No Limite Do Inferno

OK - so the characters were stereotyped, some of the acting wasn't very good, the comedy scenes were clichéd, the plot was predictable and the film had nothing new to say, but -

• the aerial shots were terrific!

I am a movie watcher from way back, and I can pretty much believe anything that the director brings to the film. This is a movie that you don't need to loose any brain cells over, full with the stuff that men, and sometimes women love. Human fights, food fights, gun fights, and yes jet fights, with a explosion or two. WHAT I don't get is the other movies that are in this movie, check this out... There is a jet dog-fight from Top Gun, there is a airplane vs. two helicopters fight from Capricorn One, there is a jet vs. everything on the ground from the movie Iron Eagles. Don't get me wrong, the movie is entertaining, but the only original fight was the food.

You can feel a little more comfortable watching this movie with a Baldwin face amongst the cast. Not that it elevates this movie out of the cheap laugh range. I find it strange how some films get made that have nothing new to say, or nothing new to enjoy, no glamorous special effect value. In fact only the humour in the film was good in my view. Mostly unintentional cliche style.

This is not to say it was dull to watch. It holds a limited interest, and you do hang around to see if the good guys wins.

All things are in order. Bad guys set the plot up, threatening to fire a missile at Europe somewhere, loaded with some deadlier then anthrax thing, and the US must sort it out. Clearly no sensible options are available so it's time for the unreliable wild bunch. Twenty minutes of comedy ensue as Baldwin crowbars in a few flashbacks of why he flies planes no more. Only to change his mind and round up a bunch of dishonourably discharged pilots who all crowbar in their personal disgrace stories.

The training program and internal wrangles is mildly interesting. The spattering of jokes keep things moving, but the realism of small parts such as incompetent pilots and spies does relegate the movie from credibility.

Lots of nice desert explosions towards the end and the climax.. oh missed it, rewind and take another look, nope couldn't see it.

If you want to see a fighter plane movie watch Top Gun, if you're after the middle east related shenanigans there are hundreds of better movies. So this is in my 'nothing else on' category.

If some scenes look familiar and feel out of place it's because they are, this movie uses footage from both Navy Seals and Iron Eagle. Anything of its own making is poorly put together and at times frustratingly bad. Most of the movie is taken up by the misfit bunch of characters goofing around, falling out, and eating lunch. The basic story is simple and could have been decent if told well, but this movie just feels cheap and lazy.

Yes, it's just like a James Bond movie, except:

even more implausible plot

bad guys can't act

good guys can't act

both are annoying anyway

or maybe it's just the script (there WAS one?)

humor isn't as good

cheap special effects

no suspense, no big ending

Seriously, I walked out of the room for a minute, came back to find the credits scrolling. I had no idea that just before that I had been watching the great ending.... there wasn't any!

The special effects all look the same - like barrels of gasoline blowing up (or whatever that frequently-used explosion effect is). It doesn't matter what's blowing up -- plane, building, car, outhouse. It looks like they built really cheap props and then just put exploding barrels in everything.

They talk about things that would sound like good effects, only you never see them because they would be too expensive to do. For example, you see a surface-to-air missile launcher sitting there. Then you hear the pilot say that there's missiles heading towards him and he takes evasive action (or maybe just talks about taking evasive action -- don't remember). Then you see the missile launcher blowing up (see paragraph above). But you never see the missile launch or fly towards the plan, because that's a more difficult effect.

And so on. But if you're really bored and like simple scripts and lots of things blowing up in a not too spectacular fashion, this movie isn't so bad.