Flight of Fury (2007)

Too Tired To Fly

How versatile and unpredictable is Steven Seagal? Mind you, I'm not referring to his fighting skills or his resourcefulness as an actor, but rather to the fact that he can make a film as bad as "Flight of Fury" and follow it up with the much-applauded "Urban Justice". Seriously, I have no idea how he does it...and neither, it seems, does he.

After escaping from a "memory wipe" session set up by military minds afraid of his acquired knowledge (what he supposedly knows, however, is never discussed), Air Force pilot John Sands (Seagal) is rediscovered by the military and offered his freedom in exchange for bringing back a prototype stealth bomber which has been stolen and set to be sold by a treasonous pilot (Steve Toussaint, "Shooting Dogs"). Aided by a young airman (Mark Bazeley), John must travel undetected into northern Afghanistan, locate and retrieve the plane, and try not to get killed by the guerrilla group hoping to make deadly use of its technology.

For some reason, I was hopeful about "Flight", but was soon brought back down to earth upon discovering that it's just another run-of-the-mill Seagalian DTV drag.
The first line uttered by Seagal's character is dubbed by another actor, and the majority of his dialogue remains this way: "Flight" matches "Attack Force" for sheer amount of dubbing, so we can be sure that Seagal himself wasn't attached enough to this movie to redo his own lines. Still, that doesn't mean his ego can't be dutifully stroked: besides being lauded as both the best pilot and martial artist on the face of the earth, he gets to kiss the red-hot Ciera Payton on the lips and call her "babe" (then again, so does Katie Jones), and keeps his title of "most unbeatable action hero" throughout some pretty lacklustre fight scenes and shootouts.

To the film's credit, the editing and cinematography (with the exception of stock footage used for almost every shot featuring an airplane) is a step above average for Seagal's flicks. Seagal also looks in better shape than he did for his last few outings, the supporting cast does its best, and the assault on the terrorist base near the end of the film is thoroughly decent, giving Alki "Kiss my big, fat Arab a--" David ("The Bank Job") a moment to shine.
Still, the film moves at all-too-slow of a pace for any kind of action movie, and any and all scenes featuring flying aircraft are best left forgotten - a shame that these encompass a large part of the movie. Rest assured, this is not "Top Gun"; just a patchwork of recycled footage and ideas that must be viewed in the company of one or two hotdogs or a distracting home-improvement project to be fully enjoyed.

Since it was followed by "Urban Justice" and "Pistol Whipped", I hope that "Flight of Fury" marks the end of the long procession of so-bad-they're-good films for Steven, because not even his fans want to see much more of this. Thus, I'd recommend the film only to fans that have not yet been too jaded by the likes of his recent films to give this one a buy. June 19, 2008

So Dull

You don't need much time to realize how bad "Flight of Fury" is going to be. The first terribly boring 15 minutes where two "action" sequences are set up would be enough. One is about Steven Seagal's character John Sands escaping from some facility because someone thought he knows too much and his memories should be erased. The other sequence is about a newest model of Stealth fighter that literally becomes "invisible" (like someone has digitally painted), which is stolen during a military demonstration.

And both scenes are dull, with the actor who looks bored and the scenes that have no tension. The rest of the film is just a mess with lifeless acting, slack actions shot somewhere in Romania and stock footages of aerial sequences that do not match with other parts of the film. The character played by Seagal, who looks increasingly tired these days, is given a mission to retrieve the stolen fighter, but he is rarely seen doing the jobs as other supporting actors are doing them for him.

Among the numerous titles released from Sony, this is easily one of the worst, with no entertainment value whatsoever. (Oh, but there is one unintentionally funny scene where two ladies are seen hugging each other.)
November 8, 2007

not as bad as most say here

Give the man a break! Yes, "Attack Force" was horrible but this one is worth to be watched. July 20, 2007

The many voices of Steven Seagal

I counted 3 different voice dubbers to loop Seagal's voice at different points in Flight Of Fury. I have not had the pleasure of viewing Seagals Sci-Fi epic Attack Force but by all accounts it's worse than this and that is an achievement. How exactly did Seagal get from under the truck to on top of it without being seen by the security guards walking around the truck, checking underneath with mirrors? It must be so unbelievably difficult to climb on top of a truck and hold on for dear life at a life threatening velocity of 15mph that security guards due to the craziness of such a prison break escape scheme no longer check the top of trucks before leaving the prison grounds. Prisons have guard towers taller than 6 feet, right? Dreadful fight choreography made even worse by horrible camera work. A gas station store is being robbed by several thugs while Seagal is innocently buying coffee & probably all the dounuts the shop currently stocks. Compare this scene to the opening martial arts corner store being robbed scene in Hard To Kill and this demonstrates just how far Seagal as fallen. Much of the next 10 minutes of the movie has Seagal sitting in a chair barely forming the words for the terrible dialogue he has been paid a few dollars to say, while expanding the minimum amount of energy to keep his eyes open and looking as bored as I feel watching yet another Seagal straight to DVD embarrassment. Stock flight footage is used throughout this movie. I couldn't help but laugh at the stock footage whenever the Stealth fighter is operating on the ground, the pilot appears to have his visor down over his eyes but yet every interior sequence shot for the movie, has the actor who is pretending to be the pilot with his visor up. The film makers could not even get that right. Unconvincing CGI sequences, a very nice but completely unnecessary lesbian scene (the best part of the while movie!!) terrible amateur acting from almost every cast member, wrapped up in a stupid plot mish mash of Broken Arrow, Firefox, and any random soft porn movie! With badly executed and filmed action scenes. What was up with the Seagal pipe fight one on one scene near the end? It looked like an attempt at a slap stick comedy sketch or something that would not have been out of place in Batman & Robin. I just can't take Seagal anymore in these direct to DVD turds or listen to him crying about how he is being screwed over by producers. Stop signing contracts with these people. A piece of career advice for Seagal, sign on for a low -mid budget action film for Lionsgate ala Crank or Rogue Pictures ala Assault On Precinct 13 and take a big pay cut and work up from there. I still think Seagal has the potential to make enjoyable action movies even at his current age and still has something to bring to the cinema going public but I no longer believe Seagal has any interest in doing so. He seems happy to put his name on anything that will line his pockets and dump all over his once large fan base. Flight Of Fury should not only be avoided but boycotted. May 23, 2007

A gag gift

I dont know what to say. I never really used to be a fan. Ever since the year 2000 it seems that Seagal's movies have gotten worse. I want to clarify that I have not seen this movie yet, but I intend to, I have gotten this movie for my brothers birthday. Sadly, we have resorted to exchanging Seagal movies as gag gifts for birthdays and Christmas, I know that sounds harsh, but is there anything that can be done with these movies? C'mon, lets be sensible here, Seagal's movies used to be somewhat entertaining back in the day with things like 'Under Siege.'
Now his movies are, possibly with an exception to the die hard fans, gag gifts. May 13, 2007

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