G.I. Jane

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You have to admire Demi Moore. Her judgment might not be the greatest (she's starred in some awfully mediocre films) and she may not be the most gifted actress of her generation, but she really throws herself into a role and gives it her all. I thought it was impressive that she learned to pole dance for "Striptease" and bared herself. But that's nothing compared to what she did a year later in order to make "G.I. Jane."

She went from appearing in the buff to getting buff. Really buff. One-armed push-ups buff. Hanging upside down sit-ups buff. I can now kick your ass, Mr. Willis buff. And she shaved off all that beautiful hair. Moore's effort and determination seem to match her character's, and that's one of the few things that rescues this otherwise ordinary film.

The main problem is that we've seen it all before, and so it's as predictable as can be. The tough senator with an agenda who wields political power like a bludgeon? Though Anne Bancroft plays her with dead-on accuracy, it's become such a stock character that you know this person is going to be both good cop and bad cop at some point. The tough-as-nails drill instructor with an apparently caring heart? He's here too as Master Chief Urgayle, played by Viggo Mortenson. Sure, he reads J.M. Coetzee and quotes D.H. Lawrence, but you've seen his type in every single military movie. Same with the generic-looking men in the outfit who train with Jordan O'Neill (Moore) and eventually bond with her, though at first they give her almost as much crap as the instructor. Then there's the training itself, which is as abusively clichéd as these khaki films get. And of course, there's a "Top Gun" moment when training is interrupted for a real mission that tests them all.

And there you have it. "G.I. Jane" in a nutshell. The most interesting twist is that this is set after the first Gulf War and involves a test case to determine if women should be integrated into the military. O'Neill, resentful that her significant other (Jason Beghe) got promoted because he had the chance to serve in combat, jumps at the chance to be the female crash test dummy, though they set her up to fail. After the senator makes a deal with the military brass to have one hand-picked woman train alongside men, the cigar chompers (yep, those stock characters are here too) think they've pulled a fast one when they fast-track O'Neill to train in an elite Navy SEAL program with a drop-out rate among men of 60 percent. She'll never make it through, they wink and nod.

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