My review was written in May 1991 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.
"Final Approach" is a gimmicky, tedious sci-fi film, notable only for its pioneering use of digital sound recording and playback. Script's failure to involve the audience in its shaggy-dog story makrs pic a dubious theatrical prospect.
Debuting director Eric Steven Stahl (a graduate of tv commercials) emphasizes technology over content with disastrous results. The touted Cinema Digital Sound provides crisp dialog (not noticeably better sounding than previous six-track s tereo films) but is also used her for frequent noisy interruptions that recall the low-tech '70s Sensurround gimmick.
Annoying editing keeps interrupting the action with fleeting flashback shots that further distance the viewer.
While Stanley Kubrick's classic "2001: A Space Odyssey" is the obvious starting point for film's first-person aerial shots buzzing above pretty landscapes including Monument Valley, pic is eally in the vein of Douglas Trumbull's would-be sic-fi breakthrough pic "Brainstorm".
"Approach" unsuccessfully attempts to present a roller coaster ride from the brain of air force pilot James B. Sikking. It becomes gradually evident that he was working for general Kevin McCarthy on a top-secret project to plastic-coat conventional aircraft and make them equivalent to Stealth bombers in terms of avoiding detection.
Awkward structure give sfilm the feel of a two-character play, an amnesiac Sikking is stuck for the duration in a large, antiseptic office questioned by unctuous Hector Elizondo on his ownt to provide some comic releif, but Sikking is colorless throughout, making the necessary viewer identification with him and his Kafkaesque plight nearly impossible.
It turns out this exercise is just another "dying flash" riff on Robert Enrico's classic adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's "Incident at Owl Creek Bridte", stretching a man's final moments into feature length trivia.
Supporting cast is virtually dispensed with, as Sikking's lvoely wife Madolyn Smith gets just one meaningless scene and occasional flash ctuts to work with. Genre vet McCarthy pops up only to bark out orders as Sikking's flashback commander.
Tech credits are pro but inspiration is sorely lacking.
