Flight of Fury (2007)

I put this on my Netflix queue simply because it's a Seagal DTV flick I haven't seen yet. Is there a better reason to watch a movie? Maybe if it's a Dolph Lundgren film I haven't seen yet. Yeah, that's a better reason, but the only better reason.

Flight of Fury is about a B-2 bomber equipped with the "next generation of stealth", meaning it can cloak itself like a Romulan spaceship. Some dude named Ratcher takes it on a test flight, and runs off with it, putting it in the capable hands of a terrorist group in Afghanistan. The Air Force only has one man with the pilot know-how and hand-to-hand combat skills to get in there and steal the ship back. Unfortunately that man, played by Steven Seagal, is kind of pissed because the US government tried to erase his memory (?). After thirty seconds of thinking about it, he agrees to save the day. Good for him.



This movie was decent, but could've been way better. The idea of Seagal being an ace pilot and martial arts expert sounds great on paper, but in the execution, not so much. Seeing him in the pilot's chair instead of kicking people's asses with his hands and feet felt like a waste of Seagal. Even worse, Seagal disappears from the movie for like 20 or 30 minutes. That's a big deal when he's on the cover! At no point should me or my friends be able to joke "hey, isn't Seagal supposed to be in this movie?", and we were with this one.

There were some fun parts, and plenty to make fun of, as the synopsis implies. One thing I loved was the excessive and silly use of military lingo. There's a part where this Air Force general is asking the Navy for air support, and the guy he's talking to on the phone is telling him what an imposition that is. "You'll owe me two bottles of scotch for this, single malt." to which the general replies "If you do this for me, I'll send you a whole case." Can you guess what the Navy guy said? "Copy." Copy? Do military guys have conversations like that all the time? Like at a poker game: "The bets to you at $20. You in?" "Roger that."



This was poor in the Seagal department due to its scant nature, but when he was in it, he was pretty good. I think with each film of his I see, I bump him up another notch on my all time favorite actors list. He and I are both Aries, too. I'm not sure if that means we have a lot in common, because I know a lot of other Aries, and they all seem to be different people. Also, has anyone ever read the description of what an Aries personality is supposed to be? It makes them sound like an asshole, and I hope I'm not like that!

There were two bad guys in this: the main terrorist, and then the pilot who steals the B-2 equipped with the "next generation of stealth". They turn on each other later on, which brings up two issues for me, one bigger than the other. The first, and bigger one, is if the pilot kills the terrorist, doesn't the US owe him a debt of gratitude? Is he not in some ways the hero? Maybe his motives weren't the purest, but isn't the end result the same? This plot twist left things too gray for me, and I need black and white in a bad action film. Seagal should kill all baddies. My second issue is more just nitpicking on my part: the pilot paints himself as a dude who's only in it for the money, and I get that. Then, suddenly, he's trying to down Seagal and set off some biological weapon. Why would he give up a perfect escape opportunity to chase down Seagal? Now I know I'm talking about DTV Seagal here, and continuity is usually not its strong suit, so I guess I should back off. Like I said, it was only a small issue.



This isn't too bad, but it's not great either. The only reason to get it is Seagal, and since he spends part of the film in the cockpit, and part of it MIA, I'd only bother with this if you've seen some of his others first. For the ones to see, check out my past reviews on Seagal's movies. This is funny enough for you and your friends to have plenty to make fun of, so if you're looking for a bad movie night pick, you could do a lot worse. Just remember my warning about the lower Seagal factor.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0783518/