Aussie-made Stealth movie "sucks"

[itchybum]

Apparently the new flick, Stealth, has gone down like a BBQ hot-plate in the USA. I never knew it was made in Aust but that doesn't seem to be to blame.

The movie-bigshots should try giving at least a little lip-service to realism when it comes to aircraft in their movies.

I haven't seen Stealth yet but I saw the previews and I watched Pearl Harbour, too, in the vague hope it might contain some inspired air scenes.

Instead, I cringed when the Vals were able to dive vertically then execute a 70G pull-up about 20ft above the ground to fly level and strafe accurately whilst hack/flick/zooming between crane legs and warehouses all the while demonstrating roll-rates comparable to the AV8B.

Also - women pilots in an action flick???????

Read on.............


It's one of the worst reviewed movies of the year and, embarrassingly for the Australian film industry, it was made downunder.

The new action film Stealth, shot last year in and around Sydney for $A130 million, has been savaged by America's most esteemed critics.

Starring Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel, Stealth opened in North American cinemas this weekend with critics almost unanimous the movie about a fighter jet going haywire after being struck by lightning (yes, that's the plot) was not good.

The reviews were bad. Maybe even ugly.

America's best-known critic Roger Ebert described Stealth as "an offence against taste, intelligence and the noise pollution code".

Australian cinemagoers willing to take the plunge (and risk their $15.00) will have to wait until September 8 before it arrives.

When the film's Hollywood producers decided to make Stealth in Sydney NSW Premier Bob Carr was over the moon, crowing about how it would create more than 2,000 jobs.

Stealth, however, had a rocky shoot with environmentalists shutting down filming in the Blue Mountains because they feared the habitat of an endangered giant dragonfly would be disturbed.

The film, directed by Rob Cohen, best known for high-action films The Fast and the Furious and XXX, was lambasted by critics for everything from unrealistic special effects to a "borderline terrible" script.

Others asked why Foxx, the current best actor Oscar winner for Ray, and the highly-respected Sam Shepard, would agree to do the movie.

More here, including reviews. In the entertainment section near the bottom (http://www.smh.com.au/)

[ANZAC]

Saw the trailer for this flick today. It looked absolutely inane. My wife looked at me at the end of the advert and said " Couldn't they have just not refueled it !? :confused: Obvioulsy aimed at 14 yr old boys, although I'm probably insulting 14yr od boys!!:p

edited for spelling and grammar:\

[Buster Hyman]

No wonder Carr "jumped ship"! He obviously didn't want it on his resume'!:hmm:

[Desert Flower]

The new action film Stealth, shot last year in and around Sydney
Some of it was also shot near Leigh Creek in South Australia. I bet they didn't show the bit where they hit a cable with the Learjet they were using to do the filming. That should have been put in the bloopers section at the end!

DF.

[Beer Can Dreaming]

Yes by all accounts the movie is a stinker.

When it comes to technical accuracy in a movie, the technical advisor is totally ignored so that Hollywood can weave its "magic" and dumbfound its unaware audiences of what is feasible.

Where do I start when trying to look for technical accuracy.....

Airport - The Original Movie:

Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin fly an ILS down to minimums while starring out the windows after a bomb is detonated on board their B707.
Who needs extemist Muslim Terrorists when disgruntled pax will do the same job?

Airport 75 - a Beech Baron smacks into the cockpit of a B747 killing 2 crew members and leaving a gaping hole where the F/O sat.
Charlton Heston is wisked away from one of his NRA meetings and is winched aboard by a chopper through the gaping hole only to save the day and land the stricken behemoth.
(Get me a bucket!!).

Airport 77 - the pax and crew survive a ditching as the aircraft sinks in about 75 feet of water.
No leaks of course and everyone is rescued.
They must have paid Jack Lemmon a fortune for that one !!!

Airport 80 - The Concorde:

Terrorists try and shoot down the Concorde (resplendant with an American pilot of course).
George Kennedy has the beasty doing barrel-rolls etc, then opens the cockpit window in flight and fires a flare to deflect/distract a heat seeking missile - all while he is flying of course - way to go Georgy!

Glad we keep those flares handy!!!

TOP GUN - dont get me started.
All I do know is that every GA pilot has a copy and the pilots love to quote lines from this tragic movie at bars and BBQ's.
Having been a guest at the Miramar Naval Air Station some years ago let me tell you a few home truths.

The pilots are really in their 30's and 40's.
The instructors are all veterans (aka Old Dudes!!) and they dont have washboard abs and designer flat-top hair-do's.
They come in all shapes and sizes, mainly tall and thin or short and stocky.
They were mainly married with kids and would rather be home than being on the volley-ball field showing off their toned bodies to the groupies.
All very professional and well behaved.
No Tom Cruise or Val Kilmers in that mob, although I was told both Tom and Val threw ****e-fits and refused to be seen by the movie-crews wiping up their own vomit from their pristine flying suits.

Air Force One - the list is endless.
Harrison Ford hit a new low with that one.

And what about our own Aussie gems....The Flying Doctors and Big Sky (I think it was called).

Pilots wearing their epaulettes on backwards, Nomads cranking up their turbine engines to the sound of a piston, pilots 600nm from Sydney at low level in the desert requesting radar vectors etc etc etc.

And just who was the Technical Advisor for those wonders??

[Hugh Jarse]

BCD - Remember that without all the "Airport" movies, we would never have "Flying High!". Now that's a classic movie:}

Top Gun - that was a Chick Flick (load of ****), but I couldn't help cracking up watching all the wannabe's at BK dressed similarly and sporting similar haircuts/sunnies back in the 80's.:yuk:

[Beer Can Dreaming]

Hugh Jarse....................touche !!

I forgot to mention the Ray-Ban sunnies.
At Miramar the favourite sunnies were from a company known as Randolph Engineering or these days known as Randolph Sunglasses.

[Buster Hyman]

winched aboard by a chopper through the gaping hole
...and your point is???:confused:



;)

[Negative Ghostrider]

I loved Big Sky. I don't remember much of the storylines now, but I do remember picking the crap out it from an aviation point of view. My favourite was when they were flying the Chieftain using callsign ABC (or whatever it was), then they show an external view of the acft and VH-XYZ is quite clearly painted on it!

[7gcbc]

Big Sky was embarassing, even for gary Sweet, I have a soft spot for "Always" , PBY, A36, Decaf, even a little aeronca champ, some flying sequences are obviously models, but the sounds................

check out this japanese guy, and tell me honestly if the first 10 seconds don't fool you..... I'm not an expert in CGI, but this looks very realistic

http://www.angel.ne.jp/~tochy/airplane/dws/shiden-kai.mpg

its 4 odd mb.

[Gnadenburg]

itchybum

Did you not boycott Pearl Harbour?

Hollywood is happy to dramatise anything to do with the persecution of Jews in Europe, but unforgivingly considering no Japanese apolgy for war attrocities, lightly brush over and romance Japanese militarism.

Did you know thousands of Chinese civilains were slaughtered after the Doolitle Raids depicted in the film, for rumoured harbouring of downed American pilots.

The liklihood of Japanese pilots waving down Hawaiian children from harms way during the Peal Harbour attack fantasy at best, considering their conduct in the months following the attack.

Yes....rant over. Hollywood peeves me.

The last decent aviation film the one about Polish Spitfire pilots in WW2. Heroes really, only to return home and be imprisoned by Soviet backed communists.

Back to my glass of St Joseph.

[Fubaar]

Being a bit anal retentive here, Gnadenburg, but 'Deep Blue Sky" was about Czech pilots, not Poles.

I do agree that it was a damned fine film.

On the subject of the Polish pilots who flew for the Brits during WW2, I loved the (apparently true) yarn about one Major Unprounancoubleski who had a little more trouble than most with his landings during his RAF conversion onto Hurricanes. But eventually he made the grade and was passed out to move on to operational flying.

Some months later, one of his instructors ran into another Pole and asked how the Major was doing. He was told that the Major was doing well on his squadron and had shot down a number of German aircraft.

The instructor commented that the Major's landings had been a cause for concern, and the Ploe replied "Well, vhat did you expect? Major Unprounancoubleski voz navigator back in Poland."

[N5528P]

I vaguely remember a Film called F-117, where two F-117 are put into a Galaxy and ferried home from Incirlik Airbase in Turkey to the US.

The tanker is under the control of terrorists intending to steel the nighthawks. Instead of refuelling the Galaxy, they slide down INSIDE the tanker boom, open the Galaxy and capture the transporter. :{

Later in, they open the ramp, push the Nighthawks over the edge - during freefall the wings are swept in place and start a dogfight.

:sad:

Regards, Bernhard

[itchybum]

Sorry Gnadenburg, I did in fact see all of Pearl Harbour. But only on DVD....!

Rest assured I immediately got online to register my disgust at the wrong-doings perpetrated by the Special FX team. CGI or whatever it's called.

Yeah I agree about Hollywood and WWII but you have to admit that Hollywood has a lot of Jewish big-shots, Spielberg, for one, who usually take the opportunity to slip in a few reminders of what happened.

The Japs seem to have gotten away with it, even had the day renamed from VJ Day to VP Day so as not to single them out. Also teach their schoolies that "it never hapened." Although they did take a couple of hits by "the big one"...

Back to the topic, I am generally disappointed by todays aviation-related flicks. From what I saw of the previews of Stealth, I won't bother going to see it.

Hasn't been a good air-scene since Flight of the Intruder when the Spads rolled in along the river bed.

Actually, Behind Enemy Lines also had a couple of great scenes of the 'F' model Hornet - just before they went off the deep end with SAMs that could fly forever and reverse track constantly.

[Pinky the pilot]

Makes me wonder what the remake of 'Flight of the Phoenix' will be like. Daresay that it won't be even a shadow of a patch on the original which starred James Stewart (Brig. General USAF Retd) and Hardy Kruger. At least it was believable, IMHO due to the fact that the two abovementioned actors were masters of their profession.
And no; I won't bother to go and see the remake version.

You only live twice. Once when
you're born. Once when
you've looked death in the face.

[The_Cutest_of_Borg]

Mate of mine was one of the technical advisers on "Stealth". I know he tried his hardest, he even got the "fighter pilots" to talk with their hands.:yuk:
If it really is a dud, that will be TWO he has been involved with.... I can't wait to rip into him... heh heh...

[Beer Can Dreaming]

Oh come now Pinky.

I suppose you'll be telling us next that the book was much better !!

Remakes always have to compete with the original, but there will always be those that insist the original was far better even if it wasnt.

I saw the remake of this some months ago overseas and I thought it was done pretty well.
Not nearly as boring as the original.

Hardy Kruger was a great actor as was Richard Attenborough and James Stewart.
Giovanni Rabisi is an outstanding up and coming actor that you will be reading about in years to come and did a fantastic job playing the "engineer".

My overall..........7.5/10.

[Super 64]

Although it was only brief, the aviation scenes in Black Hawk Down were very good and realistic to boot.

Suppose that's what you get when the US Army jumps on board to help romanticise what was essentially a very big f*@k up!

[7gcbc]

saw the remake of the Flight of The Phoenix, think they used a fairchild C-119 Boxcar, or maybe a Noratlas, enjoyable enough, tho' they throw it around like its a pitts.

reasonable crash sequence, and an amusing screaming freight sequence.

Very funny pre-flight take off checklist "routine" where Quaid mimics Bill Clinton and his co-pilot calls out the checks-a-do-diddy.


CP: "Harness , tight, locked"
P1: " ahmmmm, I like something on my lap....." (in a clinton voice)
CP: "Hatches "
P1: "yes indeedy, secure so nobody can disturb us (Monica) "

rest of it is silly........

[NAMPS]

I was going to ask if anyone's seen Flight of the Phoenix...cheers 7gcbc.

Yup, that Big Sky series. Isn't that the one where they have a shot of a PA31 landing while the thing sounds like it is set at take-off power?

[Pinky the pilot]

Beer Can Dreaming; I actually read the book only a few months after first seeing the original movie, sometime in 1969 I think. So long ago I can't remember what I thought of the book compared to the movie.
But yes, you are probably correct in your assumption that I prefer the original of anything. Well, that's my perogative and I'm sticking to it!!:ok: :E

You only live twice. Once when
you're born. Once when
you've looked death in the face.

[No Further Requirements]

Now, I can't remeber if there were any technical boo-boos in it, but BAT-21 wasn't a bad flick. Gene Hackman and Danny Glover were quite good in it.

I especially liked the blessings the LAME gave the C337 as it taxied out of its 'hanger' - does anyone else give their plane a water blessing on departure??? :O

Cheers,

NFR.