Amazon.com video review:
When John Travolta first opens his mouth during the opening credits of
The General's Daughter and speaks in a terrible Southern cracker
drawl, one briefly hopes that the movie will turn out to be just as
hilariously bad. Unfortunately, the accent is soon revealed to be part of a
disguise, and the movie is just as quickly unveiled as a clumsy,
run-of-the-mill potboiler. A female officer is discovered strangled and
tied to the ground; she's the title character, and because of the general's
political ambitions, the mystery of who did it and why has to be wrapped up
in 36 hours by Travolta and fellow CID officer Madeleine Stowe (Last of
the Mohicans, 12 Monkeys). Sexual violence and lurid S&M have
been thrown in to shore up the incomprehensible plot, but that only adds to the
queasy atmosphere. The supporting actors--an impressive collection
including James Woods (Salvador), Timothy Hutton (Ordinary
People), and James Cromwell (Babe, L.A. Confidential)--don't embarrass themselves, but even they can't make
sense of their blustering, macho dialogue. It's amazing that screenwriter
William Goldman (who wrote such great and genuinely thrilling films as
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, All the
President's Men, and Misery) left his name attached to this
script; there's no sign of his usual skill and intelligence. Madeleine
Stowe, a graceful presence in any film, is equally wasted. Directed with a
lot of empty flash by Simon West (Con Air). --Bret Fetzer
