Customer Reviews

Falcon Down

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This direct-to-video release is an entertaining movie, although it suffers from a low budget and less-than-stellar acting. The movie's plot is centered on Hank Thomas (played by Dale Midkiff), an Air Force pilot who loses his best friend and wingman in a tragic accident during a routine mission. After being blamed for this accident by his superiors and spending three years out of the Air Force, Hank is recruited by a group of specialists to hijack a government top secret weapon that was responsible for many tragic losses. However, Hank soon learns that these people have another agenda, and it's up to him to stop their plans. Although the story is somewhat routine, the movie also features an "X-Files" twist: home video footage of these government planes and weapons are taken by paranoid people who believe the government is experimenting with aliens and alien spacecraft. The visual effects are pretty good despite budget restrictions, and the swift cutting back and forth between the main story and this "home video footage" is clever. The movie features many familiar faces, including Judd Nelson, Cliff Robertson, and even William Shatner (who chews up the scenery). This is a movie worth checking out because it is somewhat different from standard by-the-numbers action films.

It would be difficult to improve on Van T. Roberts' negative review of this movie. He covered it all. I agree with him that the plot is mediocre at best, and that the veteran actors in it should have be warned to avoid the movie. Their agents did not represent them well. I saw the last half of this on a premium movie channel, and I am surprised that they played it. I kept waiting for it to improve, but all I saw was one unrealistic scene after another. Avoid watching this movie.

I have watched this DVD several times as well as the TV movie of the same. It is certainly filled with suspense in every scene. Again the undesirable language popped up several times. I wish the directors would delete the gutter type language as it directly reflects on somebody's lack of education. The acting was very realistic. It is a shame to put some of those words in the mouth of a wonderful actor like Dale Midkiff.

This movie was good enough for me to order it for my mother. I'm not sure if she watched it yet, or not to ask her how she liked it. I saw the movie on one of the premium movie channels during my 3 free months. I rather enjoyed the movie. It was good enough for me to actually sit there, and watch from beginning to end. If a movie isn't good, I'll get up, and do something else while its on. It has some action in it, and it has a pretty decent plot. It's worth while.

Everybody went slumming for paychecks in this amateurish "Firefox"
clone. The surprising thing is that writer & director Phillip J. Roth
and three other scenarists, Jonathan Raymond, Jon Meyer, and Terri
Neish, weren't sued for copyright infringement. "Falcon Down"
appropriates the plot of Clint Eastwood's "Firefox" and part of the
plot of "Firefox" novelist Craig Thomas' sequel "Firefox Down."
Watching this improbable aerial thriller once must have convinced the
"Firefox" people to forego any lawsuit. "Falcon Down" is abysmal from
start to finish and wastes the talents of Cliff Robertson, William
Shatner, and Judd Nelson. The opening credits are enough to turn you
off as we watch a scanner locate different parts of the Earth and then
watch as the names of cast and crew emerge for what seems forever. The
special effects just barely make the grade, probably because the jets
are filmed against night skies. A perfunctory romance between leading
man Dale Midkiff and soap opera beauty queen Sandra Ferguson barely
heats up.

"Falcon Down" opens with insubordinate Captain Hank Thomas (Dale
Midkiff of CBS-TV's "The Magnificent Seven") and Captain Bobby Edwards
(Ken Olandt of "Digital Man") flying around at night. They disobey the
orders of their superior officer, Major Robert Carson (William Shatner
of "Star Trek") and enter forbidden airspace. No sooner have they
trespassed than some inexplicable force blinds Captain Edwards and his jetfighter crashes. Not long afterward a 747 encounters the
same effect, similar to electrocution, with rays wriggled all over the
aircraft fuselage before it crashes and 200 people die. When Thomas demands to know what happened to Edwards, Major Carson refuses to divulge the details and brings Thomas up on court-martial charges. Three years later, after he has been dishonorably discharged from the Air Force, Thomas is working with his father, Buzz Thomas (Cliff Robertson of "633 Squadron"), who has gone into debt and needs $200-thousand bucks to bail him out. Thomas' nemesis from yesteryear shows up and makes our protagonist an offer that he cannot refuse. It seems that a top secret supersonic jet--the Falcon--with a special combat weapons system needs to be stolen and Carson is shelling out the bucks. He represents a group of C.I.A agents, including Sharon (Jennifer Rubin) and Harold Peters (Judd Nelson), who need to steal it. Thomas is such an idiot that he believes them. They break into the plant and steal the jet. When U.S. Air Force interceptors scramble and come after them, Peters activates the micro-wave weapon and starts knocking them off. During the aerial firefight, the Falcon
takes a bullet in its wing tank and starts losing fuel. Thomas crash
lands the jet on the ice cap while a Red Chinese sub with Major Carson
on board cruises underwater toward them for a rendezvous.
Unfortunately, for the villains, the plane sinks with the pilots and
the traitors on board. The Red Chinese had planned on towing the jet
underwater back to their base, but efforts to tow the plane fail and it
drags the sub down to destruction.

If this plot synopsis makes "Falcon Down" sound provocative enough to
watch, look out! Director Phillip Roth never generates any suspense and
the dialogue is as forgettable as the plot is preposterous. Roth appears to have cloned some of the imagery from "Firefox," such as the shot where the jet wheels out of the hanger before take-off. Jennifer Rubin keeps her
clothes on the entire time and adds nothing to the plot. Dale Midkiff
looks hopeless as a so-called 'ladies man' in a movie that went
straight to video and has nothing to distinguish it. Dull, dull, dull!
I bought my DVD copy of "Falcon Down" for $2.00 plus tax from Movie
Gallery during a discount sale. If I had known how egregious this
pseudo-thriller was, I'd have put it back on the shelf.

"Falcon Down" is presented in full frame with no extras of any significance.

I bought this DVD because it was a bargain and because of the review I read about it.

But I did not enjoy it much. The story is poor, even the action scenes are not that great.

It is, in my opinion, a poor imitation of another great movie of the genre: "Firefox", with Clint Eastwood, which I really recommend.

If you want an action movie and don't bother about the plot this is a good and cheap choice.

I rented this 'cause I like Sandra Ferguson. She looked great as usual and the plot was decent. I was really surprised that Cliff Robertson was in it too. The action was good and I wasn't disappointed I rented this movie.

I just finished watching this film and I'm still trying to catch my breath. This is without a doubt, the greatest movie ever made. I dare you to put this up against Citizen Kane or anything else in your library. It puts the rest of the world into context and forces the actions of the government to have a cause and effect role in society - something the real world doesn't often provide. Way to go UFO!