The Worst Aviation Movie of All Time

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

John Galban writes:

It goes on and on like this for a couple of hours. Don't even get
me started on the VSI with the spinning needle that unwinds in a dive
like an altimeter.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122202/plotsummary

There's an extended review he

http://www.airodyssey.net/articles/movie-panic.html


Oh how useful. So i don't have to think.


bertie

On Mar 28, 9:37 am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
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 hehttp://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 N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I understand how retched Pearl Harbor but it could be seen as more of
a war film than an aviation film as could Iron Eagle. For me the
absolute worst aviation film is the execrable Cloud Dancers, David
Carradine at the height of his personal excess, Jennifer O'Neil and
Timothy Bottoms. I remember hearing about the making of it from
various aviation magazines and then never saw it come to a theater.
Years later I sat through it at Oshkosh. The only good thing about it
was some touching scenes with Carradine's character and two
developmentally disabled siblings. God knows why that was even in the
plot. Sure the flying scenes were great, what with the Christen
Eagles etc. but in every other way it stank.

Second up is Jet Pilot the Howard Hughes extravaganza with John Wayne
and that blonde from Psycho. I remember watching its broadcast debut
years after Howard's death. Beautiful shots of airplanes but I got so
bored I went for a mile walk in the middle of the movie and came back
to find the plot had not advanced one iota.

John Dupre'

I'm going to add another catagory to this collection. Movies that should
have been the worst but really, weren't that bad.

Snakes on a Plane.

"Dave Doe" wrote in message
That one with Tom Cruise. Especially the bit where he goes upside down
against a MIG (or something) and gives the MIG pilot the finger.

Pathetic, is the word I'd describe the whole film. The kids seemed to
like it though.

Hollywood-izing aside, that movie did more for military aviation than any
other movie ever and ever will. A couple of the current Thunderbird pilots
openly confess that watching that movie compelled them to look into military
aviation.

Marco

On 29 Mar 2007 05:56:26 -0700, "John" wrote:

Second up is Jet Pilot the Howard Hughes extravaganza with John Wayne
and that blonde from Psycho. I remember watching its broadcast debut
years after Howard's death. Beautiful shots of airplanes but I got so
bored I went for a mile walk in the middle of the movie and came back
to find the plot had not advanced one iota.

If you walked back to the theater right now, you'd find it's STILL true. :-)

You pointed out the compensating byproduct of Jet Pilot, the fact that it still
has some absolutely beautiful footage of '50s jets. This compensation applies
to many of the older "bad" movies...the film may stink, but if they used real
airplanes, the run-of-the-mill plane back then is a classic today.

Ron Wanttaja

Hollywood-izing aside, that movie did more for military aviation than any
other movie ever and ever will. A couple of the current Thunderbird pilots
openly confess that watching that movie compelled them to look into military
aviation.

"Top Gun" was a great influence on many of the pilots I meet, myself
included.

Although I had always wanted to fly, the flying scenes in that movie
really got into my psyche. It took another 8 years after it came out
for me to put together the "learn-to-fly" puzzle, but I never forgot
it.

I confess: I still love that movie. I've probably watched it 40
times, in various settings. I'd watch it again today. That F-14
footage is simply great.

Compared to "Iron Eagle", "Top Gun" is a true classic. Of course,
compared to "Iron Eagle", "Dumb & Dumber" is a classic...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

And I still like The High and the Mighty.. In fact the clip of Wayne
smacking Robert Stack in the mouth was used in my last CRM class!

That should win the all-time award for "Most Inadvertently Hilarious
Scene".

What makes it great is that they are all deadly serious. Wayne is
almost dead-pan, in a very Leslie Nielsen way, while he's dope-
slapping Stack!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I'm going to add another catagory to this collection. Movies that should
have been the worst but really, weren't that bad.

Snakes on a Plane.

I've debated showing "Snakes on a Plane" on "Movie Night", but
"Flightplan" -- a pretty good movie, starring the always-good Jodie
Foster -- was panned by our audience as not being a "real" aviation
flick.

In other words, there's got to be flying in the movie -- real flying,
not just sitting inside an airliner -- or the crowd gets restless.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Second up is Jet Pilot the Howard Hughes extravaganza with John Wayne
and that blonde from Psycho. I remember watching its broadcast debut
years after Howard's death. Beautiful shots of airplanes but I got so
bored I went for a mile walk in the middle of the movie and came back
to find the plot had not advanced one iota.


Jet Pilot is on our Movie Night schedule in April. I've heard it has
the best flying footage of the 1950s -- and that's all it takes to
keep our crowd happy. The plot is entirely secondary to the flying,
the airplanes, the simulator, and the camaraderie.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
And I still like The High and the Mighty.. In fact the
clip of Wayne
smacking Robert Stack in the mouth was used in my last
CRM class!

That should win the all-time award for "Most Inadvertently
Hilarious
Scene".

What makes it great is that they are all deadly serious.
Wayne is
almost dead-pan, in a very Leslie Nielsen way, while he's
dope-
slapping Stack!

Anybody got a link to that scene? I could have used it on
occasion.