Aigle de fer II

I have seen this film several times not and, although they tried to pass off American F-4 Phantoms as Russian MiG-29's (and several other technical mistakes) the film concept and story line were good, and the acting was also not bad.

Let's get down to briefing. This mission would see director / writer Sidney J. Furie returning after the success that was "Iron Eagle" to provide us with the franchise's first sequel. "Iron Eagle II" would also see Charles "Chappy" Sinclair (with Louis Gossett Jr. reprising the role) getting some more screen time, but as for Doug Masters (again by Jason Gedrick) it's not so the case. It's no real biggie… as this trivial sequel was nothing more than predictably bland, unfunny and tepid follow up with little in the way of excitement. Too bad that's so, as it starts off decent enough and actually has a surprising plot device (which is later wasted in the feature) before it nose dives. The first time I tried to watch it, I fell asleep. Some cracking aircraft action sequences aside, the story was limpidly told and the performances fairly uninteresting (led by Mark Humphrey) with its odd assortment pilots / soldiers (Americans and Russians) trying to come to terms with each other so they can complete a proposed assignment. The script offers up the same-old, pushy patterns; conflict, tragedy, love, pride and payback. A team is chosen, a mismatch group destined to fail (which their generals would like to see), but they prove them wrong by training hard and working together to achieve their goal of destroying a nuclear weapon facility. This actual threat is kept rather vague with the focus more so on what's happening inside the ranks of this mission. The back-end does offer up some rough and ready action, but quite customary. Making an amusing appearance is the always dependable Maury Chaykin as one of the recruits. Textbook, but lacklustre comic action.

I think the fact that the IMDb rating for this movie is actually lower than ISHTAR kinda speaks for itself, don't you?

They should never have attempted a sequel to a not-so-good movie, but 3 of them?!?!? The series falls into the "what planet does the producer live on" category, like Jaws (after Jaws 2) and Police Academy (after the 1st).

As an aviation buff, I thought that this movie sucked. Passing off F4's as MiG's is just the beginning. The army sergeant is WAY too fat; he would have never been allowed to remain on active duty. The Soviet Union did not use women combat pilots in the 80's. (I know this because I used to study and teach Soviet combat tactics.) And the incident at the beginning of the movie would not have been something that could just be "hushed up." Much of the footage is from the first Iron Eagle. And that movie, although fanciful, is much better and many times more realistic. There are much better aviation movies out there. I was greatly disappointed by this one.