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Very good action yarn made during the same year as the more intellegent and superior Badham film, WarGames(1983). Still an entertaining action thriller with three major set pieces. One, the chase among helicopters in the same area as the chase in Terminator 2(1991). Two, the climatic battlescene while at times seems ruthless is nevertheless cheorgraphed with some impressive effects for its time. Three, the final conflict chase between Roy Scheider and Malcolm McDowell.

Acting leads includes Peckinpah actor, Warren Oates whose performance is very good in what was one of his final film roles before his death. He is justly at home in his role of the head of his Police department, and gives us his patterned hard edged cynical with a slight humor mannerisms. Blue Thunder(1983) is one of the five best films from a director in John Badham whose career has been full of ups and downs. I feel his output from the early to mid 1980s are his most successful times as a filmmaker. Roy Scheider is professional and tough in his role of the film's protagonist.

Malcolm McDowell gives another demented performance as Scheider's former mentor, and now chief nemisis. When channeling the right key, McDowell can be one convincing menacing villain. Badham's late 1990s Hitchcockian type thriller, Nick of Time(1996) used many of the same ideas on action and suspense as his earlier film, Blue Thunder(1983). That film even has a similarly sinister mentor/student relationship as this film. While not a classic is certainly something that can be watched when one has little to do, or wants to be entertained.

"Blue Thunder" . . . isn't this that movie where Roy Scheider uncovers a government conspiracy and then loops a wicked military chopper? You betcher sweet ass it is! And it's a shame the helicopter didn't talk. I mean, the comic potential of a reckless pilot and his snappy chopper is enough to salivate over. A more cynical person might find all of this silly, but not me. I was caught up in the whole thing; the car chases, the dofight through downtown L.A. It all works somehow, both as police procedural and conspiracy flick.

Scheider lends a great presence to validate the whole thing, Malcolm McDowell is a real slime of the first order, but neither one of these guys has a thing on the real star of the movie: ol' Blue, herself. That is one menacing attack helicopter, loaded for bear and still sleek. I can only imagine what it was like back in the '80s to be a bystander on the ground watching them film this beast in the air.

7/10

I first saw Blue Thunder as a kid at the time of its release and enjoyed it purely as a slice of action/adventure typical of its time. I could name many films from the early 80s of a similar ilk, but this one stuck in my mind as a real favourite and it was only when I re-watched it recently that I understood why.

Unlike other films in the genre, Blue Thunder always strikes me as having been thought about and crafted in a very careful way. In fact I didn't remember there being as little action as there is. Instead we are given far more character development than we might be accustomed to, thereby enhancing the final aerial drama because we do care about the people involved.

Roy Scheider(who I must confess is my favourite actor of his era) gives a standout performance. His portrayal of Murphy with its wry humour & very human lapses shares more than a little with a certain Chief Brody, but the use of an aging rebel with little cause as the main character in a technological thriller is still refreshing now.

Malcolm McDowell gives the sort of OTT villainous performance that only he can (why has no-one ever cast him as a Bond villain?) and special mention must go to Warren Oates as Scheider's long-suffering boss.

The helicopter looks awesome with cool gadgets aplenty but it isn't the star here, Scheider is. Move over Top Gun, Airwolf, Wings of the Apache, et al; this is the number 1 fly-boy in town.

I was dying to see this when I was 13 but I was too young to get in at the pictures. I saw the trailer when I went to see Superman 3. I finally hired it on video and loved it. I think at the time, it was the look of the helicopter that I was drawn too. Big bulky and menacing. (The scene where we first see Blue Thunder with the sun rising behind it is sheer class.) I've got the DVD and always enjoy watching this film, I love Roy Scheider in most films he's in and he's excellent in this one. Also thought Daniel Stern was great as Murphy's observer. The series was quite cheezy but enjoyable in it's own way. Universal latched on to the super hi-tech helicopter theme as Airwolf followed soon afterwards. The helicopter in Airwolf was a Bell 222 whereas Blue Thunder was a converted Gazelle helicopter that was given a facelift to make it look bulky and menacing, a little bit like an Apache. Back to the movie. The plot is quite thin and there are a couple of scenes that are a bit far fetched but if you're looking for a film with good helicopter chase sequences in it, they don't come much better than this. Catch you later.

Old movies have it hard on ImDb. They got pushed in this database without all the benefits modern movies have to artificially boost their initial user score. Publicity stunts, media spin, false "user" feedback... They got none of that. How many bad movies have you seen start at 8,5 and end up being turds. To remedy that, Blue Thunder gets a solid 8 from me. It is a typical 80's flick, sprinkled with sexist and racist bits nobody would dare to approach today. Movies reflect their epoch; here we find a pre-olympic L.A. not very far from it's race crisis. More important, we find real helicopters doing real stunts above and inside the city. No production will ever get a permit to do all this anymore and only for that, that movie is worth watching.