hwg1957-102-265704
Another one of those baddies captures a plane (or ship or train or building) and only one lone and loose hero is present to take out the villains kind of movie. Captain Christopher Winfield after a bad incident with an experimental F-117 in Turkey is ordered back to the U.S.A. It just happens that the plane he goes back in is a massive C-5 Galaxy that just happens to have two experimental F-117s on board and a small crew including obvious love interest Major Janet Morgan who captains the plane. The well armed bad guys absurdly board the C-5 down an aerial refueling boom (!) with the intention of stealing the F-117s and selling them for zillions of dollars. Then the action is let loose.It's not bad, it's not great. Andrew Divoff as Captain Winfield is adequate. Better are Elizabeth Morehead as gritty Major Morgan and stealing all his scenes there is Jürgen Prochnow as the main culprit Phillips. The rest of the indistinguishable cast, plane crew and terrorists, are mainly there to off each other. There is some plot device about flying a real plane using virtual reality headsets but it could have been dropped without affecting the film.Worth seeing mainly for Jürgen Prochnow curling his lip villainously.
prestonjobe
Long time fan of this movie. Yes, there are no less than a thousand mistakes and impossibilities here, but if you take this movie for what it is you'll love it. I've watched it several times over the years and I always laugh a little, but I love it. Story is filled with holes, but I just love it for some reason
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
This is a sufficiently entertaining ride. Oh, it's not a masterpiece, and it does little to challenge genre conventions. And I think it can be fairly widely agreed that the visor looks downright goofy(maybe they didn't think so at the time), and it should definitely be pointed out that this is really *not* a sci-fi flick, and the only element of such that there is in this is the high-tech jet(and they don't exactly spend the whole movie in it). With that said, some of this is pretty damn cool. The Virtual Reality isn't groundbreaking(anymore), but at least they didn't base the whole thing around it *cough* Lawnmower Man *cough*. And many of the FX are quite convincing. The numerous strong moments in the editing and cinematography deserve mention, as well. This is directed by the man who went on to do Snow White: A Tale of Terror, one of the too few adaptations of fairy tales that actually capture the grim nature of rather a lot of them(seriously, go read the originals, then, if you can stand it, watch some Disney to compare), and while he's doesn't do fantastic on either, he makes them work and even stand out from the bunch, marginally. He takes what could be instantly forgettable and makes it have a smidgen of an impression. There is great tension and suspense in this, and it genuinely gets the job done, engaging and exciting us for the nicely paced, doesn't-overstay-its-welcome 90 minutes. The action isn't bad. There is a decent sense of humor here and there in this. The writing is good at times. I personally love Divoff and Prochnow(who *revels* in his role as the villain), albeit for entirely different reasons. They both deliver solid performances. The rest of the acting varies. Andrew portrays a pilot who abandons a plane being tested, and then flies with a massive transport, carrying the two experimental stealth fighters. Terrorists attack, intending to steal them. Fun, and never claims to be anything other than what it is. There is a bit of disturbing content and brutal, if not terribly bloody or gory, violence, in this. I recommend it to anyone looking for a simple picture that just needs to deliver the goods. 6/10
dj_bassett
"Die Hard on a plane" and a pretty good example of it, far better than other, higher-budgeted cracks at the same storyline. The plot more or less makes sense, which is important in this kind of movie but too often is quite rare. The acting is nicely low-key (except for Jurgen Prochnow, embarrassing himself and positively licking his chops as the head bad guy). The fights are extremely well choreographed and make imaginative use of the setting -- which is not typical of other efforts at this same thing. As a sort of extra-bonus, there's some extremely effective aerial photography, and some nice aerial combat sequences which manage not to be boring, a difficult feat. Recommended, a nice B-movie sleeper.