Iron Eagle
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Movie Reviews of Iron Eagle
Movie Review: This movie is worth watching.
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a US Air Force Academy Cadet, and one of the reasons I am here is that I saw this movie when I was a kid. It isn't a very accurate depiction of the Air Force, but it embodies the love of flight, doing what you know must be done, and the ideal of fighting for what you believe in. It is inspiring no matter who you are or how old you are.Movie Review: Just Plane Fun
Summary: 4 Stars
OK. It's NOT a documentary on the military (thank goodness). It's eye candy. It's ear candy. It's just a fun movie. It's one you'll want to add to your collection.Movie Review: I WANT to hate this movie...
Summary: 3 Stars
But how can I, a child of the 80's, hate this ultimate 'boys movie'? At the time, it made me want to strap myself into the cockpit of an F-16 and go bomb some terrorist country. I found Libya on the map. They seemed like some onery folk at the time. I was ready to drop some hellfire on them 'camel jockeys'.
But I could never get a hold of an F-16.
But judging by some of the reviews here, some lucky peepsqueaks DID manage to get F-16's. So many youths cite this piece of dreck as the reason they joined the airforce and are now doing the will of a commander-in-chief who probably goes back to his ranch, closes the door, and puts the 'Iron Eagle' DVD on!!
Ultimate boys movie indeed.
This doesn't change the fact that 'Iron Eagle' is unabashedly racist. It was mostly filmed in Israel with the IDF and Israeli government providing all the fighter jets AND pilots along with the scenery. All they asked for in return was that the villains be (nameless, faceless, dehumanized) 'Arabs' from a fictional (generic) Arab 'terrorist country'. This demonization of an entire people was (and is) an Israeli government PR campaign to get the American public to see the 'plight of the Jewish people' as they 'struggle' against the 'evil Arab terrorists'.
I would hope the producers of 'Iron Eagle' were duped into going along with this. Because other than that, it is a pretty fine movie. Unlike a lot of 80's action-movie dreck, 'Iron Eagle' actually has likeable characters. Louis Gosset Jr. delivers a fine performance as the 'tough but fair' Colonel 'Chappy' Sinclaire. The action sequences rival and sometimes better the ones in 'Top Gun'. Plus, there is no sappy romance sub-plot to drag this puppy down. This movie is purely a boys film.
So if you can turn your brain (and your conscience) off for an hour and 20 minutes, get a hold of 'Iron Eagle'. But watch out for the sequels. They're bad. Really bad.
Movie Review: Not as bad as some people make it seem
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie is not quite as bad as some of the comments want you to believe. It does have some serious reality flaws. But that's exactly where it excels. This is not a story about a kid trying to rescue his dad. This is a story about the flying fantasies of youth. I grew up playing quite a few flight simulators on computers, and this added to my fantasy of someday flying a fighter jet. This is exactly what this movie's about, a kid completely enthralled with flight simulations that he becomes a good pilot.They should have left it at that though. The kid's fantasy of rescuing his dad (also a pilot) from some mysterious middle eastern base should not have been brought to reality. Reality should not have extended past his races in his single-engine crop-duster with a motorcycle. Throughout the movie, the kid does not see the world as a dangerous place. He still sees it as one big simulation. This is exactly how you should watch the movie, otherwise, it will seem like a ridiculous plot that's out-of-touch with the real world.
Movie Review: Just Plain Silly
Summary: 2 Stars
Ahh, "Iron Eagle". A classic of the 1980's Golan-Globus production mill. With the current spate of historic/"current" military movies, it's sometimes good to see how Hollywood's come in trying to get the details right. One can't do much better than using this flick as a baseline. In case you aren't already familiar with this gem, Louis Gosset Jr. playing a reserve Air Force Colonel, and a teenage kid fly a mission inside an unnamed Arab country -OK I'll name it: Libya- to rescue the kid's dad. Pop gets shot-down when he's intercepted in international waters, but the US refuses to do anything more than diplomatic pressure.
The kid and Lou Gosset meet up when the kid's challenged to race the local bully with his PLANE while the bully's using his dirt bike. Suffice it to say he wins and impresses his babe; he doesn't get his slot at the USAF Academy, though. You gotta take the bad with good I guess. When the words on Dad get back to the family, this kid uses his base "network" to get access to imagery, enemy air defense data, and two F16s carrying a B52's worth of ordinance. All of this being done by his friends exploiting the dim bulbs who are their parents, no less. (If only strike planning was this easy.) Of course, the kid has flown training missions with his dad, and has a boatload of simulator time, so he's a natural to fly the mission. He convinces Gosset to go along with him, and his two-ship is on the way. The flying scenes are nothing spectacular, with obviously Israeli F16s playing the good guys, and Kfirs (modified Mirages) acting as MiGs. Cockpit scenes are completely the imagination of the set designer; I'm guessing he never was anywhere near a real aircraft. These are especially dated now as many computer flight sims are pretty darn accurate in cockpit, flight, and combat models. Anyway, lots of explosions on the way in, Lou gets hit and aborts and our hero must press on alone-go figure. He manages to talk with the evil dictator directly and get his dad on the runway for him to land (!) and pick him up. More silliness ensues as he launches weapons on the ground, taxi's out and takesoff. He kills the bad guy and heads home to find Lou punched out and was rescued. Rather than the prison sentence for espionage, and theft of government property that Lou, the kid, his pals and the idiots they exploited on base should've got, he gets his slot at the Air Force Academy. The end.
Overall, I guess Lou's performance was fairly good, but everyone else performed at the grade-B level this flick is. Note especially a very young Shawnee Smith as one of the kid's buds. Worth seeing for laughs, and as a film version of a kid's pilot fantasy.