Murder mysteries remain all the rage, with countless TV shows and movies predicated on the unraveling of a twisting and turning whodunnit proving themselves to be eminently popular on screens both big and small, but 1999’s The General’s Daughter still feels like a relic of a bygone age despite ticking all the boxes that modern audiences can’t seem to get enough of.
The chances of a major Hollywood studio giving the green light to a blockbuster-sized R-rated thriller with a budget estimated to be nudging $100 million are slim to practically non-existent, but throwing Con Air director Simon West behind the camera to oversee John Travolta and the rest of the star-studded ensemble in a slick, glossy, and mightily expensive piece of mass-marketed entertainment geared towards an older crowd was nothing out of the ordinary at the time.
That faith was repaid when The General’s Daughter hauled in $150 million at the box office before enjoying a long-lasting second life on home video, even if reviews were hardly enthusiastic. Even now, the military-driven conspiratorial caper only holds Rotten Tomatoes scores of 21 and 43 percent, which are numbers it admittedly deserves.
Travolta and Madeleine Stow’s investigators are drafted in to solve the murder of an army captain, but when they discover more details about the deceased’s life – including ties to a potential coverup involving her high-ranking father – the pair end up being drawn into a wide-ranging mystery with potentially devastating repercussions.
They really don’t make ’em like this anymore, but The General’s Daughter has at least been taken under the wing of streaming subscribers this week, with FlixPatrol outing it as one of the top-viewed titles on Chili.
Published: Mar 21, 2023 02:43 am