Air America (1990)

An amalgamation between drama, comedy and war film - it's not a very convincing mix. What a mess the whole thing is. It's not comedy, action, or drama, yet it likes to think it has elements of all of them. Roger Spottiswoode is not exactly a bad director (remember "Under fire" ? ) but this is not one of his finest movies.

The acting is pretty good. Mel Gibson ("Lethal weapon") doesn't fail and the same can be said for Robert Downey Jr. ("Iron man") . Gibson and Downey have a nice chemistry , maybe not tat great as Gibson and Glover in "LW" , but still nice. The rest of the cast is not bad too. There is even Michael Dudikoff ("American ninja") in small unnoticeable role.

There is little action here and it's rather goofy. There is no really emotional or serious moment here I could REALLY relate to. This movie has some great Rock N' Roll classics from CCR, The Stones, Edgar Winter and a few others. There is some humor here , but most of it are light stuff , nothing particularly memorable . Oh , maybe except "Take big bag to blue car." That was hilarious.

This movie has a really poor script. It doesn't know if it wants to be serious or funny , if it wants to be action movie , comedy or war drama. It tries to be all of that and fails at every level. It won't satisfy action fans , comedy fans or fans or serious movies. It does have some entertaining moments , it's far from terrible , but it's just one big and somewhat entertaining forgettable mess. I give it 4/10.

Fmovies: I just watched this movie for the first time. I find it truly sad that this story was turned into a comedy, and not even recognizably a dark comedy like Catch-22 or M*A*S*H. The premise of the movie is true, and had it been a documentary, one would expect a certain amount of disbelief and horror to be expressed about its subject; this does not seem to be the case. I will watch this movie many more times in my life, so that I will never forget that governments ( of all countries ) really don't care about the people of the world, just about their own bottom line. The next time you watch this movie, please pay attention to the "were are they now" type section just before the closing credits, and see just how scary and prophetic it was ( the movie was made in 1989 for goodness sake ) and think about someone like Colonel Oliver North and his contribution to the American war effort.

I regard this as a classic war movie! It's fun, good acting, more fun, and factually correct, well up to a point of course! What I like about it, and what I feel makes it original, is that not many films were made about Laos, and also its a cheerful take on war, pretty original for that too I'd say. A good movie i could watch again and again. Excellent music too! 5/5 stars.

Air America fmovies. Yeah, it's an "action flick"--lots of explosions, tough-guy posturing, bombast--but it also has depth.

If you like good writing, good scenario work, fine acting (including "minor" roles), and realpolitik, you could spend a far worse 90-odd minutes of an evening.

And seeing it reminds me of an amazing fact: Behind the macho action swagger of Gibson beats the heart of a truly great actor. And, I guess, the same has to be said for Downey; I watched this, in part, as a sort of "catch up" on his career after seeing Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Nice to see him in his nubile years, and realize that he has accomplished more *with* his personal issues in tow than some of us accomplish while living within conventional bounds of correctness.

And... Why does Downey always get these parts where he's the voice of down-home morality in a sea of squalor? Anyway: Check it out.

Air America is an easy, fun, not hard to watch movie. I have seen it many times and find it an easy no brain. I can watch the movie and do other stuff at the same time and still catch the jokes and the plot. I like Robert Downey Jnr always and this movie is no exception. He gels really well with Mel Gibson. I am an actor and I would have loved to be cast in this movie. Love the scene where Robert Downey Jnr is asleep, hammered from the previous nights session on the booze when Mel Gibson flying his helicopter hooks him up while still asleep on garden furniture. Fab scene !

Give it a go. It now an old movie but a good one that seemed to have slipped through so many peoples viewing when it was released.

Great music !! I am a big fan of old soul and motown and this movie has some fab tunes.

What this movie on a crappy Wednesday night when there is nothing else on and not much to do and you will have a fun time.

This film rendition of Christopher Robbin's "Air America", the story of CIA's secret airforce in Laos during the Vietnam War has been fluffed up a tad too much. I would have hoped they would have kept the tone of the book which was a bit edgier; more like the film version of MASH. This version makes the "non-war" in Laos seem like a Disney World Ride. However Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr make it worth the price of admission. After you watch the flick track down the book for the REAL story.