The Worst Aviation Movie of All Time

In article .com,
Jay Honeck wrote:

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".

[...]

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.

According to IMDB, they even made Iron Eagle IV. The first was bad
enough...

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

At that point everybody just has the dry heaves.

Jim

Jewel of the Nile.

Don't laugh! Last time I checked (which was when I was working at
the F-16 factory in Ft. Worth), it was not possible to fire any
weapons (particularly the machine guns) while the aircraft was
on the ground.

On the other hand, who can resist Danny DeVito and the Flying
Karamazov Brothers?

Blanche wrote:
Jewel of the Nile.

Don't laugh! Last time I checked (which was when I was working at
the F-16 factory in Ft. Worth), it was not possible to fire any
weapons (particularly the machine guns) while the aircraft was
on the ground.

On the other hand, who can resist Danny DeVito and the Flying
Karamazov Brothers?

Blanche;
When did you work there? I did some software work on mission planning
systems there back in the 80's and got to walk down the assemble line
and got shown the chicken gun range. A truly amazing place.
John

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
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.

If you're looking for the worst ever, then you'll HAVE to see the sequels
(yes, they made multiple!). I saw a few minutes of Iron Eagle III: Aces late
at night on a high-numbered cable channel and was limited to those few
minutes because that's all I could stand. At least in the first one they
were able to borrow a real F-16 from the Air Force. Apparently someone in
the USAF actually saw how bad the original was because there was no
government hardware anywhere in the scenes that I saw.

Marco

In article ,
"Marco Leon" wrote:

At least in the first one they
were able to borrow a real F-16 from the Air Force. Apparently someone in
the USAF actually saw how bad the original was because there was no
government hardware anywhere in the scenes that I saw.

USAF would allow use of any of its equipment.
The F16 was Israeli Air Force.
The production company built plywood F16 mockups powered by VW engines
for the ground shots.

In article ,
john smith wrote:

In article ,
"Marco Leon" wrote:

At least in the first one they
were able to borrow a real F-16 from the Air Force. Apparently someone in
the USAF actually saw how bad the original was because there was no
government hardware anywhere in the scenes that I saw.

USAF would allow use of any of its equipment.
The F16 was Israeli Air Force.
The production company built plywood F16 mockups powered by VW engines
for the ground shots.

First line should read...

USAF would not allow use of any of its equipment.

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"
|

Jim Macklin wrote:
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.


Agreed, Iron Eagle would be near impossible to top for stupidity, and Flight
of the Phoenix was an absolute insult to the original............

MnM (ex CRaSH

On 28 Mar 2007 06:37:31 -0700, Jay Honeck wrote:

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.


Perhaps the third worst movie would be the 1954 soap opera in the sky, The
High and the Mighty.

The high point of the movie would be John Wayne bitch slapping Robert Stack
in the cockpit. (Two thumbs up)

The low point would have to be the sleeping kid in the back seat finally
wakes up after a safe landing, after sleep through:

1) The left outboard engine seizes up, causing its prop to separate and
send the blades through the fuselage, followed by a serious engine fire.

2) The passengers losing their minds and generally running amuck around the
cabin.

3) A wrestling match with a passenger who discharges a pistol.

4) The cabin door back where the kid is sleeping gets thrown open and they
throw everything not nailed down out of the aircraft.

Man, that kid can sleep! He'll never need an Ambien prescription.


--
Dallas