Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.
GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious
Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
MissClassicTV Set in 1973 Salt Lake City, this movie is about a WWII fighter pilot working as a radio station traffic reporter who chases down bank robbers in his helicopter. The robbers have a hostage, a 22-year-old bank employee who's about to be married at the end of the week. The robbers make their getaway first in a car then in a helicopter. Later, the tables turn and the robbers are chasing the ex-fighter pilot.Many reviews rave about the stunt flying, chase sequences and the canyons of Utah. There really is a lot of sensational flying and gorgeous scenery. From my point of view, though, this is an incredibly sad story. Harry Walker, the pilot, has never let go of the past. At one point, while being chased by the bad guys, his old friend who was also a fighter pilot but is now a captain on the police force, tells him to go home and let the cops handle it. Walker says, "Don't you get it, Mac? I am home." The great David Janssen plays Harry Walker as a sentimental romantic, a hero longing for the old days.Oh, and David Janssen has a nice voice.
rlorenz Rather unsophisticated chase movie in some ways, but spectacular flying and striking landscape backdrop - Utah canyon-lands. All real flying too, not CGI. Ending was a bit weird. Amusing/odd feature is that the bad guys have no attributable dialog - they are apparently dubbed, or speak via a loudhailer on the chopper, etc. You never see them actually speak, even when they fight among themselves. Another cute motif is the computers (tapes, flashing lights) at the police HQ. 'I'm not behind a desk, I'm behind a computer. That's how it is done these days'...then later 'What did the computer come up with'. "Zero". Not the best movie ever, but well worth a watch.
Patrick E. Abe I'm not 100% sure if I saw this TV movie when it first appeared on ABC because this was before my family had a VCR. However, I must have, since I recall "Three Little Fishies" and "I'll Get By" playing during the course of the movie. Some years later, I saw it listed on TBS and fired up the non-HiFi Betamax to capture this "aerial cops-and-robbers" movie. (Alas, none of the surviving Betamaxes can play the tape, so it's all a matter of unreliable memory. No, I didn't get a VHS unit until the VCR wars were over.) At first glance, it looked like a routine movie about a helicopter pilot going about an ordinary day, with a traffic jam and sunbathing beauties to liven up his day. The opening sequence referring to his days as a Flying Tiger and the testy relationship with his ex-buddy-turned police captain should have been a tipoff that things were going to get interesting. Then there was the break in at the military weapons depot by fur-faced, sunglass wearing perpetrators who were OK within killing anyone who stood in their way. Unlike the technowizardry found in "Blue Thunder," Harry walker has only the tools at hand to face down a set of not-ready-for-peacetime military veterans. As the only game in town once an ordinary bank heist turned into an aerial pursuit, this movie shows why Tom Brokaw would call such folk "The Greatest Generation." Considering what kinds of special efx were available at that time, this movie shows what a difference between the real thing vs. the green screen DFX-safe world of today. (As with screenplays, Real trumps Imagination or even "Reimagining".) A chance search on Amazon.com for a butchered VHS version yielded an "On Order" notation. Release of "Birds of Prey" is set for July 12, 2005, and I'll be there to fly the spacious skies of Utah once again, even if "Three Little Fishies" or "I'll Get By" aren't in the soundtrack.
brinner This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I just loved the flying-scene and the cool hardened look of Jansen. I think it´s too little helicopters in movies now a days. Helicopters are probably the coolest and most impressive vehicle ever invented. Maybe, the morrow-accident recalls too much bad memories to the directors? Nevermind this is a good film (especially because it´s TV-film from the 70´s) recommended especially for teenagers and war-veterans..
