Customer Reviews

Stealth

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(43)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

Stealth is one of those summer action flicks that has leave-your-brain-at-the-door written all over it. It's really a simple and mindless fun action movie that delivers on the premise of ultra hi-tech weapons (mainly all the futuristic warplanes) piloted by great looking people and lots and lots of explosion. Rob Cohen directs from a script by W.D. Richter that is point for point something that Michael Bay has made a living on. Rob Cohen is not a rookie when it comes to mindless, action fun since he's also directed Fast and the Furious and xXx. He knows what the teenage and young male demographic likes and caters to them. This mans that Stealth is not something that will receive much critical acclaim but then its not made to be.

The plot written by W.D. Richter is simple enough. Trio of hotshot pilots (played by Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx) tests new futuristic warplanes for the Navy with all the requisite action movie repartee. They're soon joined by a fourth wingman who is actually a flying computer with a HAL9000 complex and even sounds like HAL but with a penchant for hard rock music. They're all commanded by a commander (Sam Sheppard) whose agenda may not be as altruistic and honorable as the military requires from all its officers. The HAL9000 wanna-be gets all haywired and all hell breaks loose. That pretty much sums up the basic plot of the movie. Just add gratuitous destruction and explosion with music seemingly lifted from any number of Michael Bay movies then stir the pot. I swear I thought I heard a few soundtrack pieces from The Rock and Pearl Harbor in Stealth.

There's really not much to say about the acting in the movie other than its pedestrian and good enough for the type of film Cohen and company were making. They weren't trying to remake Citizen Kane and with half of the dialogue faux-military speak there wasn't much to quibble about. Even all the scenes where the actors need to emote comes off as just tacked on. Stealth is all about great looking CGI planes dogfighting against each other with lots and lots of explosions. And I must say that whatever amount they spent on creating the look of those Talon prototype fighters and the EDI-UCAV was well worth it. They look great and realistic. The physics involved with all the maneuvers performed might not follow any current laws but it sure does make for great action sequences. I felt like I was watching a live-action version of the great anime Macross Plus and the Playstation game Ace Combat.

Stealth was not a film to write home and the Academy voters about, but it does deliver in what it set out to do. Stealth was suppose to deliver beautiful people flying hi-tech planes and pretending to be hotshot military pilots. They sure did good enough in that respect. stealth also delivered on the explosion quota that such mindless, action flicks are required to have to qualify as one. Stealth might not be the Academy-Award material or even a great action movie, but it has enough to make it a fun movie for however long it lasted.

Even though i thought the visuals and and special effects were dazzling but the story was alittle to limp

obviously aimed for a younger crowd

laking a tight story that left you wanting more
and giving little in the development of the stars or the story
making it seem like a mix maash of all the other popular vet fighter movies such as top gun , fire fox, etc.

if your looking for a no-brainer fun action movie
this is your movie

if your looking for a top gun you will leave feeling
dissapointed

hopefully this is helpfull

Let me start by saying, the plot is very unoriginal. It's the future, the U.S. builds a "smart" jet that goes haywire, in this case (and in many others) because the machine evolves (which I will get back to later), and the humans are stuck trying to get the machine to behave again. *yawn*. That's not special. Who hasn't seen a movie like that?

I really wasn't expecting much when I rented this. Just one of those rainy afternoon time-fillers. Well, I was right, it was very average. As I have already said, this plot has been overused. The actors give a fairly good performance, but I felt that Josh Lucas and Jamie Foxx were out of place. They do a good job acting the part, I just don't think they were the right actors for this film. On the other hand, I couldn't think of any actress who would fit this movie better than Jessica Biel.

Now about machines evolving... It will NEVER happen. Machines do not adapt like living things. And even if they did, it would take more than a few hours for the "evolvation" to happen. So if you're wondering "is this movie realistic?", the answer is no. I can't say the whole movie is unrealistic, because it did say it took place sometime in the near future, but I can say that the whole concept of the jet evolving, and towards the end actually feeling emotion, is stupid.

BOTTOM LINE: You will only enjoy this movie if you can grasp the concept of machines evolving, and if you aren't one of those people that is constantly asking themselves "could that really happen?". You may also want to get your earmuffs out when the jet talks, because its voice does not sound like what a killing machine's voice should sound like.

Anyone who liked the movie I Robot should check this out, both movies are very similar.

A trio of the best the US air-force have to offer are selected for a special mission - to fly with an experimental AI stealth jet. A lightning-strike later and the AI goes whacky, breaking loose all hell.

Okay, so this is more Top Gun than 2001 - hammy acting, a cliched script and plot-holes aplenty - but this movie should not be underestimated.

Any seasoned fan of the action genre should have little trouble predicting the plot frame-for-frame for the first hour, and will be quite content - as I was - to ooh and aah at the pretty pictures and flashy effects (not to mention Jessica Biel in a bikini).

But then, all of a sudden, something unexpected happens. There's a plot twist! And rather an interesting one (albeit within the regular themes of what it means to be 'alive', how far are those in power willing to go to further their own ends and finding friends in the most unusual places). The results aren't exactly innovative or thought-provoking, but it's nice that they tried and it certainly justifies the latter hour.

On the technical side of things, the special effects are superb and the action sequences are well choreographed and exciting, with some imaginative exploitation of the completely unrestricted 'camera'. The actors' performances are nothing of merit, but good enough in the context of the movie and there are some pretty stonking tunes on the soundtrack.

All in all, Stealth is very entertaining and well worth a Saturday night in.

First of all, this is a popcorn, get-their-butts-in-the-seats, summer entertainment movie. It's not something worthy of Oscar consideration; nor is it intended to be an "art-house" or serious-minded film. I went into the theater fully expecting to see explosions, loud sound fx, and generic performances from the cast. Yes, Josh Lucas and Jamie Foxx waste their talents. Yes, Jessica Biel is little more than eye candy. Yes, the dialogue is horrible and contrived. However, I was also entertained. The three leads do their best with the clunky dialogue and situations; but don't hang them out to dry for it. They didn't write it, and from interviews and articles I've read, the director, Rob Cohen, put the kibbosh on the actors trying to add depth to their characters. In fact, Cohen apparently told Lucas that to be an action hero, you don't need to think or wonder what's the motivation behind the lines or situations. I think with a better script and direcor, Josh Lucas will become a sought-after leading man in Hollywood. I look forward to seeing him in Glory Road this winter. Overall, I think he does a good job with the material he's given, and I did identify with his character as the lead hero, especially when he goes off to rescue Jessica from behind enemy lines in North Korea. Some people are upset that Jamie Foxx's character is killed off halfway through the movie (sorry for that spolier) but like Goose in Top Gun, one of the buddies has to be sacrificed. Yes, the EDI plane concept is reminiscent of HAL9000 from 2001, although EDI has a "change of heart" after he goes haywire and his creator tries to reprogram him (it?).

If you want a good waste of two hours, go see this movie. Don't go in with grandiose expectations; take the movie at face value and you'll enjoy it. Don't read all of the reviews (even some of those posted here on Amazon) and don't listen to reviewers who've panned it without even seeing it (another review here).

Let me just put this simply: 3D!

I tested this BD on my PS3 via component cables to my 29" CRT TV, back to back with the DVD version. The result was very obvious. Although I didn't really see anything incredible when I played the BD, I was thoroughly suprised when I switched back to the DVD. I was asking where did all the colours go. I was asking why everything were so flat. I was asking if this is the power to BD. The contrast gave you a sense of depth to the picture, making everything 'pop-out' from the screen. The clarity were awesome and there were no artifacts anywere. The weakness? It looked so good that it looks fake. Welcome to the digital edge where everything is super-enhanced and nothing is organic anymore.

On the sound front, the Dolby Digital track was exactly the same as the one on the DVD. The PS3 doesn't support PCM 5.1 via optical, so I couldn't test the Uncompressed PCM track.

Other than that, there's nothing much to the BD. I only bought it because I wanted a title to compliment my X-Men III, which is good on sound, but bad on picture. Stealth is the title to test out BD picture quality if you ever needed one.

This movie has two big problems: First, it's not really a story. It's a set of carefully-contrived CGI-generated aerial combat sequences slightly leavened by some beautiful terrain photography and I include Jessica Biel in a bikini in that category. Second, NONE of the characters, including EDI, has any depth or anything that would make them engaging and human. Every single one of the major characters could be replaced by a CGI animation and nothing would be lost.

None of this is the fault of the cast. In fact, I give full marks to Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Sam Shepard for *trying*, but the fact is this movie is what happens when a director has to deal with a "written and greenlighted by studio suits" script as his playbook. In the end, it's just a set of still pictures flashed on the screen at very high speed, and as emotionally flat as the screen of the product-placed Sony(rootkit) Vaio that shows up prominently in an early shot.

My advice for this is to rent the DVD once and then forget about it. After the first few minutes, after it became obvious what this thing was, I read John Dalmas' "The Lantern of God" and looked up whenever it got to the aerial combat scenes.

Also, if you're interested in how an intelligent machine might feel about and deal with its imperfect creators, I can recommend two books. 1. David Weber's "Empire from the Ashes" has Dahak, and 2. John Ringo and Linda Evans' "The Road to Damascus" has Sonny. Either one of them is better more-than-an-evening entertainment than this empty child of boxoffice-grubbing Hollywood bureaucracy.

Stealth had a huge budget for special effects that apparently left no money for a storyline. In this piece of fiction the "top" pilots in the United States Navy appear to have no ability to follow orders, and have a huge aversion to killing the enemy (never good if you are at war). Finally, the love story...if you can call it that...is so forced that I think the leading man (or leading woman, or both) must have been uninterested in the opposite sex, because there was nothing between them except the contract to get the movie completed. All in all, I gave this movie 2 stars, because the technical advisor had some good taste in weapons (at least someone working on this film had some taste).

I expected to hate this movie due to the harsh reviews and I pretty much got just that. The only saving grace from this tired dialogue, sometimes decent SFX, and little to no plot at all, is Jessica Biel. She looks hot and held my eye's attention throughout. Wait for Stealth to hit DVD and it will very soon. And this coming from someone who rarely gives a movie less than 3 stars.

If you like movies like FIREFOX and TOP GUN, chances are you will like this movie. It may be just a shade below 4 stars, but it's better than 3 stars and has some cool FX. It is kind of like a FIREFOX only with much more action / flying sequences.

The film details an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with artificial intelligence that goes "caca." The only plane capable of shooting it down is the TALON fighter, and there are only 3 of them in the world. While the rest of the plot may sound predictable, the movie is a bit surprising in that it goes in a different direction than expected.

For myself, having been in the Navy and visited Thailand, the sequence in Thailand was very nostalgic. It is a tropical paradise - very beautiful country. And, a country that has not been overly exposed in Hollywood.

Jessica Biel is both eye-candy and a capable actress. So, they made an excuse to put her in a bikini. So what? Jessica Biel in a bikini never hurt anything! I look forward to seeing her in more movies.

No question, there are a great many facets of the storyline that are highly implausible. For example, you can't simply waltz from North Korea to South Korea as the DMZ is the most heavily mined area in the world. There are some other far-fetched things as well.

However, if you like aviation movies and / or AI movies, then this one is certainly worth a look. It delivers on the reasons you would buy a movie like this in the 1st place.