Garras de Aço

FLIGHT OF BLACK ANGEL is another movie about a renegade fighter pilot taking the fight to the skies above America. There were a few of these films made throughout the 1990s, John Woo's BROKEN ARROW being the one I know the best. Although this one's a TV movie, it doesn't suffer from the trappings of that genre because it actually has some violent scenes of murder and destruction in it, so it's not one that plays it safe throughout.

I watched this film out of interest because it was an early effort from director Jonathan Mostow, later to make crowd-pleasers like BREAKDOWN and TERMINATOR 3. Mostow is hampered by a low budget in this one, but the story's interesting and I enjoyed the way that most of the material ends up taking place on the ground rather than in the skies. Peter Strauss is a dull hero character but William O'Leary is rather convincing as the out-of-his-mind pilot. The special effects again are limited in nature but there's enough meat in the surrounding scenes to make the whole thing frighteningly convincing in places.

Ludicrous plot, bad acting, glaring factual errors. Stylistically, it's a bit of a Top Gun rip-off. And seriously, who ever heard of anyone landing a fighter on a road and then taking off again later? If you like to make up funny lines for the dialogue or you like to pick out errors, etc., then this is the movie for you. And Peter Strauss, next time you play a military man, get a haircut.

Just enough details to make this seem very real, and very possible.

Makes you wonder about the military phrase "routine training exercise" used in actual news stories.

No breaks in the action - and no subplots. This is straight action from beginning to end. Well worth watching.

In this TV movie, Peter Strauss is in charge of a training program for fighter pilots. His most dedicated student, WIlliam O'Leary, decides he has a divine mission to kill his parents and siblings, and then bomb Las Vegas.

Yes, it is a serious movie, although not in the sense of being important. The performances are all right, although I continually rolled my eyes at the basic situation, grown trite since the release of Fail-Safe. There's little to add to the basic plot, although there's a long discursion when O'Leary takes prisoner Michele Pawk, Michael Keys Hall, and their infant because they made the mistake of saying "What was that?" when he flew over the road at what looked like 30 feet. Lots of shots of what look like military jets flying across the screen in a quarter of a second.

This films tells the story of air force pilot who cracks under peer pressure,it was unclear if his parents pushed him to far,or what,he simply had to be the best,Barry Zetlin,who produce this film,assembled a good cast. The pressure was too much,he cracked under it all. The fight scenes in the air was well done,I suspect that quite a bit of stock footage film was used. This is available on DVD in either the UK or Australia. Before you order it,make sure your DVD player will play it,DVD's players in Canada and the US are region one,in Europe and Australia,they use region 2 and 4 which is Pal System.Region free DVD players can be purchased here in Canada and the US,if you do not wish to purchase one,go on to the internet and type in DVD players hackers list,this web site will give you instructions on how to change the region settings on your DVD player,not all DVD players can the region codes be changed. Another interesting item,Barry Zetlin,who produced this film appeared in it,a cameo appearance,he has also done this in other films he has produced. Alfred Hitchcock used to do the same thing.