1999, 2 hrs, Rated for graphic images relating to sexual violence including a strong rape scene, some perverse sexuality, nudity and language. Dir: Simon West. Cast: John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe, James Woods, James Cromwell, Timothy Hutton.

Watching The General's Daughter was like being the Agony of Defeat guy from ABC's Wide World of Sports intro: Going downhill from the start and careening out of control before ending awkwardly and painfully, nearly taking out those around you along the way.

I missed my chance to see the film at a free screening three weeks ago, and now I'm glad I didn't wake up for the afternoon showing. But I wish I hadn't wasted five bucks, either. Normally I wouldn't mind because I would be out of the house and entertained for a couple of hours. Not so for TGD.

The characters weren't interesting, the dialogue was inane, the story was predictable and the direction went nowhere. Not to mention the poor editing--one particular shot involved seeing as Travolta drove backwards away from the crime scene, showing views from inside and outside the car as he and Stowe conversed. The military police changed positions and disappeared and reappeared every take back and forth between the inside and outside shots. It was very noticeable and distracting. Also, a scene where an attacker is introduced to a boat propeller is a direct rip-off of the Raiders of the Lost Ark moment where Indy is saved from the hulky German by the plane propeller.

John Travolta "phoned-in" his performance, as the playful rogue-cop routine wasn't funny or particularly likeable. His dialogue consisted of being either the "cool" cop investigator or sarcastic jackass, never in the middle. Madeleine Stowe is cute and likeable, but we never learn anything about her character or her motivations. Also, we're led to believe they had a fling some time ago (something about Brussels?) but it's never fleshed out and is more confusing and adds up to be more filler material than necessary.

The only redeeming quality of this piece of dung were the exchanges between Travolta and Woods, which was about ten minutes out of two hours. You do the math.

I suppose we were expected to keep predicting who the killer was and be surprised at the different twists. Problem: every element was telegraphed an hour ahead of time and in the end I didn't care who murdered the general's daughter, as long as the movie ended sooner than later.

Even worse, it's not as if this were a bad comedy (it did stab at humor occasionally but I only chuckled once) where I would at least be wanting to laugh. No, The General's Daughter is a dark and disturbing murder mystery that doesn't lead one to a positive outlook of the world. In the end, it played out as if it had a Disney-moral about accepting women in the military, but I thought that controversy died out years ago.

In terms of cast and story, TGD was one of the most disappointing movies of the year, adding to 200 Cigarettes, Entrapment and Pushing Tin.