Airborne

This is one of the best comedies ever to be put on video, the trouble is, 'Airborne' is not meant as a comedy. Its meant as a one of those high octane, action thrillers with plot twists around every corner. I cant even begin to describe how bad the acting is in this one. The only person who comes out with any kind of credibility is Kim Coates who, as always, is excellant. The rest of the cast, Im afraid, are nothing short of dreadful. Especially Steve Guttenberg. I've always thought he was a terrible actor and his performance in this one proves it. His facail expression never changes throughout. This film is a pretty dire effort.

A cut above from the usual straight to video actioneer, Airborne has enough in the tank to keep it going for the full 90 minutes, although you can't help but think of how low former '80's comedy golden boy Steve Guttenburg has stooped to be in such a cheap production (and playing a hard man too!). The plot is simple, the baddies have stolen a deadly virus and Guttenburg and the rest of his goodie pals are sent to retrieve it, Not bad of its kind but not in the same league (obviously) as the films it is compared too on the cover such as AIR FORCE ONE and CON AIR. The cast is good though, with Sean Bean reprising his Brit.-bad guy character which we have had a glimpse of in such box office smashes as GOLDENEYE and PATRIOT GAMES.

I saw this movie for free during Toronto's FantAsia '98 Festival, and I wanted my money back. The director was present (and was in fact was one of the organizers of FantAsia) and someone asked him, after the film, if he had a hat full of cliches that he picked from to make the film. This film is BAD. It's worse than Highlander 2. It has NO redeeming features whatsoever. Cliche after cliche. Avoid at all possible costs. There is nothing to see here. Please move along.

'Airborne' might not be the best action film you'll see, but I rather enjoyed it. The action sequences were nicely done and I enjoyed the all-star cast.

Steve Guttenberg's character, Bill McNeil, is a bit too grouchy, and he really ought to smile more. There was no real reason why he should be so wood-faced from the beginning. Later, yes, it might be acceptable when he realized they've been set up, and off course mourning the murder of his best friend. Nevertheless, Guttenberg is looking fit and strong, and (thankfully) they find enough excuses to display his muscular physique. I didn't mind one bit!

There are twists around every corner. 'Airborne' does play more like an episode from a television action detective series, but there were enough here to keep me interested. Sean Bean's character, Dave, was underdeveloped and it felt like he was only really on screen when needed. Ron Simpson (Colm Feore) was by far the most interesting character.

The film has a thrilling, fast-paced finale. Not bad at all for a film made over two decades ago. I enjoyed this!

Would I watch it again? Yes.

I had a pretty good idea that "Airborne" would be a bad movie before I actually watched it, because it was a production by Le Monde Entertainment, a Canadian outfit that made nothing but bad B movies during its run. So why did I watch it voluntarily? Two reasons, one being that it had Sean Bean in its cast, an actor I feel is very underrated. The second reason was that the movie promised to have Steve Guttenberg given the atypical acting job of playing an action star - and I thought that might be worth a few unintended laughs.

However, I was disappointed by both promises. Sean Bean has only what could be called an extended cameo - it's obvious he knocked off his few brief scenes in just a few days of shooting. As for Guttenberg, while there are a few (mild) chuckles seeing him act tough and swearing, he's for the most part pretty bland and not that lively.

In fact, the rest of the movie is just as bland and unexciting as Guttenberg. There is far more talk than action. And when the action does come, it's pretty badly handled, being poorly directed, choreographed, and edited. Part of this is probably due to the fact the movie clearly didn't have an adequate budget. The movie has a cheap look and feel like one you would associate with a 1990s Canadian television show.

If you think I am slamming this movie for being a B movie, I'm not. In fact, I *love* a great number of B movies. But this particular one simply doesn't cut it.