Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Just leave your mind at the door for two hours and enjoy, February 20, 2006
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.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
stealth aiming for the top gum but got pop gun instead, August 5, 2005
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
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Why Stealth failed and why so many fans didn't like it., August 17, 2005
Hmmm, where to start truly, when a movie like
Stealth comes along with some promise, it's laughble
that movie with a budget that this had can to turn
to crap so easily.
After 2000 votes on IMDB, it's gotten a 4.6 rating
and after watching the film myself, it deserves. Why
you asked? We'll if you watched this terrrible movie
you know but if you don't I will explain so it's crystal
clear.
The plot on paper sounds good: A Navy vessel has
gotten a new fighter jet which basically can think for
itself (Artificial Intelligence) and will supposedly
be the future for the Navy, however as it turns out
the machines has a life and mind of it's own.
Well, let's start with the obvious problems with Stealth,
the characters, no one cares about them. Despite the fact
Lt. Ben Gannon (Josh Lucas), Kara Wade (Jessica Biel)
and Henry Purcell (Tommy Davidson) are all supposed to
be respectable members of the Navy, they come of as
anything but. They come as arrogant, jealous types
who party all the time, and aren't serious until a
mission comes up. Now I don't if you're name is Steven Spielberg, Robert Altman or Rob Cohen, if you want to sink you're movie early so nobody wants to watch it ever again, gives us unlikable characters.
Moving on their superior Capt. George Cummings
(Sam Shephard) just comes as a b.s. talking military
bafoon, something that's confirmed later on when
the supposed smartest Navy ship in the country is
brought to it's knees by the new naval fighter. In fact
there's a laughable scene where the Capt.
calls the creator of the ship for help and literally
demands him to come up with any bright ideas for the
destruction of the fighter, but that's getting a little
ahead.
Now the action scenes which consists of many airfight
scenes, and air combat action is pulled of quite
convincinly for the most part, This are some beautiful
,edited shots put together. However, effects can only
carry you so far,we stil gotta go back to inconsistencies
of the plot and lack of character development.
As mentioned no one really cares whether these guys
live or die.
The plot itself well if anyone thinks the story is
original think again, the whole evil computer being
is something that was introuced fourty + years
ago in 2001 A Space Odyssey and hell the fighter
jet even talks in a sarcastic way just like HAL!!!!
Hilarioius, and besides that the whole fighter pilots
carrying their missions against terrorists is something
we've seen a million times in our paranoid induced
Hollywood Cinema's ever since the mid 80's (Top Gun).
All in all the fans have spoken, "Stealth" isn't
worth the time or effort to sit through even with
all "those cool computer effects" because we've
seen this before and we know how it ends and heck
I don't know about the next person, but I'am sick
of seeing military bafoons throwing their weight
around. We'll at least we got Jessica Biel to look
at it, she does look pretty but it's not enough.
2 Stars here, one for the effects and the other
for Jessica Biel.
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