Raposa de Fogo

... and by my count this line was spoken at least seven times here.

This is a cold war thriller from Clint Eastwood about a Vietnam vet fighter pilot sent undercover and across the iron curtain to steal a new Soviet super-plane. The first two-thirds of the film are a treat, with a lot of tense scenes of Clint and his sympathetic Russian contacts narrowly escaping capture. The last section is where the film loses steam, with a lot of repetitious, dated fx shots of the jet in action.

Warren Clarke is memorable as Clint's chief contact. Also featured are Freddie Jones, Ronald Lacey, Nigel Hawthorne, and Kenneth Colley. As you may have noticed, there are no women listed; this is the rare film with no substantial female presence at all. The real star, though, other than Clint, is the fictional MiG31 "Firefox" fighter jet, invisible to radar, capable of Mach 6 speeds as well as full nuclear armament. The film also borders on science fiction with the jet's thought-controlled weapon systems.

It is a 50/50 proposition as to whether you will like this one. For me it was fun to see Eastwood stretch his directorial skills in a different direction, and even more fun if you actually remember the cold war...or were even alive during the cold war for that matter.

Firefox isn't your usual Eastwood film, he's almost branching out into Star Wars territory here with this Sci-Fi heavy Cold War Spy thriller. The effects like every 80's film have dated badly but for a movie made in 1982 they are rather good. Eastwood directs himself in what is a pretty average performance by his own high standards. The majority of the cast is made up by British character actors. Warren Clarke is really good but Freddie Jones and Nigel Hawthorne are pretty hammy. Also Raiders of the Lost Ark fans can spot Ronald Lacey playing Semelovsky a Jewish scientist. The first half of the film is a spy thriller and can be pretty nail biting at times as Clint gets his papers checked at regular intervals. Also he's suffering from the same post Vietnam War disorder that John Rambo had in First Blood and that really adds to the tension. The second half is more like Star Wars and is really great stuff. So better ice up at a cold one and enjoy Firefox for what it is, Cold War entertainment at it's best.

This thrilling and intriguing movie is set during Cold War , the URSS has developed a high-tech jet called MiG-31 that can be partially controlled by a neuralink . The Soviets have made a sophisticated aircraft , the latest aeronautic marvel that flies at 6 times the speed of sound, is invulnerable to radar, and worst of all it has a lethal technological weapons system that the pilot can control through cerebral waves and thought . As soon as the pilot detects a threat - either visually or a scope - his brain impulses will direct a missile to that threat , without so much as pushing a button . The American fighter pilot assigned by Secret Service (Freddie Jones) is the Vietnam veteran named Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood), a burned-out USAF ace pilot, is smuggled into the USSR to infiltrate the Russian airbase at Bilyarsk, where the supersonic fighting plane Firefox/MiG-31 is being terminated , he must rob it and avoid the mass production that would give the Russians a huge advance . Officer Mitchell Gant goes behind Russian lines and faces a dangerous assignment . In Russia is helped by various secret agents (Warren Clarke, Nigel Hawthorne , Ronald Lacey) against KGB (Hugh Frazer , David Gant) and Soviet officials ( Kenneth Colley ,Oliver Cotton , Klaus Lowitsch ) .

Eastwood directs , produces and plays this exciting film about a pilot sent into the Soviet Union on a mission to steal a prototype jet fighter . This overlong picture takes a while to take off , but when it does , it's cool film . It contains suspense , thrills , intrigue , action-packed and is pretty entertaining . Spectacular aerial pursuits and dogfighting in ¨Star Wars¨ style created by FX expert John Dykstra who made special visual effects in several films such as ¨Galactica , Star Trek ,Batman , Spiderman , X men and Hanckock ¨. Ample support cast full of prestigious British actors who make good performances as as Freddie Young , Kenneth Colley , Stefan Schnabel , David Huffman , Nigel Hawthorne , Warren Clarke and Ronal Lacey , among them . Colorful and appropriate cinematography by Bruce Surtees ,son of great cameraman Robert Surtess and Eastwood's usual . Thrilling and suspenseful score by the maestro Maurice Jarre . Rating : Acceptable and passable but slow-moving and over lengthy .

During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet military develops a super high-tech fighter aircraft - it flies fast, has deadly weapons, and has technology that allows the pilot to control guided missiles with his mind. Basically any army with this baby in its arsenal will have air superiority. Clint is assigned to steal it from the heart of Soviet territory for the USA.

The plot is fairly generic and in this day and age most Cold War thrillers have seem to have lost much of their edge, but this is nonetheless an entertaining film from Eastwood. It is not one of his best and not one that he will be remembered for, but no one can deny the slickness of the plane of the title. The final section of the film, which admittedly does take a while to get to, has Clint flying around and raising hell is a fun ride and on par with the final chase in "Where Eagles Dare" in terms of entertainment. However, the buildup has enough suspense to make the whole movie worth a watch. 7/10

Rated PG: violence

"Firefox", while definitely dated, is a good Cold War spy thriller that falls far short of being great. Clint Eastwood plays Mitchell Gant, a burned-out Vietnam fighter pilot who's enlisted to steal a high-tech, heavily-armed, stealth Soviet fighter plane right out of its Siberian hangar. The first half of the film is a John le Carre type thriller – Clint sneaking into Moscow, assuming a Soviet pilot's identity, and making his way to the experimental Firefox fighter craft. The second half, when he climbs into the cockpit of the Firefox, is where the real fun begins.

While entertaining, the film isn't particularly great – apart from Clint's gritty performance as Mitchell Gant, none of the other actors manage to stand out in any way. The jet fighter sequences also haven't stood the test of time – they looked great in the Eighties, but now they just look dated and unrealistic. Certain scenes in the film are little more than padding, buying breathing room between action scenes and doing little else. There's enough tension and action scattered throughout the film to make `Firefox' fun, but there's much better Cold War movies than this (`The Russia House' and `The Hunt for Red October' easily come to mind), and there's certainly much better Clint Eastwood movies than this. B-/C+