Behind Enemy Lines, released in 2001, was a pretty decent action yarn starring Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson.  I watched it, I liked it, I thought it was pretty darn OK.

Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil, released straight to DVD in 2006, bears no resemblance whatever to the first movie other than the title.  It has a few actors you might recognize but most you won’t, and is overall, a terrible piece of work.

The premise of the move is based on two factual real life events, and on the face of it, is very interesting: in 1994, the Clinton administration was very, very close to launching an attack on North Korea due to their pullout of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.  Then, in 2004, satellites registered a massive mushroom cloud in a remote area of North Korea very near a known missile complex.  This second event is interesting because of the reactions of various world leaders- General Colin Powell said it was an explosion at a hydroelectric facility.  Condoleezza Rice said it was a forest fire.  The South Koreans said it was clouds.  The North Koreans said it was- nothing.  They later changed their story and said it was indeed a hydroelectric accident, and then took various important people on a tour of the power plant in question.  Only the power plant they visited was some 60 miles away from where the satellite imagery showed the event took place.

So the movie Axis of Evil puts forth this idea- that what if the U.S. had launched a covert operation into North Korea to destroy a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the U.S.?

Like I said, it is a pretty cool premise for a flick.  Unfortunately, the writing, acting, directing- pretty much everything relating to the movie- just sucks.

The movie is full of camera techniques that, in the hands of an accomplished director, can add a sense of drama and heighten the emotion of a scene.  Quick cuts, camera jerks, fast motion, weird angles, odd colored filters.  You have seen it all before.  In this case, however, they are so overused that pretty much the entire film comes off as a hodge-podge of junk to cover up bad writing, lousy acting, and implausible actions.  If the viewer is supposed to be so dazzled by the technical prowess of the filmmakers that they overlook how bad the actually movie is, the technique failed miserably.

The team going in to North Korea is supposed to be Navy Seals, arguably the most intensely trained, physically fit, mentally disciplined special operations soldiers in the world.  As portrayed in this movie, they would not even rate alongside frontline Army rifleman.  They disobey orders, make one bad decision after another, and display all the combat prowess of Jiminy Glick.  I have something of a fascination with soldiers and special operations teams, and have watched countless hours of shows on the Military channel and the like about these men.  I am certainly no expert, but the respect and admiration I have of these men coupled with what I have seen of the real thing made me sad that they were portrayed so badly in this movie.  I remember thinking how much it sucked that they apparently could not afford a real military consultant to make the movie somewhat believable.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that they did in fact have a military advisor- a former Navy Seal, to boot.  He said there was some “artistic license” used in the portrayal of the Seals for the movie.  No doubt.  I will refrain from naming the man here- I can not believe he is anything but embarrassed by the finished product, and I do not wish to insult him further.  Suffice to say, if this movie accurately represents the abilities of our best trained soldiers, this country is deep trouble.

The best thing about this DVD release turns out to be the featurette in which the writer/director talks about the events on which he based his story.  It is interesting for its historical information, and is actually worth watching even when the movie itself isn’t.

If you are reading this and you think I have been overly harsh, and that the movie just can’t be as bad as I make it out to be, let me give me an example from the films climax- the lone Seal remaining uses the missile’s fuel tank like a big missile to destroy the nuke, which causes the nuke to detonate.  He and the South Korean operatives with him race to get away from the scene of the explosion in a Jeep, and when the nuke detonates, the Jeep is actually pushed along by the blast wave instead of being completely incinerated as it should have been.

Fans of the first movie who may be duped into renting or buying Axis of Evil should take heed and not waste your time or money.

-Ed-