Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

I am a sucker for these military hero movies. Come from a military family myself. This movie is formulaic, follows the Hollywood norms beat by beat. But it works! Everyone is excellent: acting, writing, photography, etc. I'd watch it again. And again. Demi Moore, BTW, is perfect, strong but feminine. This time, the hero is a woman. Hurray!

I've always thought that Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane is the movie Michael Bay made in another reality where he matured a little more. I mean that as a compliment to Sir Ridley and the film. The crisp, aesthetically lighted style has Bay written all over it, but it's employed alongside a human story of one girl facing some truly daunting odds. Demi Moore plays Jordan O Neill, a determined, plucky individual who has her mind and heart set on going through the infamous Navy SEAL training, making her the first woman to undertake the task. She just wants to do her training like the rest of her peers, but unfortunately her situation comes with a tirade of media attention and notoriety, something which she never signed on for. Corrupt politician Theodore Hayes (the late Daniel Von Bargen smarming it up) wants to ruin her, and he's at odds with a pushy Senator (Anne Bancroft is as stiff and sour as the glass of kentucky mash she constantly pulls from). Meanwhile, Moore begins her training, thrown in with a bunch of testosterone fuelled dudes, rabid dogs who don't react well to a girl in their midst. Her instructors do their best, but she meets quite the adversary in Master Chief James Urgayle (Viggo Mortensen) a no nonsense guy with a razor sharp intellect and a personality to fuel it. Mortensen gets to do something really special with the role. Where other drill instructors in film are somewhat caricatures, monstrous, profane loud-mouths with all the depth of a wood plank, Urgayle has a metallic edge that encases real human qualities beneath. Mortensen latches on to that right off the bat, blessing the film with a fully three dimensional person. The cast is great as well, with work from Kevin Gage, David Warshofsky, Jason Beghe, Morris Chestnut, Jim Caviesel and the legendary Scott Wilson who is mint as the cranky base commander. His dialogue is straight out of a Mamet script and Wilson bites down hard, especially in a scene where he verbally owns Bancroft. Moore is combustible, lacing her take no prisoners attitude with the grace and power of her femininity. She's also in wicked shape too, her physique a reflection of both Jordan's commitment to her goal and Demi's steadfast need to tell the best possible story. This one is far better than some critics would have you believe, with a story arc both suited to the character and theme. It's also just plain powerhouse filmmaking that chimes in on all the right notes. Awesome stuff.

I finally got around to seeing GI Jane. Quite a good movie - the brutality of the training bits really puts into context what women might face in combat and the "real", not theoretical brutality they face.Unfortunately, an otherwise excellent movie loses out due to a tacked-on and militarily nonsensical battle scene which occupies the last 25 minutes. The movie should have ended after Demi gave the Senator an ultimatum and she is seen, in the distance, rejoining her unit in training. By that point, all of the major hurdles and challenges will have been overcome, and we would know that the future would be there as she was to make it. It would have been a fitting ending. The dumb battle scene in the end was just awful on many levels.

G.I.Jane has some obvious flaws. Not the least of which is when Demi Moore walks into the mess with obviously no bra on under her white tee shirt. No self respecting female trying to get into the world of a macho, hyper-testosterone fueled job would do anything to accentuate her femininity. No makeup,no feminine underwear,nothing that makes her different than a male recruit. A fact shown to good example when Moore shaves all her hair off during a break and I give her credit for actually doing it and not faking it by wearing a wig. That takes guts. As someone who has been through something similar,I can tell you that not being wanted in a group of men elicits a type of behavior in a group mentality that would never happen if the man was alone. I really enjoyed this film despite some of its problems at suspending disbelief. For example, when the master chief is looking at the exercise where the recruits are in the rain, climbing forward on their bellies under barbed wire, he's "seeing" the action that wouldn't be possible through a scope or binoculars. Another is when each team in is the water and picked up "on the go" as the inflatable rafts rush by. Each male is given help by someone inside the raft and hoisted up inside. Yet when Moore's character turn comes, there is no help and she slips back into the water. She's unable to do it but is later criticized by the Master Chief for not being able to lift her "own body weight." Well, we don't know if that's so or not, as all the males were helped getting inside. There are other instances of such examples but the thing that makes this film work for me is I know how it feels to be unwanted and be considered incapable of doing what's considered typically a "man's job." The politics and technical mistakes aside, the real essence of the film is if a woman wants to fight for her country she should be able to.