| Iron Eagle (1986) Cast:Louis Gossett Jr., Jason Gedrick,Tim Thomerson,Larry B.Scott Louis Gossett Jr. stars as Chappy Sinclair an Air Force pilot who helps a teenage army brat rescue his father from a viscous middle eastern dictator in this watchable although excruciatingly stupid actioner which gets by only on the talents of Gossett and Thomerson. Richard Scheib runs a website dedicated to Science Fiction movies and when watching this, I kept wondering if Iron Eagle was the perfect contender for his site, afterall this movie is so far outside the bounds of reality that you can't help but watch dumbfounded at the sheer stupidity that the film asks us to swallow. For instance the film asks us to believe that a middle eastern dictator would execute an air force pilot for crossing into Lebanonese air space, space that is disputed as international air space. Or that a snot-nosed kid could fly a jet fighter into combat and come out of it all without even so much as a bruise, after, get this only having previous experience in a flight simulator. Geez, who writes this stuff? Only in Reagan's era could a movie so boneheaded in it's jingoism be made with such a serious attitude. Indeed Scott says "We got a president who takes no shit from anyone, that's why they call him the RAY-GUN!" But then later the country decides to let the middle eastern dictator try and execute the pilot. So the movie even fails as jingoism! Really it's Gossett and Thomerson that make this thing watchable. D.Sidney J.Furie** |