He doesn't insult the Kim dynasty - the inevitable chuckle about Kim Jong-il's height is done in the Oval Office, not in front of the whole world. The most striking takeaway is how BEL2's President Adair Manning, played by Peter Coyote, acts more like a real and responsible president than the cartoon in the White House. This makes it all the more remarkable that BEL2 managed to offer surprisingly insightful commentary about Trump. Then again, a movie that drops a homophobic slur and includes dialogue and imagery that shamelessly strokes the fragile pride of American jingoists obviously isn't particularly concerned about political correctness. Less tasteful was the attempt to tie its plot into the mysterious Ryanggang mushroom cloud from 2004. So yeah, pretty close to where we are now.īEL2's description of the Kim dynasty as a 'surreal blend of Stalinism, communism and cult of personality dictatorship' was well taken. This results in a geopolitical crisis that threatens to lead to World War III or even the end of civilization altogether. The premise is that North Korea begins developing missiles that could bring nuclear weapons to the continental United States, prompting a Cuban Missile Crisis-esque situation in the mid-2000s. The movie opens by reviewing the Korean War and the 1994 missile crisis, with just enough detail to catch up viewers on how the threat of nuclear war began to emerge between the United States and North Korea (it also, most likely unintentionally, makes former President Jimmy Carter look waaaay better than both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump). 'Behind Enemy Lines 2' definitely has a place in any conversation about pop culture ephemera that remain eerily relevant years after they were made.Īnd yes, I watched a lot of North Korea-themed Hollywood films for this article. Yet while I can't quite recommend it as a so-bad-it's-good classic like 'The Room' or 'Leprechaun 4: In Space,' I also wouldn't dismiss it quite as harshly as the film critic Mike Jeavons did in his review (which inspired this article). It was sent directly to DVD in 2006, a cheesy and overwrought follow up to the equally cheesy and overwrought (but higher budget) 2000 theatrical film starring Owen Wilson, although its plot has nothing to do with that one. Just to be clear: BEL2, as I'm going to refer to it, wasn't released as a commentary on President Donald Trump's policy toward North Korea. and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead.'

'Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked .

'Behind Enemy Lines 2: Axis of Evil' may not be any great shakes by action genre standards, but its quote is a doozy if you've been paying attention to world events in 2017. A lot of pretentious movies open with a solemn quote against a black screen.

Movie behind enemy lines