6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of Dudikoff's best, August 17, 1999
By A Customer
"Black Thunder" is one of Michael Dudikoff's best films. This is what action films should be: just straight, all-out action without a lot of doppy romantic scenes and excessive language. The film rockets along at the speed of the top secret jet Dudikoff is trying to recover, and the film's over before you know it. If you're a fan of "military-pilot-trying-to-recover-stolen-top-secret-prototype-fighter-jet," then don't miss "Black Thunder."
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Norton's Villain Flies High!, January 26, 2003
When Michael Dudikoff's hero in "Black Thunder" asks Richard Norton's turncoat why he's in the middle of a hijack and ransom
scheme for a zealously guarded fighter jet, Norton simply replies, "Getting rich." Versatile actor Norton delivers the line so craftily, and so convincingly, that no audience of "Black
Thunder" will ever second-guess this bad guy's motivation. As
Dudikoff's prey, Norton delivers a portrayal of the treasonous "Ratcher" (great baddie name)that lifts this plane chase movie off terra firma and out of the "formulaic action picture" category. Top marks for this fast paced movie with thanks to actor Richard Norton!
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Very Disappointing, August 17, 2011
If you go into this film with low expectations and just roll with it, it has enjoyable moments, it was just OK for us but its still hard to find much to justify calling it any good.
Dudikoff was the acting high point, the rest of the acting and directing is mediocre to poor. If you're a Catherine Bell fan, don't expect to see her much, Amazon and the Internet Movie Data Base list her as a star of this film but her role is so tiny and brief it's at best a not worth mentioning bit part.
This film tries to be serious but did not seem to have enough budget or talent to pull it off. More aircraft errors than Top Gun but without the character strengths, good music or flair it had. This films music was repetitive and often mismatched. Often ridiculous, implausible chase and fight scenes, reminded me of the goofy A-Team TV series stuff but without the A-Teams deliberate silly attitude about itself. The stealth special effect was OK but not that good for a 1998 film. The brief nudity served no purpose to further the plot, characters or development of the film in any way and just seemed to be another one of the films vein attempts to fill all the plot holes and blank spaces the writing, directing and production quality left behind.
Not a long film at 85 minutes but the repeated scenes of the cockpits low tech graphics, pilots repetitively and unnecessarily turning dials with the other such meaningless scene lingering made to much of the films run time wasted space and made it seem slowed paced despite the action scenes relatively good pace.
Wonder how many of the positive reviews were from folks involved in making or trying to sell this film.
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