CousinBagunca I can't do The General's Daughter (1999) enough justice. It's an excelent police thriller flick. If you're up to those kinds of movies, you won't regret it. When I say "up to those kinds of movies", I mean those movies where there's no high action scenes or anything, is all about the plot, the acting and what's going on; and that lovely question you ask yourself on any great police thriller: "who did it and why?"

TonyMontana96 John Travolta is an actor with a lot of charisma and likability, and here he tries his best, giving a good, solid performance but even he can't save the plotting which is predictable, clichéd and rather ridiculous. The story is as follows, a female commander is murdered, and detective Paul Brenner must find out the culprit within a certain amount of time, as the event will turn into a media circus as soon as the FBI arrive. He is helped by Rape investigator Sara Sunhill played by Madeleine Stowe, she also has personality and possesses some good chemistry with Travolta as well as a sense of humour and gives a well-grounded performance. James Woods play's an Army officer, high in command, James Cromwell play's General Joseph Campbell and Timothy Hutton play's Colonel William Kent to name a few, the picture is well acted for the most part.The direction from Simon West is pretty good and it's well shot, and appropriately set, revolving around an army base, and the best choice was leaving the press out of it, as they would have clogged up the screen. However there is some questionable dialogue and writing, as well as plot inconsistencies and some really silly moments, but for me the main problem that stopped me from actually liking the picture was the twist before the conclusion, which felt tacked on and void of any sense, and the very end is comprised of predictability, as I saw a certain person's involvement within the murder about half way through, knowing he was guilty by his mannerism's. Overall The General's Daughter is well paced, and competently acted but it suffers from questionable flaws in logic, too many clichés and a ridiculous plot twist that's simply disappointing and senseless.

Leofwine_draca THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER is an earnest mystery thriller set in a US army base. The whodunit aspect of the storyline brought to mind some of the Columbo episodes that had similar military themes although this is much more adult fare with some very dark subject matter. The film looks at the top of sexism in the army, taken to the extreme in the vicious gang rape and murder of a young woman by her peers.It's certainly a hard-hitting topic and one we see in the headlines all too often, and thus THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER has a worthy feel to it. However, the main problem the film suffers from is the flashy '90s feel which gives it a dated vibe that you wouldn't find in a similar movie made in the '80s or even '90s. CON AIR director Simon West is a poor choice for director; they should have found someone who could make a more gritty and realistic movie. The shoehorned, Hollywood-style action feels ridiculous although Travolta is solid enough and the likes of James Woods and James Cromwell get to do their bit in the acting stakes.

johnnyboyz John Travolta might very well be the best thing about The General's Daughter: a rather mediocre, although not without its moments, detective thriller which uses military iconography and the idea of corruption at the core of something quite prestigious to tell a tale that doesn't feel like something you haven't already seen. He exudes a brash confidence here, a swagger that has him come across as someone flying through a mystery without a care in the world and yet with every care in the case he's trying to solve. If the film doesn't necessarily depict him swathing from place to place, beating people up and throwing them against walls in trying to find answers, then what does it depict? The pleasing thing is that it happens to work, his role a man seemingly stuck somewhere in-between cocksure, psychotic and just plain old righteous.Travolta plays a United States Army veteran named Paul Brenner, a man who appears to have a deep-south based twang; lives on a river boat and feels the need to place a hair over his front door before he leaves each time so as to know if anybody's entered in the meantime. During these early stages, we still only know him as Sgt. White – a man who potters into a local army base in a beaten up car where the motorcade of expensive looking sedans transporting someone important remind reiterate his rank. This is, tactfully, all later to be revealed as bogus and the sense of the film playing tricks on us is apparent – let the games begin. When the main body of the film does get going, we wave goodbye to these opening exchanges via a somewhat impressive second unit sequence involving the dark of night; crowded jetties and some underwater material, as one of Brenner's cases ends and another is on the cusp of beginning with the fact that he's pretty handy in combat in mind. The film's director, Simon West, who would go on to carve out a niche for himself in directing action with 1997's "Con Air" already under his belt, does well on familiar ground.Things turn sour in the wider scheme of things when the titular daughter of James Cromwell's General Campbell is found spread eagle on a training ground: stripped; murdered and tied to some stakes. Things seemed rosy the previous nights, when her father hosts a magnificent gala on the base with all in attendance; his titular daughter's smile adorning her face and not alluding to anything brash or out of place. But there was something sneaky about the way in which the dinner was presented to us; something about the music, something about the Gothic hall wherein they met – as if it were some kind of cult gathering. It is this death Brenner must investigate along with Madeleine Stowe's ranked rape councillor Sara Sunhill. It is a shame that Stowe, of whom I've always seen on-screen as quite a delicate presence through the roles she's played in the likes of Twelve Monkeys and Closet Land, is asked to spit the sort of rough-and-tumble dialogue Travolta can with ease. With Stowe, it doesn't quite work as well and this is epitomised in a rough scene when she must infiltrate a shower room full of butch male soldiers before barrack a man for answers.Part of me wants to describe The General's Daughter as "old fashioned". In the days of "Serpico" and "All the President's Men", this sort of one-man crusade for justice and truth were somewhat of the mainstay for mainstream American cinema and were often narrative-driven and quite good. West's film has the star-cast and enjoyed somewhat of a summer release throughout the Western world, but it is far from what constitutes a "blockbuster" – it's a film telling a story; unfolding a murder case involving characters it takes time to establish and must work out as to how they feel about one another. It has its bright spots, but resorts to dialogue and exposition where the depiction of a central context should be the order of the day. Take the scene in James Wood's character's office, where he speaks to Travolta about one's demeanour and the flaws in body language when telling a lie, etc. Such a sequence exudes a brash confidence for the moment, but a better thriller might've placed Woods in direct opposition to Brenner and allowed them to play off one another utilising these traits.In the end, one cannot, unfortunately, describe it in certain terms as much more than a B-movie; a piece whose construction and ethic are good but whose crux sees it depict a lot of shouting; fighting and ego-measuring where something like "Michael Clayton" was refined; smooth and elegant in its tone and attitude to its story-telling. It's not that West has made anything terrible, in fact it is the best of his works that I've seen when lined up against the aforementioned Con Air and the first Tomb Raider movie. Those expecting something synonymous with his name will be disappointed, those looking for recognisable names and faces in role you know they can play in their sleep on top of what is a rather engaging narrative of depravity and inner-filth will not be.