Another nice fighter pilot movie this time in England. It might be elsewhere, but all the english accents seem to point it to England. :) The film is credited to be from Italy. It has similar quirks to "Top Gun". Such as: the rock music, the fancy manuevering, and the enemy wearing dark helmets so you can't see their face. There's also shots of Dirk Benedict walking the airstrip with dark sunglasses and his flight jacket. It all starts with Dirk Benedict as Colonel Alex Long, a.k.a. Fireball. He is the "Maverick" type character that is kinda reckless and hates following orders. Dirk has the suave look, but he's no Tom Cruise. His partner, Philip, a.k.a. Thunderball, flies a separate airplane, (unlike Goose in Top Gun) loves the mountains, and has a family, of course, unlike our main character. After Philip is killed, Alex has to deal with Philip's family, and trying to get the nerve to fly again. Sound familiar? The strange thing is, there is no trace of Philip's body. The love section comes way too quick. One minute Alex meets Isabella in the library, and the next they're making out in an observatory. Hello? where is the verbal fencing that normally occurs between the two lead characters? Also there doesn't seem to be any other tension or conflict. No competeting pilots, no superiors that they butt heads with.
And the UFO concept is ok, but is slow to get going. Isabella's only role seems to be to support Alex's UFO theory, that's all. That and being his lover. And the only way to solve this problem is to hike up into the mountains to find out for himself? Seems like "Close Encounters" meets "Top Gun" I have a hard time seeing Benedict in anything else after seeing him in "The A-team" He lacks in this movie mainly due to the poor script writing. There's no growth for him, and the only things that drives him is to pursue the truth about the death of his friend. An ok movie, but not really worth it. The UFO concept is muddled and nothing is really put into it. I would say a 4.5 out of ten for me.
