Air America [DVD]

Back in 1990, when Robert Downey Jr. was the crazy one everyone thought would self-destruct and people still liked Mel Gibson enough to use his name in a sentence without including the words Jews or meltdown, Air America was regarded as a huge disappointment both critically and commercially. Richard Rush's screenplay had long had a reputation as one of the all-time great unproduced scripts, promising M*A*S*H with plane crashes and biting satire in its tale of the pilots flying for the CIA's secret air force in Vietnam, while various A-listers circled it (at one time it was going to be a Sean Connery-Kevin Costner vehicle directed by Bob Rafelson). But, as Rush put it, the script got `loved to death,' going through heavy rewrites (so much so that Rush didn't even get first position credit on the finished film after being written a very large cheque to walk away) to make it `even better' and losing much of its bite along the way. Yet while it isn't the film it could have been, perhaps because big studio pictures have become so increasingly unambitious, a couple of decades on it looks a lot better, mixing crowdpleasing comedy, the odd spectacular crash and more black humour than it got credit for at the time.

Despite his top billing, Gibson's typically crazy gunrunning pilot isn't the lead. That honour goes to Downey Jr. as a disgraced traffic pilot who finds himself going from being the craziest person in the room to not even being in the running in a non-existent airline in a non-existent city regularly running opium shipments for Burt Kwouk's warlord to guarantee his military support for the US and fund his retirement plans to run a Holiday Inn in Southern California. The two make a charismatic pair on the surprisingly few occasions they share the screen, but the film goes soft on their own dubious scams and develops a nasty case of unconvincing moralising towards the end, never really building on the potential it shows in the first half enough to really stand out. Several plot strands go nowhere, most notably Nancy Travis' aid worker who doesn't even get a half-decent line in the picture, and it resolves itself rather too formulaically to stick in the memory. Yet while it never really reaches its ideal altitude, it's not half as turbulent a flight as its reputation and though not up there with his work on Under Fire, Roger Spottiswoode's direction is decent enough to make you wonder what he did to deserve not getting another picture until Stop! Or My Mom will Shoot? and how everything since then was so underwhelming.

The UK DVD releases are serviceable enough, but Lionsgate's region-free US Blu-ray offers a particularly good widescreen transfer (a couple of flying shots where it doesn't cope too well with some treetops excepted) with a good selection of extras - audio commentary with co-writer John Eskow, a 22-minute retrospective featurette with Spottiswoode and supporting cast members, a brief featurette and trailer from the film's theatrical release and storyboard comparisons.

Mel at his best!! A must see in my opinion. Robert Downey Jnr is excellent and him and Mel work together well. There are some great one liners and it is just one of the funniest films ever. The helicopter crash never ceases to make me laugh and the version of "Horse With No Name" sung out of tune in the restaurant must be heard to be believed.

This is and adventurous and overall very funny film where pilots (Mel Gibson & Robert D Jr.) work for the US government flying supplies behind enemy lines. I really really do suggest you get this one, i promise you will want to keep it forever ! Geoff Willis