Thursday, January 10, 2019

Movie review - "Flight of Fury" (2007) **

In the Steven Seagal oeuvre, this one is probably best described as "the one where he plays a fighter pilot" which to be fair is a decent point of difference.

The story line is clear and simple, which wasn't the case for many Seagal films  - a stealth jet has been stolen and Seagal has to get it back. There's some decent support characterisations - the main villain is an American pilot who got greedy, and Seagal is helped by a sassy girl (Ciera Payton) and a cocky pilot who earns his respect (good work from Mark Bazeley). The villain ha an interesting motivation - his parents were killed by a US strike during desert storm.

Reading back all that it's a shame the film isn't better than it is. It's not terrible or offensive, it just feels by the numbers. Being Seagal there are one or two whacko moments - like when Ciera Payton seduces female terrorist Katie Jones to get out of a tight spot before pulling a gun on her. (Segal's name is down as co writer which may explain that). There's also Seagal walking slow motion towards his plane a la The Right Stuff. He does look too fat to be a pilot.

There's some crusty old general types which made me assume the filmmakers had dreams of another Under Siege. I think they could have gotten there, the story was decent enough, but the execution isn't up to it.

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