SEALs In Columbia
This third Behind Enemy Lines stars Mr. Kennedy, aka, Kenneth Anderson, from the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) in his movie debut. Anderson plays Chief Carter Holt, a Navy SEAL with an affinity for heavy automatic weapons. His commanding officer and co-star is Joe Manganiello, who plays LT. Sean Macklin. The crux of the film is that their was a massacre of Columbian military and Columbian rebel forces (FARC) leaders at a peace talk and the SEALs are being blamed for it; officially they weren’t supposed to be in Columbia anyway, and so it’s up to them to clear their name and get out of Columbia.
The film begins with an introduction sequence in which the SEAL team is introduced with text that comes on screen explaining who they are. After this party scene, Macklin is told to get his team ready for a mission in Columbia. This mission was to be strictly recon, and the entire mission was to be out of the minds of the media and Columbian government. As they prepare and fly to Columbia, Yancey Arias’ character, Alvaro Cardona, is shown living happily in Columbia as a special forces soldier of their army. A terrorist attack in a marketplace kills his wife and child and he decides to take matters into his own hands as we soon find out.
The SEALs get to Columbia via parachute and converge on a remote facility that satellite photography showed expanded several hundred percent in recent months. Their missions is to utilize their “video packs” attached to themselves to record and gather more information. As they approach the armed facility covertly, Macklin discovers that there is a meeting between FARC and Columbia Army leaders, potentially to discuss a peace treaty. This meeting is violently and abruptly ended when Cardona and some forces he put together kills all but one person, a Columbia army leader. His vengeful nature against the FARC has no ends.
Cardona’s forces manage to capture or kill all members of the SEAL team except for the two stars, Holt and Macklin. They escape, but the video packs Cardona retrieves goes televised and out of context it looks like the SEALS were behind the massacre. Macklin and Holt keep moving and fighting while trying to track down their missing comrade, Cardona, and the capture Army leader who can clear their name.
Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia, plays out a lot like an episode of CBS’ The Unit, except that it’s military action from start to finish, which I can appreciate. The film is entertaining enough, so long as your expectations are in check: this isn’t as good or as well written or acted as the first one or many other military action films. That said, I’ve always been a fan of military action movies and while the script and/or acting made me roll my eyes at times at how silly or generic something was, it was still well worth a watch.
Go Behind the Lines On DVD
This single disc DVD release includes several extra features. Should you be curious about the quality of the video or audio given that this is a straight to DVD release, you can rest assured that Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia looks and sounds like your typical DVD release, that is to say, good.
As far as the extras, there are several. Let’s take a look:
-Audio Commentary with Director Tim Matheson and actors Joe Manganiello and Mr. Kennedy (Kenneth Anderson).
-Audio Commentary with IGN Fans.
-The Big Guns: Military Action on Film – This is a six and a half minute feature with your typical cast and crew interviews and behind the scenes footage. The cool knife fight scene at the end of the movie is broken down and we learn that a former USMC drill instructor was brought in to help the actors learn some basics to that they could look more authentic.
-Columbia Norte: On Location In Puerto Rico – A seven and half minute feature with more cast and crew interviews on location talking about some of the Latin American themes in the film and other related topics.
-The Rocket’s Red Glare: Explosions Explained – At nine minutes, this feature includes lots of behind the scenes footage of the explosions and fire fights in the movie with cast and crew commenting.
-The Art of the Fall: Stunt Secrets – More behind the scenes footage and interviews in this five and a half minute feature. We hear from the two stunt doubles for the main actors and watch them work.
-Comedy In Columbia: Bloopers & Other Relief – This two and half minute feature includes just a bit of interviewing, but mostly goofs and gags caught on film during production.
-Stars w/Stripes: Casting Joe & Mr. Kennedy – The two stars of the film talk about their roles in the movie.
For a straight to DVD release, that’s not a terrible bunch of extras and it should be enough to appease fans of the film; and with that, let’s wrap up.