WWE Films adds a third movie in the Behind Enemy Lines franchise to promote wrestler Mr. Kennedy. A group of Navy Seals find themselves trapped in Columbia when their mission goes awry and they have to rescue a captured brother in arms.
When the United States receives intel that the Columbian Army and the militant group FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia) are going to be having a secret meeting. Commander Boytano (Keith David) sends in an undercover team of SEALS to see what’s going on.
The team is led by Lt. Sean Macklin (Joe Manganiello). The team sees that the meeting is led by General Valez (Steven Bauer) and it appears that the two sides are trying to make peace. The meeting is raided by a group of Columbian special forces led by Alvaro (Yancey Arias), who lost his wife and child in a FARC bombing.
The SEAL team Barkly makes it out of the firefight alive. One of their team, Petty Officer Derricks (Channon Roe), is captured and it’s up to Lt. Macklin and Carter Holt (Mr. Kennedy aka Ken Anderson) to get their captured friend out of enemy hands.
Boytano has his own problems on the home front when the SEALS’ video equipment is captured and they’re framed on Columbian television. The mission becomes a political football and the surviving team members rescue is scrubbed. Even worse is that agent Dodd (Tim Matheson) takes over command and is going to frame the SEALS as vigilantes to try and alleviate the political tension.
So Boytano has to seripticiously help the survivors and the survivors have to get their buddy out of enemy hands.
Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia is the fourth film put out by WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Films to highlight their wrestling talent (See No Evil was first followed by The Marine and The Condemned). Mr. Kennedy is the particular wrestler who gets his starring role this time around.
I’m not into wrestling so I’ll let the fans decide if he’s worthy of the star or not. I really didn’t have high hopes since he rants about liking explosions to preview the flick on another Fox DVD, but he’s not too bad as compared to other wrestler turned actors that I’ve seen.
The real surprise might be more behind the camera as Tim Matheson, Otter from Animal House and a familiar character actor, takes up double duty in the director’s seat and shortly in front of the camera. The film really doesn’t do much to raise it above other of these types of films and certainly wasn’t blessed with the budgets of its predecessors. It’s a serviceable little war film, just don’t expect too much out of it.
Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary with director/actor Tim Matheson, and actors Joe Manganiello and Mr. Kennedy. There’s also an IGN fan’s commentary with Eric Moro, Chris Moffett and Chris Carl.
You also get 37 minutes of featurettes (The Big Guns: Military Action on Film, Colombia Norte: On Location in Puerto Rico, The Rocket’s Red Glare: Explosions Explained, The Art of the Fall: Stunt Secrets, Comedy in Colombia: Bloopers & Other Relief, and Stars with Stripes: Casting Joe & Mr. Kennedy). There are also previews for other Fox products.
Behind Enemy Lines probably never thought that it would be the beginning of a franchise, but there you have it. This film really doesn’t plow any new ground in the genre but will please fans of Mr. Kennedy. It wasn’t the greatest war film, but it didn’t do much to offend me even if it was rather derivative. It probably helped that I had watched Disaster Movie before it though.
Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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