Good entertaining action army flick
Dave | 01/02/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I'm not a fan of the WWE by any means and to be honest im not even sure which character in the movie was played by this wrestling guy. But after watching the whole movie, i was certainly pleased and dont regret spending the half hour watching bullets fly, stuff explode, and the story unfold. Its a pretty predictable story but a good one. If your looking for a action filled army movie with no dull moments, then this movie's for you."
Mr. Who?
Brian Lueth | Chicago, IL United States | 09/10/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"A WWE film vehicle for Mr. Kennedy (Ken Anderson)? As if being the third installment in a "just okay" action franchise weren't bad enough a hambone wrestler has to be added to the mix? Well before you scratch this off your "must-see" list lemme just say for the record that this was pretty damn entertaining! If I didn't know better I'd say this was purposely made with the intention of playing it a trillion times on Spike TV and that my friends is a good thing indeed. Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia was definitely a low budget affair but delivered everything a good made-for-TV action flick shoot, namely 'splosions, shootin' and stabbin'! Need more?
All of the acting was decent, just what you'd expect from a small "shoot 'em up" combat flick, and the production design was fantastic. Hell, even Mr. Kennedy delivered without spraying canned cheese all over everything! Once again I ask, need more? There was no nudity or, if I recall correctly, cursing but as far as combat flicks go, especially direct-to-DVD ones, this was reasonably entertaining.
I'm a Cannon man myself but Cannon is long gone and we action junkies have to rely on whatever drops to DVD and the shelves of Blockbuster. Some of these flicks end up being horrid, filled with CG and poor writing, others end up being just what the doctor ordered, "Take two 'sploisions and call me in the morning." This won't end up being one of those flicks you add to your favorites list but it'll keep you occupied and won't completely disappoint you if you should rent. There's nothing new here, we've seen "the team is ambushed and set up" thing a million times, as well as the "let's rescue our teammate, orders be damned," but this is mindless combat action for the action junky, period."
Pretty good for fans of action movies or fans of Mr. Kennedy
Rajiv Giri | San Francisco, CA United States | 12/22/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"[...]received an early review copy of 'Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia' this past weekend. Here is our exclusive review:
'Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia' is the third installment of 'Behind Enemy Lines', the 2001 action film starrring Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman. Like with the sequel, 'Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil', 'Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia' is a straight to DVD feature. While none of the principal cast of the original is in this film, Keith David reprises his role from 'Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil' as MCPO Scott Boytano.
As for the movie itself, it is your standard straight to DVD action flick, with the notable exception being that it stars Mr. Kennedy and is produced by WWE. From the outset you realize that the movie is geared to the WWE audience as one the characters in the opening minutes of the movie is introduced with a caption noting that he "Loves Jesus and cleavage". Mr. Kennedy's character is introduced with a caption noting that he bench pressed a Civic when he was 15.
The movie was fairly entertaining and is one of the better WWE productions, leaps and bounds ahead of 'See No Evil', but somewhere between 'The Condemned' and 'The Marine'. At times the action can seem like it's out of 'The A-Team', but there are some cool action sequences and the movie should satisfy action movie fans. It's a throwback to military action based movies of the 80's and 90's like 'Sniper' and 'Delta Force'.
Mr. Kennedy makes his acting debut and does a pretty good job. He is credited as "Mr. Kennedy" as opposed to his real name (Ken Anderson) or even his full ring name (Ken Kennedy). While he is good in his role, he doesn't have leading man charisma like Steve Austin or John Cena, and also doesn't have that many lines despite being in most of the movie. You can probably fill up all of Kennedy's lines on 2 pages. Also, despite being featured solely in the marketing and promotion for the film, Mr. Kennedy actually comes second in the credits and is in more of a co-star role than the actual lead. The real lead in the movie is Joe Manganiello, who plays Lt. Sean Macklin and who also receives top billing. Kennedy's role is more like Jesse Ventura's in 'Predator', where he gets in some good lines but is ultimately relegated to the back seat. But it makes sense to have the marketing feature Kennedy since Manganiello won't move many DVD units.
The rest of the cast play their parts well, with veterans Channon Roe, Keith David and Tim Matheson (who also directs) filling out the star cast. If you're a fan of war movies or a fan of Mr. Kennedy, you'll probably enjoy this flick. It's never boring, and features gores of bombs and rat-a-tat machine gun action. If that's your thing, make sure to get a copy today.
Rating: ** ¾ (out of 5)"
More Entertaining than I expected
J. J Woehr | Lindenhurst, NY United States | 08/06/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I found this movie to be decent for a made for dvd movie. I mean I have seen much worse, like Joy Ride 2 and Lost Boys 2. While the WWE's former star Mr. Kennedy is less stiff on screen than the over-rated WWE star John Cena. I think he was better here than Cena was in both of his movies despite not being the main star. Director Tim Matheson (Animal House, Fletch) handles the action fine as well. But other than that this movie isn't that different than the previous BEL films. But I was more into it than I expected to be anyway."