Terminal Velocity (1994)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Charlie Sheen stars as "Ditch" Brodie, a daredevil and skydiving instructor whose latest student is the eager Chris Morrow (Nastassja Kinski). He's horrified when she seems to perish on her very first jump, and he's soon plunged into international intrigue. Proving that he wasn't neglectful and that he didn't let her die will not be his main worry. He will have to dodge attempts on his life by crazed goons who are former members of the KGB.The screenplay by David Twohy (future director of such things as the "Riddick" film series) is patently ridiculous. You have to shake your head and laugh, but the good thing is that Twohy and director Deran Sarafian ("Death Warrant") are clearly never taking themselves 100% seriously to begin with. It's too bad that Sarafian, the son of cult filmmaker Richard Sarafian ("Vanishing Point"), didn't enjoy more commercial success in Hollywood, because here he proved that he had the chops to handle a mainstream action thriller. The airborne stunts and various set pieces are quite fun, and there's always plenty of gunfire and explosions to ensure that attention spans are maintained.Sheen is decent enough as our hero, a more or less average Joe obliged to help save the day. Part of whatever strength the movie has, though, rests on Kinskis' capable shoulders. She really gives it her all. (And, of course, looks very sexy throughout.) James Gandolfini has an early role here, showing off that screen presence that helped the late actor to become a star a few years later. Christopher McDonald is fun as a psycho villain, although he does admittedly look rather silly with that bleached blonde hair. It's also nice to see Melvin Van Peebles and Rance Howard in small roles. Margaret Colin appears unbilled as Jo.This is the kind of thing that does entertain the viewer provided they don't want to think about it too much. It's basically B fare with an A level budget.Seven out of 10.

"Terminal Velocity" is another one of those highly charged, average adventure films with over the top action and absolutely no plot.Director Deran Sarafian makes sure the action comes thick and fast, with some of the stunts being truly spectacular, especially one particular scene in which our hero finds himself hurtling towards the earth in a convertible car, from thousands of feet up! The movie is loud, fast and has an unrelenting pace which should keep most movie-goers too preoccupied to be worrying about the absent storyline.Charlie Sheen and Nastassja Kinski star, and both fit the bill nicely as the attractive, home grown (maybe not Nastassja) heroes, yet both have little depth to work with. What disappoints me is that Charlie Sheen is so much better than this. After struggling to make a name for himself, he really sky rocketed to stardom with two sensational performances, first in Oliver Stone's "Platoon" (86), and then again for Stone in "Wall Street" (88). Since then though it's been downhill all the way for Sheen as he quickly returned to selecting second rate scripts. Kinski (who still looks sensational) is also much better than this movie would suggest.David Twohy's script, about a hot shot skydiver who suddenly finds his world turned upside down when a mysterious 'student' enters his life, avoids the painfully obvious just enough. There's no obligatory love scene for instance, but all the villains are predictably wicked and two dimensional, and all get their comeuppance. Just another reluctant hero saving the world from evil clutches.Friday, February 10, 1995 - Greater Union Melbourne

This was a generally fun film that is considered an action movie, and rightly so, but has its share of good comedy, too. Charlie Sheen showed he was well on his way to being successful playing comedic roles, as he's doing on television right now.Nastassja Kinski plays the typical new young macho-female role that introduced on screen in the past generation in which females beat up males. Give me a break! Anyway, I still liked her despite the characterization. James Gandolfini was the best of the villains, and also demonstrated how he was about ready to hit the big time, which he also has on TV with The Sopranos. Christopher McDonald was another villain in here but was stupid, not fun to watch. He was angry all the time and his bleached hair looked ludicrous.There are a couple of outrageous action scenes in this film, mostly notably when an automobile with Sheen and Kinski still in it is dropped from an airplane! Yes, to enjoy this film don't take any of it seriously! It's simply fast-paced entertainment. For that, it gets a good rating.

Aaaah, what can I say about yet another action movie whose story must have been made up by a drunk and unemployed screenwriter with writers block. I'm sorry if that sounds a bit too hard for some people or if you are a big fan of this movie (it's not because I don't like it that you can't love it of course), but this movie really had nothing to offer that blew me away. I don't know why, but somehow it is almost impossible to find an action movie with a decent script or story.It's the same problem with this movie: Ditch Brodie (Charlie Sheen) is a maverick skydiving instructor with a reputation that has made of him a first page news item for several times, but that will also cost him his job very soon. One fine day, a pretty girl steps into his office, asking to learn her skydiving. Of course he doesn't say no and he takes her with him on her first dive. But than he makes a fatal mistake, he loses her out of sight for one moment and before he knows what is happening she falls out of the airplane, without having opened her parachute, right to a gruesome death. When he is accused of man slaughter because he didn't attach her static line, he starts an investigation himself, finding out that she had something to do with the KGB and the Russian Mafia who are trying to steal gold from an airplane.Normally this movie would have gone by me completely unnoticed, but because Charlie Sheen, Nastassja Kinski and James Gandolfini were in it, I gave it a try. The acting isn't too bad for the three actors that I just mentioned (although not excellent either), but the others really never exceed the level of the average action flick. In my opinion this movie isn't very good, but at least it isn't as bad as a Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme film. I give it a 5/10.