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Reviews
Tmavomodrý svet (2001)
Almost there, but...
I saw this film in Cambridge on the night of its release. I'd seen various excellent reviews, marvelled at the online trailer and walked past many posters and a stall at the recent Duxford airshow: consequently my expectations were high.
It wasn't a bad film but it was no where near as good as the reviews imply. I'd hoped for a film about WW2 flying that had a minor love story component and regrettably encountered the reverse. I'm not adverse to love storys and emotional content (I enjoyed 'Titanic', 'Truly Madly Deeply' and 'Cyrano De Bergerac' amongst many others) but this seemed bolted on as a plot device.
The much vaunted flying sequences comprise a tiny fraction of the whole and are largely in the trailer. They are also not that impressive, much to my surprise. I had a real problem with the so called English airbase; surrounded by mountains and fir-trees. OK, so the crew had to film in Europe but they could have found somewhere a bit more realistic surely?! There's an implausibly lucky escape from a crashing Spitfire too: a bit of plot worthy of Neighbours not Tolstoy!
The real problem with 'Dark Blue World' is lack of emotional intensity. It tries hard to give an air of brooding menace and betrayal but achieves neither. I never felt engaged with the characters and was totally ambivalent when cast members were shot down.
This would have made a reasonable ITV drama production and that about sums up the production values and impact. A shame because I'd wished for more.
Air Force One (1997)
This is a dire movie!
This movie is riddled with horrendous cliche, plot holes a mile wide and technical howlers! Anyone who knows the slightest details about aviation will be screaming in frustration at the screen while this is showing, for example:
1. A major plot device is that the most sophisticated Boeing-747 on the planet can't land itself on autopilot. Oh really!? Try pointing that out to any commerical 747 pilot happily landing on ILS at Heathrow every few minutes.
2. Firing fully automatic assault rifles inside the fuselage of an aircraft is definitely going to end up with holes in the pressure skin and immediate depressurisation; except in AirForce-1 of course. DOH!
3. Thirty or so presidential staff are parachuted off the aircraft to 'safety'. Despite the fact that they have never jumped before, are at 15,000 feet over eastern Europe wearing shirt sleeves and are dropping into an unknown landing area (water?, road?, power lines?, war-zone?) they still have gormless smiles on their faces!
4. The President attacks and over powers a 'terrorist'. Despite the struggle lasting 15 seconds and the 'terrorist' being fully conscious and within a few feet of his colleagues he chooses not to cry out for help. Instead he soldiers on alone so that Harrison Ford doesn't get discovered. Oh come on!
5. There is no physical way that the President could have avoided ejecting from the aircraft in the escape pod. That was obvious.
6. Glenn Close!
7. The Russians do exactly what the USA tells them. Yeah right!
8. Simplified HUDs on the F15s and MIGs. This is standard for Hollywood (see TopGun), they think that a real HUD is too confusing but fail to appreciate that ANY HUD is too confusing to anyone inexperienced with symbology so why not stay authentic?
9. When the 'Terrorists' have control of AirForce 1 then they lose control of the aircraft to the autopilot when under missile attack. Strangely this is not the case when Harrison Ford is flying the plane...
10. The White House scenes are totally unconvincing and cringe making. The thought that a Vice-President of the USA would burst into tears during a crisis situation is beyond laughable.
There are many more like this but I can't be bothered to waste my time listing them. Basically it's a no brainer of the first order and I'm sick of having my intelligence insulted. Oh, and the politics of the Gary Oldman character were far more plausible then anything else in the whole movie yet he was the crazy one! Go figure...