nice, self-contained story. If you like military action movies this is right up your alley. It's not a war movie since it focuses on action, not battles. Hey, I liked it.