Air America (1990)

Pretty Good

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A young pilot finds himself recruited unwittingly into a covert and corrupt CIA airlift organization operating in Vietnam War Era Laos. Air America is a film that you would except that it would work thanks to Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Junior unfortunately the movie doesn't work at all the script is weak and the humor isn't that good and i had to really skip it to the end and just throw it away in the trash and this was so disappointing for me cause i love Gibson movies unfortunately this one wasn't one of them also once again Robert Downey Jr proves to me that he should stick with Iron Man like forever because in everything else? not that good. I give Air America a 4.5 out of 10 it should have been better.

Mel Gibson & Robert Downey Jr. play two renegade pilots working for a covert CIA project in Laos during the Vietnam war. Downey is the new recruit who is still trying to adjust to the place and crazy missions he must fly. Gibson is the seasoned veteran who tries to teach him the ropes, all the while trying to remain above the increasingly out-of-control escalation of the war they are a part of, but grown cynical over the U.S. involvement, which isn't really legal, and certainly not public...Good lead stars cannot do much with such a jumbled and confusing story, that never leads anywhere, and is mostly a series of comedic vignettes that struggle to say something serious among the bizarre(yet dangerous) happenings.It just doesn't work.

Air America is an easy, fun, not hard to watch movie. I have seen it many times and find it an easy no brain. I can watch the movie and do other stuff at the same time and still catch the jokes and the plot. I like Robert Downey Jnr always and this movie is no exception. He gels really well with Mel Gibson. I am an actor and I would have loved to be cast in this movie. Love the scene where Robert Downey Jnr is asleep, hammered from the previous nights session on the booze when Mel Gibson flying his helicopter hooks him up while still asleep on garden furniture. Fab scene !Give it a go. It now an old movie but a good one that seemed to have slipped through so many peoples viewing when it was released.Great music !! I am a big fan of old soul and motown and this movie has some fab tunes.What this movie on a crappy Wednesday night when there is nothing else on and not much to do and you will have a fun time.

Here in the UK we have Harold Wilson to thank for refusing to send our soldiers to Vietnam.There are many reasons to consider Wilson,along with Blair both "socialists",the worst prime minister of the 20th century,but this single action will prevent him (as opposed to Blair)topping that particular poll.He rightly considered America's south east Asia policy to be none of our concern and propitiously declined to be involved in it. The obvious corollary to that statement you can fill in for yourself. That is not to say that the average Brit in 1969 was anything like anti - American.As usual the lunatic fringe made the most noises,stormed the embassy,threw marbles at police horses and generally alienated the very people they should have been trying to get onside. All of this is perhaps a rather long - winded way of demonstrating that Post - Vietnam guilt is not part of our culture,although heaven knows we understand post - colonial guilt well enough. Therefore we can watch movies about the Vietnam war with far more detachment than the Americans who appear to feel the need to apologise for the miscalculations of long - gone presidents and ignore the traumas of the veterans who were conscripted - many against their will,most against their better judgement - to fight in a desperately hostile and alien environment.These men I salute,the apologists I disdain. "Air America" is a very fine movie showing how men involved in conflict take what comfort they can,when they can,in any way they can.From the safety of our cinemas and living rooms we can scorn them and the way they live and think ourselves terribly liberal and morally perhaps even intellectually superior to these grunts,but perhaps we should remember that a liberal is just a fascist who hasn't been mugged. There are no starry - eyed idealists in modern war.The last ones perished in the Trenches - the pilots employed by the CIA were pragmatic skilled professionals who took risks only when no other option was open to them.They flew what they were told to fly and carried what they were told to carry.They didn't spend a lot of time agonising over what they were doing.It is this aspect of their lives that the movie concentrates on.Mr M.Gibson as the vet and Mr R.Downey jr. as the FNG are both excellent,particularly the former,who,along with Mr A.LaFleur acts as though he actually knows how to fly a plane. Sometimes strange and ostensibly undesirable alliances are made in war and I have no doubt the CIA dealt with Vietnamese Army officers and other officials using the most viable currency available - and if that turned out to be drugs,well,so be it.No amount of post - conflict hand wringing is going to make an iota of difference. "Air America" tells it's story straightforwardly and doesn't back away from historical facts,if you want to see history re-written with the benefit of hindsight watch Michael Moore. The soundtrack is entirely aposite and the movie contains the campest version of "A horse with no name" you could hope for. This is a very under -rated movie and one that future generations freed from tunnel vision will see and recognise accordingly.