Flight of Black Angel (1991)

This is a made for TV movie and due to budget restraints all the flight footage is reused from the Iron Eagle films. Hence Israel has to pass for Nevada. So I originally went into this not expecting too much but wanting an aerial film fix. Despite what one or two other reviewers have said, this has a very believable plot (especially compared to Iron Eagle films)and the acting was very good. The reviewer who thinks it's totally ridiculous to land a plane on a road and take off again needs to Google the Swiss and Swedish Air ForcesAn ace aggressor squadron pilot has some kind of breakdown and decides to shoot down his fellow pilots and attack Las Vegas with a Nuclear weapon. Spoiler ALERT+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ At first, this might seem a little ridiculous, but the way he achieves all this actually all seems very plausible. Far more so than the way the kids get everything Chappie asks for in Iron Eagle. He holds someone at gunpoint to get live weapons programmed, brushes off concerns by the armourer who loads the plane and then has to dismantle the nuclear weapon with the aid of a stolen wiring diagram,getting radiation sickness in the process (but as he's on a suicide mission, he doesn't care.) END OF SPOILER ++++++++++++++++++++++++++William O'Leary puts in a good performance as the cold, disturbed pilot,and Peter Strauss is pretty good as the older pilot and mentor who is eventually forced to take on his protégé. While the pace is a little slow in paces (especially if you are used to the moronic modern Whizzbang Hollywood rubbish),the plot isn't totally predictable and no-one does anything out of character. The Flight sequences are pretty well edited, especially considering that they are cut together from an entirely different film. This obviously lends itself to a few continuity errors but I think that's forgivable in this context. They are no worse than in bigger budget films like Top Gun. Overall, I found it a very enjoyable and well made film, and one I would certainly recommend, even to those who aren't that into planes. The complete opposite of a film like Flyboys.

I bought this movie on DVD as I am a big fan of Iron Eagle and Flight Of Black Angel was suggested as a similar type movie.Firstly, I must say that I approached this with an open mind. I realized that this wasn't a big budget movie and didn't expect it to wow me, but reading the reviews here made me hopeful that this might be pretty good.The movie starts very slow. The acting in the opening scenes is mediocre at best. The direction is pretty good, but relies heavily on slow zooms to invoke suspense and atmosphere - this works to some degree but is overdone to the point of becoming boring. The lighting is pretty bad on some scenes.As the story develops, it starts to gather some momentum. The acting seems to improve a little and the script is OK for the most part. The flight sequences are taken straight out of Iron Eagle which kind of works, but having seen Iron Eagle, I couldn't help make comparisons and it becomes evident that compared to that, the script and acting doesn't come close. Another annoying thing form me is that some of the scenes show the bombing of US troops and anti-aircraft weapons - these are taken straight from Iron Eagle and you can see the uniforms of the middle eastern enemies from IE who are meant to be US in this movie, but if I hadn't mentioned it you may not have noticed :-) The second half of the movie works much better, the pace is just about right and the introduction of new characters lifts the whole thing.Overall I would say this movie is maybe worth a look if there is nothing else on TV but I wouldn't suggest going out of your way to see it.

Ludicrous plot, bad acting, glaring factual errors. Stylistically, it's a bit of a Top Gun rip-off. And seriously, who ever heard of anyone landing a fighter on a road and then taking off again later? If you like to make up funny lines for the dialogue or you like to pick out errors, etc., then this is the movie for you. And Peter Strauss, next time you play a military man, get a haircut.

"...Black Angel" pretty much just sucks. There are too many deficits to go into detail. The only reason to watch would be the flying and it's pretty ordinary....snap rolls are about it. The story is lame and the execution worse with poor if any technical advice. Only for hard up sofa spuds who love aerial combat dog fights. (D)