StunnaKrypto
Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Roxie
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
tijanadjoric
I am watching this crap of film on TV and can not believe that some American film company can make this kind of film.Bad scenes of action,film with name "Air strike" without ANY real action war scene with helies?Even uniforms doesn't look like American!!Action is placed in imagined country name Petrovia?!What???Same animated scenes of helicopters in battle repeated several times...This film is insult for intelligence of average person.I really would like to see the budget for this film and how much money did it earned.I am still so shocked that I caught myself in serious thinking to contact the director or writer of screenplay,or even company which made this film with kindliest ask:Don't make this rubbish anymore!!!!Please!!!
castinglh
I happen to have read the original draft of the script and in all fairness to the screenwriter (who always get blamed when a movie is bad), the screenplay was very good even though he had to write the script around stock footage of Apache helicopter action scenes from other movies. Despite the fact that the director initially fought for the script to be the best possible in terms of story and character development, once the filmmakers went on location in Bulgaria the script was drastically changed, and coupled with bad acting choices, hack directing (one cannot blame a director when saddled with an 18 day shooting schedule and an impossible budget - considering John Woo had 192 days to shoot Hard Boiled, 35 days just for the hospital action scene alone) the result on the screen became a compromised excuse for a movie showing no one really cared. Sadly, the shell-shocked writer confided in me that he should have taken his name of the film, but unfortunately it was too late by the time he was allowed to see it. At no time during the shooting was he ever consulted regarding any of the changes, but alas, such is the fate of most Hollywood writers, powerless unless they get lucky and blessed to have their scripts directed by a writer-friendly director (i.e, the Rob Reiner, Peter Weir, Ron Howard, Edward Zwig, Martin Campbell, etc.) who not only are able to deliver the vision of a script as written, but often enhance on it with brilliant directing, casting, eliciting excellent performances from their actors, and if allowed enough time, sizzling action.
Comeuppance Reviews
The second-best of the "American Heroes" series (the best being Special Forces), Air Strike is a cliché-ridden mess, but it's not boring. At least not most of the time.When evil drug lord Ivan Stefanovich (Geraskov) and his nefarious army, the Tiger Guard, start causing trouble in the Eastern European country of Petrovia, the American helicopter pilots are called in to start shooting and missile-ing everything in sight. Ben Garret (Rusler) is called out of retirement to handle the situation because apparently his brother Jack was a legendary soldier. When Charlie (Gareis) (who turns out to be a...woman *gasp!*) joins the squadron, Top Gun-style sparks fly. Just because she is General Cornelius Jones' daughter, she doesn't want any special treatment. Garret is eventually captured and tortured by the baddies, but then he rejoins his team to exact an explosive revenge.Now, I'm all for patriotism. I probably love America more than anyone you'll ever meet, but this is just ridiculous. It's like director David Worth was given the mandate "make it patriotic", and he went so far over the top it almost seems snide. It's as if he saying "Oh, they want patriotism, I'll give 'em patriotism..." There's an American flag in almost every scene in the movie, and the characters chant "U-S-A! U-S-A!" so much it's actually embarrassing. Interestingly, if you look at the end credits, the films in the American Heroes series are not made by Americans so I wonder what they thought about all this. But then again, I suppose no one's stopping them from making their own movie about Bulgarian pride.It's hard to tell what's worse: the CGI missiles and helicopters, or the fact that they were mixed with actual explosions and stunts in an attempt to fool the audience into thinking it's all seamless. And while the character of Walker (Burdick) is constantly reading Lord of the Rings, and the character of Perez (Ivo Tonchev) is simply cliché-fodder, our hats should go off to Robert Rusler as Garret. We all know (or should know) Rusler from 80's classics like personal favorite Thrashin. Even though the one-liners he says to himself are not clever in any way, shape or form, his charm and charisma almost saves Air Strike. That's paying the man a great compliment. He all but triumphs over impossible odds. He deserves a lot of credit for making the film less of a slog of CGI doom. But saying any one actor or performance could transcend, and make Air Strike a good movie is like asking someone to go up Niagara Falls in a barrel. But kudos for Rusler for almost pulling it off.Other things worth noting are the funny, overly deep and gravelly overdubbed "bad guy voice" Ivan Stefanovich has, the TV monitor that the military brass are constantly watching that says in giant letters taped to the screen "DRONE SCREEN" (maybe the film of Air Strike was playing on it...ha!), and the fact that Garret's team in the film is called "Blue Thunder". Why would they make the audience recall in their minds a good helicopter movie, thus making the one they are currently watching seem even worse by comparison? But the bottom line is that Air Strike has every cliché in the book and a lot of flaws, but Robert Rusler does his best.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
Ashley Wincer
I rented this DVD for $1 as a weekly, and I still feel ripped off. I cannot imagine the production company made a profit from this film? I hope DEJ productions make a better film next time.Also, it looks bad when they use poor computer animation for some of their helicopter scenes.There seemed to be a lacking of logic in the way the soldiers and pilots carried out their missions. Poor editing too, probably just rushed. But what can I expect for $1.You may be able to get a refund on your money, but that is 95 minutes of your life you will never see again.