The Worst Aviation Movie of All Time

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"

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

We often talk about the BEST aviation movie here, but how 'bout the worst?

I'd put "Pearl Harbor" up against anything for sheer Hollywood stupidity.
Sure, there have been plenty of crappy aviation B-movies made, but P H was
crappiness on a grand scale.

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

Jay Honeck writes:

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...

Was anyone in the audience a 12- or 13-year-old boy with no flying experience?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

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

Even "Wings of Eagles"? Heretic! Persecute!! Persecute!!

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

We often talk about the BEST aviation movie here, but how 'bout the
worst?

I'd put "Pearl Harbor" up against anything for sheer Hollywood stupidity.
Sure, there have been plenty of crappy aviation B-movies made, but P H was
crappiness on a grand scale.

Second that!!

Even worse is having a teenaged daughter (Josh Harnett fan) that brought it
home on DVD and played it several times.

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/

"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

Didn't you like the scene where they were racing a C152 against a dirtbike?
Watch the flaps on the 152. Must be go fast devices for movie airplanes,
they seem to use them more than the rest of us when they want to go really
fast.
Jim

"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"

On 2007-03-28, Dan Luke wrote:

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

We often talk about the BEST aviation movie here, but how 'bout the worst?

I'd put "Pearl Harbor" up against anything for sheer Hollywood stupidity.
Sure, there have been plenty of crappy aviation B-movies made, but P H was
crappiness on a grand scale.

Pearl Harbor is one thing. But I think Jay should show one particular
aviation movie in his home cinema setup. It is the movie that is so bad
it is good. It is in fact, the movie that they parodied in "Airplane".

It's called "Zero Hour". The hero is even called Ted Striker. It's dead
serious - but seen through the lens of "Airplane" it's something else.
The closing sequence of the aircraft landing has to be the classic
sequence of this movie. Also, be sure to watch the instrument panel when
Ted Striker enters the flight deck for the first time ...

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de

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"
|