Iron Eagle (1986)

Sidney J. Furie directed this action-adventure that stars Jason Gedrick as Doug Masters, a willful young man whose father Col. Ted Masters(played by Tim Thomerson) is shot down by MIGs over a hostile Middle Eastern country, where he is taken hostage by the belligerent and ambitious leader(played by David Suchet) who loves sticking it the the U.S. Enraged at government inaction, Doug enlists the help of Air Force Col. 'Chappy' Sinclair(played by Louis Gossett Jr.) to train him to improve his piloting skills, then helps him "borrow" two fighter jets from the military to go into the country, battle the enemy in the air, rescue Ted, and make their escape. Granted that this film has a most unlikely premise, it is put across in such an entertaining, patriotic manner that it remains a guilty pleasure. Great fun, though I haven't seen the sequels...

** spoiler alert **This is a truly terrible film. It is the worst kind of saccharine, positive can-do, self-congratulatory, USA, USA improbable nonsense. The basic story is that a kid's father, who is a fighter pilot in the US air force, gets trapped in some generic Middle- Eastern country. His son and few other munch kins join forces with another colonel to steal two F-16 jets to save him. The adults are all trusting imbeciles, the Arab villains are stereotyped caricatures while the child actors are annoying, precocious dorks. I said spoiler alert at the beginning but really, you know that there is only one way this is going to end up. Explosions, villains running around like the Keystone Kops trying to stop them with rockets made from toilet roll tubes, Father's saved = 1 all with no American casualties. Every target is made of planks of balsa wood but explodes in a napalm like fireball all to cheesy rock guitar music.You would probably enjoy this film if you were about five-year's old but for everyone else it is a hopeless cause. Time to eject.

This movie is the proverbial 80s flick that shows the viewer that as long as he or she tries at something, they can be better than the pros. The main character, Doug, showed off his skills in flying a Cessna aircraft, which somehow equated to being fully capable of flying a jet aircraft and being able to kill people. We all would like to have a few million dollars to play with... maybe make a good investment, donate, buy a few things, but the directors of this movie decided to make Iron Eagle... not once... not twice... not even three times; yes, four times. The thing to look most forward to are the multitude 'hollywood endings' in this movie. Just when you think the movie is going to end after a cheesy end sequence, there's another cheesy end sequence. Then another. Definitely a movie one must watch to believe... and maybe own just to remind oneself of how awesome the 80s must have been.

OK, the very idea is ludicrous.1. Kids don't own planes 2. Kids don't race planes with dirtbikes 3. It made the Air Force look like total idiots 4. The kids father would not jeopardize his entire career to allow his boy to joyride with him 5. Neither would a reserve colonelThe sequels, I am sure were worse than this tripe. The soundtrack is about the only redeeming quality of this waste of celluloid. I am sorry but I just don't understand why in the world anyone would write direct and produce such unbelevable junk. The Iranian Air Force is lucky to filtch a couple parts for an ageing F-14, and this kid wrangles not 1 but 2 fully loaded and fueled F-16s? Gimme a break.