Best described as military noir, Basic reunites John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in a kind of Pulp Fiction with rain and fatigues, plus a chaser of Rashomon on the side.

Samuel L. Jackson's performance is the main reason to watch this ultimately disappointing mystery that thrives on audience deception and mass confusion.

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The final parts of this movie are the kind that you'd swear were slapped on by the studio, until you realise the whole story must have been built around them.

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Fumbling the setup, the Die Hard helmer quickly loses his grip on the material, turning Basic into little more than a mechanical exercise in plotting.

I had to take on faith that the plot could, theoretically, be made sense of

Everyone involved just watched their stock price drop 79%.

Noisy, dark and headache-inducing, John McTiernan’s Basic is one of those brain-twisting legal thrillers that can only be enjoyed by those determined not to worry about things like consistent internal logic

Basic is one of those films that thinks itself clever in its use of confusion, when in reality it's just confusing. Sound confusing? Yeah, thought so.