Omicidio nel vuoto

Although it's utterly ridiculous, I really, really enjoy this movie. Badham is a fine, if underrated action/thriller director; WarGames is great, Nick of Time is good, and his other notable movies include Stakeout, Saturday Night Fever, and The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings. He keeps Drop Zone moving quickly enough that suspended disbelief doesn't lift, which is a good thing considering that the bad guys are rogue skydivers. Seriously. Fortunately, the head bad guy is played by Gary Busey, who could make an interior decorator evil.

There's some great aerial photography, and it makes skydiving look awesome. It's extremely well-paced, the supporting cast is likable, and the script is enjoyably amusing. Snipes is one of the premier action stars of his generation, and his presence alone can elevate a movie from the mediocre to the above average. And Yancy Butler is absolutely smoking. End of story.

This movie is actually one of the more compulsively watchable to be released at the end of the action movie renaissance of the mid-'80s to mid-'90s. I'd watch it right now, even though I just saw it last night. My definition of a good movie.

Drop Zone is an action ride from start to finish starring Wesley Snipes as a detective hunting down the men who killed his brother. No, the movie won't win any academy awards, but it is a thoroughly enjoyable action romp. The action is excellent, the girls are gorgeous, and the musical score is top notch. If you go in looking for a touching movie, don't bother. But if you just want something to enjoy for a couple hours of visual fun that requires little mental exercise, this will do quite nicely.

Drop Zone is pretty much your typical action movie - at least plot wise. Wesley Snipes turns in another passenger 57ish performance, not great but competent. and Gary Busey is always competent playing a guy you always want to die no matter how bad the plot gets.

The movie however, is worth watching more than other bland action movies because firstly, the skydiving scenes are shot wonderfully. The cinematographer and the stuntpeople (unless thats Snipes in a free fall, which i doubt) are the true stars of this one. I really enjoyed watching the skydiving sequences in this movie.

plot wise, the movie kinda plods along, not a whole lot of suspense but enough of a story to keep people entertained. I think its worth watching at least once, purely for the skydiving and action sequences.

Also, besides being a fairly competent actress - one I can actually believe skydives - Yancy Butler is really hot.

Drop Zone (1994)

** (out of 4)

Gary Busey plays (what else?) a crazy DEA agent who decides to work the other side of the law by stealing various computer files. The difference is that they basically drop out of the sky and onto planes where they get the information, which means cop Pete Nessip (Wesley Snipes) must train in skydiving to go after them.

There were some great action pictures that were released in the 1990s but DROP ZONE certainly isn't one of them. I still remember watching this in the theater and the buzz after the movie was over was everyone being really letdown. I mean, you've got a likeable action star in Snipes and a great villain in Busey yet the end result was something rather boring and certainly not exciting.

I think the biggest problem was the screenplay and the entire idea of this skydiving team doing all of this stuff. It just seemed very far-fetched that all of this could happen and there just wasn't any drama or suspense in the movie. I think the lack of suspense is due to the filmmakers wanting us to suspend our brain function a bit too much.

For the most part Snipes turns in a good performance and Busey is always fun to watch but neither man is given much to work with here. Their characters are clearly trying to draw off of some of their earlier work and there's just no fresh magic in DROP ZONE.

Pete Nessip and his brother are escorting a federal prisoner to trail. The prisoner is a top code breaker. On the plane terrorists take over, kidnap the prisoner and sky dive out of the plane – Nessip's brother is killed in the raid. Nessip pursues the gang to uncover what really happened, joined a group of skydivers led by Jessie Crossman. Meanwhile Moncrief is working out his plot to secretly uncover the identities of all DEA agents and sell them to a local drug lord.

After the disaster of Passenger 57 you could understand if Snipes had passed on any more airplane related movies, but this is much better than 57 was. The story is daft of course, but it does allow plenty of good aerial photography and some good action scenes. However it takes itself a bit too seriously. It came out in the same year as Terminal Velocity (Charlie Sheen's skydiving movie), where TV was much more fun to watch as it never took itself seriously, Drop Zone loses the fun a bit by taking it all as a serious movie.

Despite that Snipes is really good – as in 57 he is able to rise above the material and give a strong central performance. His charisma carries him even when his lines are weak and as usual his fight scenes are impressive. Busey does his usual bad guy stuff easily and is so-so and the rest of the cast are ok. The most interesting thing about the cast for me was the `Homicide, Life on the Street' connection that saw tow great actors from that cast in small roles here, namely Kyle Secor (who played Bayliss) and Clark Johnson (who played Lewis).

Overall this is a solid action film. It's nothing special and not overly impressive but it passes 90 minutes without leaving any negative (or positive) marks!