Steven Seagal Movie:

		List Price: $14.94		Label: Sony Pictures Salesrank: 26736 Released: February 20, 2007
		Our Price: $5.10
		Used Price: $1.97
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:

Steven Seagal stars in this high-octane thriller as John Sands, a secret operative used by the United States Air Force for those clandestine operations deemed too sensitive for the regular intelligence services. When his own Agency feels threatened by the knowledge he gained from past exploits -- they quickly imprison him and schedule a chemical wipe of his memories. Feeling betrayed by his Agency, John escapes the hi-tech detention center and plans to assimilate into society. Unfortunately, the Air Force has other plans for him. A top secret Stealth Bomber that uses the latest in stealth cloaking technology has been hijacked and it’s their belief that John’s the only man capable of getting it back before it falls into the hands of a terrorist group that could prove to be an unstoppable force.

Sands stumbles into the middle of a liquor store robbery that forces him to defend himself, which leads to his arrest by the local police department. While in custody, John finds he cannot escape his past. The Agency he worked for has located him. While John sits handcuffed inside the police station they offer him a deal - find the jet and bring it back into the United States. If he does this they'll allow him to walk away from this life and start over without having to look back. John knows he has little choice and agrees to the deal.

Description of Flight of Fury:
Anyone who seeks out a Steven Seagal movie has certain expectations: Bone-crunchingly brutal martial arts action; spiritual or ecological wisdom uttered in Seagal's hoarse monotone; and one long relentless scowl. Flight of Fury fails to deliver on all counts. Seagal plays an ex-military guy who's the only man who can retrieve a stolen stealth fighter. So he goes to Afghanistan, where he teams up with a sexy agent of some kind (Ciera Payton, making her cinematic debut) to shoot a bunch of Afghan mercenaries and fly away. The only plausible explanation for this movie's existence is that Seagal and his producers bought some stock footage of jet fighters and decided to build a story around it. The action scenes are murky, brief, and edited to compensate for Seagal's increasing bulk. The rote dialogue--co-written by Seagal--is recycled from a dozen other action movies. And Seagal can't even muster the energy to frown, let alone scowl. This inert lump of a movie is the latest in a series of clumsy, incompetent, straight-to-video clunkers from Seagal, who is cynically squeezing every dollar he can out of his long-suffering fanbase. --Bret Fetzer

Flight of Fury Reviews:
winging it in Afganistan . . .
2009-11-22 - The style of Flight of Fury (2007) is kind of a throwback to 80's arena style military air adventures, though the story is shaky story, and special effects subpar. Steven Seagal is John Sands, an ex-air force pilot recruited for a mission to recover a stolen X-77 stealth bomber. Sand's former student, USAF Colonel Ratcher (Steve Toussaint) has taken the plane to Afghanistan, where the Black Sunday terrorist group, plans to arm it with biological weapons, and then strike Europe and America.

Under the command of General Barnes (Angus MacInnes), Sands and Captain Jannick (Mark Bazeley), are sent to Afghanistan, backed by a SEAL team. When the SEAL's are wiped out, and Jannick is captured, Sands turns to Jessica (Cierra Payton), an undercover agent, to try and salvage the mission. With the help of Rojar (Alki Davis), another local ally, they mount a raid on the air base, and Sands manages to get the X-77 in the air. It is along way back to Edwards AFB, with Ratcher in pursuit in an F-16.

Flight of Fury rates low marks for credibility. We are in trouble, if the military chain of command operates anything like this, where clowns like General Barnes are running cowboy missions, just to cover his own butt. Starting a war is evidently not a concern to Barnes, as he orders the destruction of the enemy base.

How Sands is able to land a USAF plane safely at an Afghan airfield is a mystery. Since he departs in the X-77, his original plane was apparently left as a goodwill gift from America. It is amazingly fortuitous that the beautiful Jessica, who coincidentally is a close friend of Sands, just happens to be living near where Black Sunday is headquartered.

The 'special' effects for the stealth effect are passable, and the brief air battle relies heavily on editing to convey the impression that the action is continuous. It appears that stock footage was used for some of the battle scenes, both in the air and on the ground. The fight scenes are rather messy, and not that well done. The dialog throughout the film is horrible, with hardly a line not sounding like some stupid cliché.

Flight of Fury is cartoonish effort that's mildly entertaining if you turn your critical meter way down. The script is reality challenged, and the budget was probably insufficient to provide decent special effects. The wide scope of the film, deflects the focus from Seagal, which probably serves well here, as being an obedient subordinate that follows orders, really isn't his thing. Presentation is widescreen, and like Seagal's previous direct to video releases, the DVD contains no bonus materials.

Stinks!
2009-09-09 - I should have heeded some of the other reviews but decided to talk a chance. This was a poorly made propaganda film which is so unrealistic it became difficult to watch. Only somebody extremely naive would enjoy this one.
Even the fight scenes were not very good, very little entertainment value. It seems like Segal has become the go to guy for these type of propaganda films.

Best Seagal flick I've seen in a few years....
2009-08-10 - I'm not sure why people are trashing on this film. Sure there are a few inconsistencies in the story but this is actually one of the better Seagal films I've seen recently. I'm more of a fan of his military-style movies (which this one is) rather than his cop films. There's a lot to like in this film if you are a Seagal fan or a fan of military-style B-movies. The fighting and action scenes look pretty well done and unlike a couple of his recent films I've seen, it's not obvious that a stunt double is doing most of the work. There is some cute girl on girl action, though brief (LOL) and some cool military aircraft. All-in-all I liked it.


**contains spoilers** At the end of the film, why does the black pilot worry about chasing down Seagal's character in air? He's trying to talk Seagal into landing the stealth so that they can sale it on the black market, but if Seagal was going to consider this, wouldn't he have done that back at the hangar before they got into the air? Plus, once it's clear that Seagal isn't going to land the stealth, why does the black pilot knowing he is in an inferior plane, attempt to shoot it down? He's already received a large sum of money that he got from the Arabs when he killed the main "bad guy" and before he killed him, he already found out that the wire transfer had been initiated. So why not just fly off in the F-16 which is probably worth some money on the black market as well, and keep the money he's already got? I suppose you could argue that it is a "pride thing" - the student wanted to defeat the master, but it's a really weak plot point in my opinion.



Too Tired To Fly
2008-06-19 - 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, Beyond the Gates). 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.

So Dull
2007-11-08 - 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.)