Bad Aviation Films

Since we've had favorites, how about bad ones?

Someone mentioned Top Gun.Â* I thought that was horrible.Â* Yeah, there
was eye candy for both of the only two real genders, and there were a
bunch of great shots of aircraft, but the story line was total crap.

So for one of my favorite bad aviation films, I nominate:Â* Jet Pilot
with John Wayne, Janet Leigh, and believe it or not, Mamie Van Doren.

Dan, 5J

On Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 10:37:01 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
Since we've had favorites, how about bad ones?

Someone mentioned Top Gun.Â* I thought that was horrible.Â* Yeah, there
was eye candy for both of the only two real genders, and there were a
bunch of great shots of aircraft, but the story line was total crap.

So for one of my favorite bad aviation films, I nominate:Â* Jet Pilot
with John Wayne, Janet Leigh, and believe it or not, Mamie Van Doren.

Dan, 5J

Chuck Yeager reported in his bio that he flew some of the stunts in 'Jet Pilot'
He seemed disgruntled that he flew for his military pay only. No Hollywood paycheck.
The Airforce supported the production I understand.

Back on track, how about 1940's Goofey's glider cartoon.

Nope, that one has to go with the greatest of aviation films.Â* Lots of
really good information and the catapult launch reminded me of an
incident at Moriarty a few years back...

On 4/19/2020 10:15 AM, Scott Williams wrote:
On Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 10:37:01 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
Since we've had favorites, how about bad ones?

Someone mentioned Top Gun.Â* I thought that was horrible.Â* Yeah, there
was eye candy for both of the only two real genders, and there were a
bunch of great shots of aircraft, but the story line was total crap.

So for one of my favorite bad aviation films, I nominate:Â* Jet Pilot
with John Wayne, Janet Leigh, and believe it or not, Mamie Van Doren.

Dan, 5J
Chuck Yeager reported in his bio that he flew some of the stunts in 'Jet Pilot'
He seemed disgruntled that he flew for his military pay only. No Hollywood paycheck.
The Airforce supported the production I understand.

Back on track, how about 1940's Goofey's glider cartoon.

--
Dan, 5J

At 16:15 19 April 2020, Scott Williams wrote:


Back on track, how about 1940's Goofey's glider cartoon.

Or before that Laurance Wright's 1938 cartoon:

www.newportpeace.co.uk/temp/Cloudcuckoo.mpg

Laurance was a member at Dunstable pre-war.

Not an aviation film per se, but Cliffhanger has one of the longest and silliest airplane crash sequences. It goes on and on, and when it finally stops with wings and engines a mile behind them the villianess reaches up to turn off the power to the overhead panel. Silly, but it looked good on camera.

We had a couple of old, nearly worthless, straight-pipe Lockheed JetStars and were contacted about possibly flying the aerial sequences and then using the fuselage for the crash sequence. The owner must have wanted too much to scrap the JetStar and the deal was never done.


Paul A.

My vote goes to "Les Chevaliers du Ciel" ("Sky Fighters" in the English version), a 2005 film by Gérard Pirès. Very good airplane scenes, filmed by the French Air Force without special effects (they put a special camera container under a Mirage 2000 for the filming), but a really crappy story.

The picture was based on a comics series, "Tanguy et Laverdure", more or less the French equivalent of "Steve Canyon". But for reasons unknown, the principal characters were changed, and their replacements were very dull, the actors below average. "Tanguy et Laverdure" without Tanguy nor Laverdure....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Fighters

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - Zero stars...

Paul A.

Dan
You may not care for Top Gun but the public sure liked it.
It was nominated for a ton of awards.
The Navy was overwhelmed with recruits after this film came out.
Sure the storyline is quirky, buts its Hollywood right?
It was made for 15 mil and gross receipts were north of 356+ mil.
Producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson both own homes here in Telluride and I've become friends with both.
Those 2, as a team, had several blockbuster hits and are quite generous individuals. Don's taken me heliskiing several times, along with many others.
There both very cool down to earth gents.
Nick
T

All good points, Nick, but that still doesn't make it a "good" movie.Â*
Since this is all opinion, I gave mine.Â* And that's why I started the
"Bad Aviation Films" thread.

And I get really annoyed when the promo says "Starring somebody" or
"Directed by somebody else".Â* Just because they did something really
great before does not mean the next one will be, too.

Having been a military pilot and had the training "shoved up my ass a
nickle at a time", I just prefer more realistic movies.Â* And, like my
Dad used to say, "Just because Bubba jumped off a bridge doesn't mean
you have to".

Dan M.Â* Still enjoying the banter.

On 4/19/2020 1:33 PM, Nick Kennedy wrote:
Dan
You may not care for Top Gun but the public sure liked it.
It was nominated for a ton of awards.
The Navy was overwhelmed with recruits after this film came out.
Sure the storyline is quirky, buts its Hollywood right?
It was made for 15 mil and gross receipts were north of 356+ mil.
Producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson both own homes here in Telluride and I've become friends with both.
Those 2, as a team, had several blockbuster hits and are quite generous individuals. Don's taken me heliskiing several times, along with many others.
There both very cool down to earth gents.
Nick
T


--
Dan, 5J

I thought the Sky Captain film was pretty neat, though not aeronautically credible.