Slipstream (1989)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Admirable film.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Slipstream is a retro sci-fi cult classic in my book. It features a very solid performance by Mark Hamil. It's a remarkable effort but it does fall short of achieving it's potential. The plot is a bit simplistic and slow but it's not the snore-fest people some people say it is. Paxton is blast to watch as always. The biggest obstacle this movie faced was it's lack of funding. The world it is sets in is an interesting premise. Decent underutilized cast, Gary Kurtz said in an interview that the script was originally much more violent, but that these violent scenes, which would have made the plot more coherent, were never filmed. The visuals and camera work are not that great, but still manage to do the job.

When I purchased Mill Creek's 50-movie sci-fi "invasion" box set, there were two movies in the entire bunch for which I was excited. The first was ABRAXAS, GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE and it delivered. The second was a film I was unfamiliar with, SLIPSTREAM, but it featured an all-star cast including Bill Paxton, Mark Hamill, Ben Kingsley, F. Murray Abraham, Bob Peck (better known to just about everyone as Muldoon from JURASSIC PARK), and Robbie Coltrane. The premise sounded fantastic: a near-distant future where the Earth has been ravaged by some sort of disaster and the survivors make their living on a raging system of wind dubbed the "Slipstream". For whatever reason, I imagined outposts and landing platforms mounted far above the ruined Earth with hotshot pilots jetting from one dicey location to another in wicked jet fighters or something. Then I watched it and saw my hopes shatter within minutes of the opening credits. Instead of landing platforms and outposts far above the Earth's surface, we get a system of caves. Instead of wicked jet fighters, we get wimpy little glider planes. And for the record, the slipstream itself is unimpressive and plays little part in the movie other than to explain why all the main characters get around via little planes. Bill Paxton is our main character, Matt Owens. Matt owns his own little glider plane and makes his living doing whatever odd jobs he can find. He crosses paths with two psychotic law enforcement officers (Mark Hamill and Kitty Aldridge) who are bringing a prisoner (Bob Peck) in to face punishment for murder. Matt steals the prisoner and sets off in hopes of turning him in for a hefty reward, but he quickly learns there's more to this polite murderer in a business suit than it seems.It becomes blatantly obvious at a point that this movie was made because someone on the filmmaking team found these homes built into the rock faces of Cappadoccia, Turkey and thought, "Hey, that would be a cool location for a movie. What else have we got?" Then someone else was like, "Tiny planes?" And thus SLIPSTREAM was born. Or maybe screenwriter Tony Kayden turned in a draft for the script that was way cooler and might've been closer to my expectations if executed properly, but instead the producers shot him down. Nope, rocks and planes. I probably would've even been all right with rocks and planes if the story wasn't so simple, boring, and stupid. The longer I watched this movie, the sadder it made me. Yeah, it was miserably upsetting seeing that the movie was the polar opposite of what I had expected on a visual level but, the further I got into the movie, the more it made me cringe in pain. Bob Peck's character, dubbed Byron by Paxton's character, is too whimsical to ever come across as threatening. I was hoping for action and adventure but instead we're treated to Byron musing about what it must be like to sleep and dream. The murder he's accused (and admitted) to committing might have been explained at some point but I missed it. I got the impression it involved mutual consent but I'm not going to watch this again to find out. Byron's got magic healing powers that he uses once or twice that are never explained and I'm not even sure they were addressed again. He's a main character in this movie and he's nothing more than a goofy enigma I've got no interest in solving. He gets a dance number too. That's right, a smegging dance number.With the innocent aloofness of Byron's character alone, I felt SLIPSTREAM starting to dip into children's movie territory. But is it a children's movie? It's rated PG-13 so I guess it's a possibility. The writing is too simple and cheesy to really appeal to mature minds. Most characters in SLIPSTREAM are just archetypes without any sort of real personality to give them dimension. Bill Paxton's Matt is a hot shot whose over- confidence exceeds his actual skills and his eventual priority shift is telegraphed from the moment he and Byron meet. Mark Hamill is absolutely wasted as the main villain Tasker. He apparently received no instruction other than to sneer and make snide remarks, and we learn nothing about whatever agency he claims to work with other than the fact that their totally cool with killing innocents to achieve their goal of… arresting a murderer? Kitty Aldridge is Tasker's partner Belitski and she exists only to give Matt someone to drool over between escapes. Robbie Coltrane and F. Murray Abraham amount to nothing more than cameos and, after having watched this movie twice, I still haven't spotted Ben Kingsley in there. I assume it's because I can't help but mentally check out about halfway through. I'm sorry but SLIPSTREAM just fails on pretty much all levels. The science fiction premise is wasted. The acting is corny and the writing is simplistic and predictable. The cast is given nothing of substance to work with and I don't care how much aerial plane footage they bother to shove in because it never looks cool. Well, all right, I'll admit Tasker's plane was sort of cool. So there you go folks. You can skip SLIPSTREAM unless you really want to see evil Luke Skywalker hunt a sedated Muldoon across Turkey in a semi-cool-looking glider plane.

A somewhat inept, but good-natured bounty hunter kidnaps a mysterious taciturn murderer from an equally inept law-enforcement team, and an unexciting chase ensues. Set in the future after natural disasters referred to the Convergence, "Slipstream" is a ho-hum sci-fi effort for undemanding viewers. Despite boasting a score by Elmer Bernstein and cameos by Academy Award winners F. Murray Abraham and Ben Kingsley, Steven Lisberber's film is time filler at best. Bill Paxton as a wannabe Han Solo, piloting a flimsy two-seat plane rather than a space craft, has a cocky charm, but top-billed Mark Hamill as a lawman is wooden at best. The third lead, the late Bob Peck, plays the kidnapped murderer that Hamill pursues; as a multi-talented android straight out of an episode of "Star Trek," Peck shows his acting chops by holding a straight face while uttering his weighty corn-ball lines.The cinematography is mediocre, which is unfortunate because the Turkish Cappodoccian shooting locations have a dramatic other-worldly appeal. Flitting from stone-age villages to abandoned museums and across barren landscapes, the story moves around with gaps of logic and credibility. However unlikely, the requisite love interests are introduced, even for the android, who suddenly develops skillful moves on the dance floor and human feelings of which he feels unworthy. If there is nothing else to see on a dreary rain-soaked afternoon, look again before watching "Slipstream." Paxton's charm is unfortunately all that the film offers, and he displayed that in other more worthy vehicles.

This movie is actually enjoyable, but you have to get over some things. First of all, the basic premise is arguably one of the dumbest in the history of science fiction (and that's saying something). Luckily, it has next to nothing to do with the plot, and I have a sneaking suspicion that they came up with it halfway through filming, noting that their post-apocalyptic world was turning out pretty windy. Basically, it's just an excuse to travel in more or less one direction.The film is a strange mix of pre- and post- Star Wars styles. Bill Paxton plays the obligatory Han Solo character, and from that standpoint, the movie is a lot like - well, just about every 80's action/sci fi flick. On the other hand, I assume that Mark Hamil tapped this for his very credible anger and bitterness, and he really does make a pretty good villain.Their travels, however, are more in the more cerebral style of the late 60's early 70's and their fascination with how humans might behave after the fall of civilization, and that makes the film quirky and interesting enough to watch, if only to scratch your head at how they managed to get F. Murray Abraham and Ben Kingsley in this movie.So in summary, definitely worth watching, but don't go out of your way.