Flight of Fury (Video 2007)

John is sent in to recover a stolen Stealth Bomber. His trusty sidekick Rojar and ever faithful Jessica fight the rebel forces of Banansistan, led by the vivacious Ellianna.

Director:

Michael Keusch

Writers:

Steven Seagal (screenplay), Joe Halpin (screenplay),

Stars:

Steven Seagal, Steve Toussaint, Mark Bazeley

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steven Seagal	...	John Sands
Steve Toussaint	...	Ratcher
Angus MacInnes	...	General Tom Barnes
Mark Bazeley	...	Captain Richard Jannick
Ciera Payton	...	Jessica
Alki David	...	Rojar
Tim Woodward	...	Admiral Frank Pendleton
Vincenzo Nicoli	...	Peter Stone
Katie Jones	...	Eliana Reed
Gary Cooper	...	Commander Bud Jackson
Bart Sidles	...	Captain 'Fox' Hinkle (as Barton Sidles)
Cristina Teodorescu	...	Pendleton's Operational Soldier Lisa
Rares George Panfil	...	Williams
Noah Lee Margetts	...	Eliana's Soldier
Karen David	...	Barnes's Operational Soldier Flanders

Storyline

John is sent in to recover a stolen Stealth Bomber. His trusty sidekick Rojar and ever faithful Jessica fight the rebel forces of Banansistan, led by the vivacious Ellianna.

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Plot Keywords:

pilot | bomber | terrorist | female nudity | throat slitting | 

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Taglines:

A flight plan to freedom...

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, some language and brief sexuality

Details

Country:

UK Romania USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 February 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Black Thunder

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castel Film Romania, Clubdeal, Steamroller Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Except for Steven Seagal's character having a shady CIA-type past, this film is an almost scene-by-scene remake of the Michael Dudikoff vehicle Black Thunder. Despite this, the writer of "Black Thunder," William C. Martell, received no official credit for the screenplay, only a "thanks" buried in the end credits of "Flight of Fury." Seagal and his writing partner Joe Halpin received full credit for the screenplay.

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Goofs

SR-71 crews use special flight suits similar to space suits, due to the low air pressure encountered at 80,000 ft.

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Quotes

John Sands: [to Jannick] How old are you, now?
Jannick: I'm drinking age.
John Sands: Drinking age?

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Connections

Features Ultimate Doom (1993)

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Soundtracks

"Country Steel"
Written and Performed by David Wurst
Courtesy of CSS Music

User Reviews

Mediocrity, a step up for Seagal.

Following the appalling Attack Force, chances were that Seagal could only have a step up with Flight Of Fury. To out-stink Attack Force would take some doing. Flight Of Fury is a marked improvement overall, but still in the grand scheme of thinks, mediocre. Mediocrity is seemingly an achievement for Seagal these days, a sad insight into his movie career's decline. Where Attack Force was a hodge-podge of plot lines altered drastically from conception, to filming, to post production, Flight Of Fury keeps the plot line more simple. Someone steals a high-tech stealth fighter, planning to use it to fire chemical weapons (which we later, bizarrely discover, will destroy the whole world in 48 hrs). Seagal has to get the plane back. It's that simple, no annoying sub-plots, and conspiracies weighing the film down like far too many of his recent works. That's not to suddenly say the storytelling is good though, it's pretty poor. The introduction to side characters is badly done for example.

In filmic terms FOF is bad. It's badly acted by all involved, and Seagal looks bored to tears almost. He's just got the look of a toddler who's been forced to perform the school nativity against his will, and so performs with a constant grimace and air of half assedness. Can we blame Seagal though when the material is so un-ambitious and cruddy? Not really. This is the final film of his Castel Studio's, multi-picture deal. The producers can't be bothered to make anything remotely good, promising a 12 or so million dollar budget, and (after Seagal's obligatory 5 million) probably pocketing a nice hefty chunk of it themselves (If the film was made for the remaining 7 million, then I'm Elvis Pressley!). So in that respect why should Seagal put the effort into a film that's already got distribution sorted before it's made. Fan's though may argue, he at least owes them the effort. He's seriously looking jaded, and the continued use of stand ins and dub-overs is further indication of this. Michael Keusch directs with some efficiency, while the cinematography is quite good, but in all technical areas (and as usual with Castel, a bog standard stunt team) there's nothing more than mediocrity, and nothing to help the film rise above its material, and bored leading man. Again there's a few action scenes focusing on characters other than Seagal, which in all truth we don't want to see.

Overall the action isn't too bad. It's nice and violent, and on occasion we're treated to a few vintage nasty Seagal beatings, but overall nothing special. Partly due to a poor stunt crew, and the lack of time to film anything too complex or exciting. For me, Shadow Man was a more enjoyable film, because while ignoring the incoherent, jumbled, plot line, there were more vintage Seagal moments, and more of him in centre stage. He never disappeared for long periods during the film. Seagal disappears bizarrely during one action scene here, and re-appears after, with little explanation. There's far too much stock footage used. Using stock shots isn't an entirely horrendous thing, but using it as a crutch is. We're treated to countless establishing shots of naval ships, all the time, which get annoying. Plus the continuity of the stock footage is all over the place (just check the backdrops, chopping and changing).

The film is just middle of the road. It says it all that the films best scene is a completely needless, and gratuitous girl on girl scene, with two hot chicks. Seagal even perks up briefly then too! Overall this may be one of the better stock footage based actioners out there, but that's not saying much at all. This will please many fans, but they should bear in mind, Seagal himself would probably want to forget this one's existence. **