Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia - DVD Review

WWE Superstar Ken "Mr. Kennedy" Anderson's first motion picture role comes in the straight-to-DVD action shoot em' up film Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia. If you watch Raw, ECW or Smackdown on television you most likely were bombarded with the previews for the film as well as behind the scenes vignettes with cast and crew interviews. The movie is the third sequel in a series of films following "2001's Behind Enemy Lines" and "2006's Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil". It's official release to DVD and Blu-ray was back on January 6, 2009. Recently, I added the film to the Netflix queue in order to see how Mr. Kennedy held up in his first on(DVD)-screen role.

With a tagline of "Framed. Abandoned. But never defeated", the movie plot involves a specially trained group of Navy Seals performing recon on a meeting involving insurgent guerilla terrorists in Colombia known as "FARC". This comes on the heels of a recent explosion which killed several civilians in Bogota and peaceful negotiations are being sought. While the SEALS are observing things, an attack happens at the meeting, and one of their own men is taken hostage. Soon after, the government begins labeling the SEALS as assassins, saying they invaded to kill off peace talks between the government and the FARC. The remaining 2 or 3 fugitive seals in Colombia begin working to clear their names from the apparent set up while trying to rescue the hostage. Amongst the SEALS, WWE's Mr. Kennedy stars as MCPO Carter Holt and lends some bits of comedy to the role with a few jokes scattered throughout the tenseness of the team sneaking through the jungles. Also starring in the film are Joe Manganiello, Keith David and Steven Bauer (Scarface). The Colombia movie is full of gunshots, running and yelling but nothing new in terms of the overdone search and rescue military/action genre.

As with most action movies this isn't on pace to win any big awards and the plot is a far cry from anything new or original. Navy SEALS watching this might be entertained or they might be insulted by some of the sloppy tactics. The movie's also a violent one but not quite as violent as Austin's "The Condemned". Of course some of the action and violence scenes in this one were way overdone. For example, they try to overemphasize troops getting shot up by slowing down the scene to show the hits. Also, seeing a watermelon get shot up on a table while there's an all out gun fight inside a building seems like a waste of footage. Of course that's a small detail, but the majority of the movie involves yelling, running and shooting in the jungle. At times it can get confusing as to who's who, so luckily Kennedy is pretty identifiable to wrestling fans. Overall, I'd say it's good this came straight to DVD because it definitely wouldn't warrant the $10 price of admission for movie tickets these days.

After seeing movies with other WWE stars Glenn "Kane" Jacobs, Stone Cold Steve Austin and John Cena, Mr. Kennedy clearly seems to have some great potential for roles outside of WWE. He's got the personality and in this role glimpses of his talent shine through at times. Not what you'd called Oscar-worthy, but definitely charismatic while the other WWE actors seem to be coming to grips with escaping their wrestler personas in their various movie roles. Stone Cold and Kane showed this more so than Cena, but after "12 Rounds", Cena's been getting dissed for lack of personality in the role. I don't know that Mr. Kennedy will be getting any bigtime roles that trump those Cena is getting. Kennedy could easily transition into made for TV movies or a recurring TV role beyond his Smackdown wrestler and do quite well with it. While the performance in Colombia wasn't groundbreaking it's Kennedy's arrival on the movie acting scene and he just may have a bright future ahead. Of course seeing him back in the wrestling ring with WWE isn't a bad deal for us fans either.

Rated R for violence and language, Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia
has a running time of 1 hour 34 minutes from WWE Studios, and is currently available at Amazon.com on DVD or Blu-Ray. The DVD also includes plenty of special features such as behind the scenes of the stunt work, a feature on the casting of Mr. Kennedy, original movie trailers, and a blooper/comedy reel.