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Air America

Air America (1990)

August. 10,1990
|
5.8
|
R
| Adventure Drama Action Comedy

Air America was the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot's license, Billy Covington is recruited into it, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors.

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Reviews

Colibel
1990/08/10

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

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Pacionsbo
1990/08/11

Absolutely Fantastic

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Geraldine
1990/08/12

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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Scarlet
1990/08/13

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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adonis98-743-186503
1990/08/14

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.

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ramsri007
1990/08/15

This movie is an adaptation from the book written by Cristopher Robbins. This is a light take on the Vietnam War that speaks of the covert & corrupt American air force that operated in Laos during the war. This movie came at a time when Downey was still at the nascent stages of his career & Mel was riding high on his popularity for his role in Lethal Weapon. Mel Gibson (Gene & Robert Downey Jr. (Billy) make a good pair & have a cracking chemistry. After reading Downey's biography & getting to know him, I find that there is a slight since of detachment in the way Downey looks and acts in the movie. He probably did not have the best of time. The line spoken by Billy resonates this aspect perfectly - 'I'm used to being the weirdest guy in the room and now I'm not even in the running.' Billy gets a gig as a pilot in Vietnam when he loses his licence to fly after a dangerous stunt he pulls while at work. He meets Gene and his team and Gene slips into the role of a mentor for Billy. Billy and Gene find themselves involved in a drug smuggling scheme run by corrupt CIA officials. Billy and Gene work to avoid being framed. The rest of the movie is about how they deal with the situation. What probably kills this movie is the disjointed script and one dimensional characters. In my opinion the director probably was not really sure if this was to be a comedy or drama or a complete action movie. It is definitely not a terrible movie but it fails to go a step ahead to make it memorable for you.

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AaronCapenBanner
1990/08/16

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.

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callanvass
1990/08/17

Despite his controversial and diminishing status in Hollywood, I'm still a big Mel Gibson fan as an actor. I also like Robert Downey Jr. I've heard how mediocre this movie is over the years from people, and put it off. Well. I can now say I've finally watched it. I now know why I put it off for so long. Gibson & Downey lack efficient chemistry with one another. It doesn't have much action to speak of, and the comedy lacks a big ingredient...laughs!. Air America's two major problems are. 1. It doesn't know what it fully wants to be, and fails to find the proper medium. Instead we get an uneasy mixture of laughs & serious action, which doesn't work at all. 2. The lagging pace issues. There was a few times where I looked at the time, to see how much was left. Mel Gibson seems to be on autopilot sometimes. Others he looks really into it. He has charm and swagger to spare, but it's not his best performance. Robert Downey gives one of his worst performances to date. He wasn't convincing at all, that cocky charisma of his nowhere to be found, here. Nancy Travis doesn't have much screen time, and her character is poorly written. Art LaFleur is actually amusing with his phony tough guy act. Final Thoughts: Talk about a major misfire. It fails an action/adventure, a comedy, and a drama. It has no idea what it fully wants to be, and the result is a mess. You could do worse, but you could also do much better. There is nothing to gain from seeing this movie4.7/10

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