I agree, IRON EAGLE is terrible, but a close second has to
be the re-make of FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, at least as
compared to the wonderful original with Jimmy Stewart, et
al.


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
| We often talk about the BEST aviation movie here, but how
'bout the
| worst?
|
| Having spent nearly a year of my life showing aviation
movies every
| Tuesday night in our theater at the hotel, I am in a
somewhat unique
| position to comment on this. I've seen over 50 aviation
movies in a
| row, and can lend some perspective.
|
| Many of the early aviation movies were saddled with the
stilted acting
| styles that followed the introduction of "talkies" in the
1920s/30s,
| so you have to take some of them with a grain of salt.
|
| An example is Howard Hughes' "Hells Angels", which is full
of nice
| flying scenes and some truly terrible acting. It's like
they didn't
| know how to write dialogue, yet -- which was okay, cuz the
actors
| didn't know how to deliver it.
|
| John Wayne. Having seen all of his aviation flicks
now, it's easy
| to see where John Wayne got his reputation for being
one-dimensional.
| Every aviation movie he starred in (with the notable
exception of the
| "Island in the Sky" -- read about it he
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045919/
| ) has the same plot, and he played the same character.
Many are quite
| awful, although the WWII flying scenes are often quite
good.
|
| But after last night I can honestly say that the award for
worst
| aviation movie EVER made goes to "Iron Eagle" -- the 1986
movie that
| was the Air Forces's quick answer to the success of "Top
Gun".
|
| By God, it's awful. The story line (Synopsis: A teenager
and a
| Colonol steal two F-16s, fly half-way around the world,
destroy a
| Saddam-look-alike's air force, and then LAND on the runway
they just
| destroyed to rescue the teenager's father from certain
death), the
| acting, the flying scenes, the combat scenes (astoundingly
bad, with
| missiles that fly at light-speed), even the credits are
just
| TERRIBLE.
|
| This movie should have single-handedly ended Lou Gossetts'
career, but
| -- inexplicably -- they actually made a SEQUEL to this
dog! I will
| not see it.
|
| We showed it last night at Movie Night, and the comments
ranged from
| "Thank God we didn't pay anything to *that*" to "I need
another
| beer." The scenes where targets on the ground -- like a
water tower
| on stilts -- blow up with near-nuclear force after just a
few machine
| gun hits were especially well derided...
|
| Although Move Night is always just an excuse to get
together and
| hangar fly and fly the Kiwi flight simulator, this was so
truly
| terrible that it 'bout killed us.
|
| Anyone got any other "nominations" for WORST ever?
| --
| Jay Honeck
| Iowa City, IA
| Pathfinder N56993
| www.AlexisParkInn.com
| "Your Aviation Destination"
|