Conference bookie::movies

721.0. "Drop Zone" by MDNITE::RIVERS (Whee!) Sun Dec 11 1994 15:46

    For me, the most exciting part of "Speed" was the first 20 or so
    minutes with the elevator falling down the shaft.  I have this thing
    about elevators, see.  Basically, I don't want them falling down with
    me in it.  You can blame that one on me watching "Earthquake" at a
    young age.  At any rate, since my often going-great-guns imagination
    could make me sympathize with those poor folks in the elevator, I was
    on the edge of my seat during that part of the movie.  The rest of
    "Speed", while fun as long as I didn't play attention to various
    believability problems, didn't exactly play to any secret fear of mine 
    (like being stuck in a bus that can't slow down).  Which brings me to 
    "Drop Zone".
    
    
    I also have this thing about plummeting from an airplane, at any
    height.  Basically, I don't want to do it, ever.  Which is why "Drop
    Zone", which pretty much centers around people not only *falling* out
    of an airplane, but doing it on purpose, puts it well above "Speed" in
    my category for nifty action flick.  
    
    "Drop Zone" concerns a U.S. Marshall, Patrick (Wesley Snipes).  He and
    his brother, Terry (a large and impressive looking Malcolm
    Jamal-Warner. Yeah, "Theo" from the Cosby Show) have been assigned to
    escort a prisoner, Leedy (Michael Jeter) from a Federal prison located
    somewhere, I assume, near Miami.   See, the thing is, Leedy is a
    computer whiz who used to hide drug smuggler's money electronically so
    that the DEA couldn't zap their bank accounts.  Only Leedy rolled over
    on his bosses, so the feds had to hide him from the wrath of the
    criminals.  One small problem -- they've found him and are trying to
    take him out before he testifies.  
    
    So the Feds need to move Leedy up to Atlanta and since it's the U.S.
    Marshall's job to do these sorts of things, we have Patrick and Terry
    on the scene to do it.  
    
    Of course, nothing is ever easy in these kinds of movies, and there is
    a daring attack on the 747 on route to Atlanta.  It's probably bad
    timing or something, but I seem to keep watching these movies of late
    that have planes getting holes in their sides and people getting sucked
    out and plummeting to their death.  The terrorists, lead by Ty (Gary 
    Busey at his typical "So I play bad guys now" amoral best) not only 
    wreak havok  on the plane, they shoot several people, including Terry, 
    *and* grab a wildly protesting Leedy and....
    
    ...jump out.  At 38,000 ft. Whee.  
    
    Of course, this is supposed to be impossible.  There's the matter of
    being so high up, the jetwash, you name it.   At any event, Patrick is
    left holding part of the blame, unjustly, event hough we know he's
    right and all that finger pointing happening on the ground is wrong. 
    His boss is understanding, but tied by SOP.   So, now, Patrick must
    figure out what happened and who did it, outside of the goverment, and
    by God, he gets to it by getting involved with a skydiving team, even
    though he knows about as much about skydiving as I do (you go up, you
    jump, you pray that your chute opens, you land, you live.  Hopefully).
    
    Which brings us to the rest of the movie which, suffice to say,
    involves a lot of skydiving sorts, jumping out of planes, neat
    parachute tricks, neat falling through the sky tricks (including a
    great couple of scenes where a couple characters jump/fall out of
    planes WITHOUT a chute), and the requisite, harrowing, skydiving
    accident.   There's also a lot of neat computer screens full of
    windowed demos, some breakins, people getting shot, people getting into
    fisticuffs, some nice Floridian scenery and a really pretty cherry red
    Mustang convertible.  
    
    Maybe it's because I know a hell of a lot more about mundane little
    things like transit buses than I do about skydiving, or
    maybe I was just too high from the adrenelin rush of watching people
    plummet from the sky to nitpick, but I found the believability factor
    of "Drop Zone" to be a couple notches higher than "Speed" and I
    certainly found the excitement factor to be several notches higher.  The
    cast of good guys (largely no names) are quite likable, and the
    cast of bad guys (largely no names) are stylishly villianous (although
    they are no match for the bad guys in "Die Hard").  I especially liked
    the female protagonist, a husky-voiced lady (Yancy somebody, she was in
    "Hard Target") who was savvy and tough without exuding some sort
    of false machismo.  And I liked Wesley Snipes, who didn't come off like
    an overconfident know-it all (ala "Passenger 57", which I kinda liked, 
    or the tepid "Boiling Point", which was boring), and who's a ball to 
    watch doing the fisticuffs scenes.  The editing was quick and tight and
    there's a nice, exciting score by Hans Zimmer stuck in there.  Plus a
    cool song by INXS at the end.
    
    
    The biggest nit I could pick was wondering why a flight that took off, 
    say, from Miami, to Atlanta, before sundown, would STILL be in the air 
    at midnight.  I don't think those two cities are THAT far away.  Your
    nitpicking may vary. :)
    
    I liked it.  Liked it a lot.  For anybody who liked "Speed" and that
    various genre, give this a try.  I had a blast.  It was almost enough
    for me to think that skydiving might even be fun.  For about 5 seconds. 
    ;)
    
    
    ***.5 out of *****
    
    kim
    
     

    >It was almost enough for me to think that skydiving might even be fun.  
    >For about 5 seconds.;
    
    It is! (and for even longer than 5 seconds). If you ever get curious,
    try going for a tandem jump - a great, safe way of experiencing
    free-fall. I've tried it a coupla times, and I paraglide (a different
    sport a bit like a cross between hang gliding and parachuting, except
    you don't jump from a plane) every weekend. It's a strangely liberating
    experience.
    
    The two things that crack me up in the reality stakes for
    skydiving sequences, in most movies are:
    
    1. The conversations people have while free-falling. Anyone who's tried
       free-fall wil appreciate how funny this is, since the roar of 120
       mph winds drowns out *everything* else
    
    2. 2-3 minute free-falls from say 10,000 feet - an average free fall
       from this height might last 30-35 seconds
    
    
    Hey, it's only the movies though ...
    
    Rob downunda

    re .1  ("Try it, you'll like it!")
    
    
    
    Homey don't think so.  When I said "for about 5 seconds", that was the
    length of time I considered the possibility.  Now that the five second
    have passed, I am back to the aforementioned, "I ain't gonna jump out
    of no airplane!" state of mind. :)
    
    It was still a cool movie, though.
    
    
    kim

    > ("Try it, you'll like it!")
    
    apparently Snipes got hooked on it after he did it for the movie.
    (according to some promo piece I saw on him talking about the movie
    and the fun he had making it)
    
    Bob

	Didn't we already have a recent (ie. summer) release about
	jumping out of planes staring Charlie Sheen?

    
    	Yeah, but he was locked in the trunk of a car at the time.
    
    	8^)
    
    							GTI
    

    RE: .5
    
    Wasn't it the woman that was locked in the trunk?
    
    -Bruce

    
    	Maybe ... I didn't see the movie.
    
    	But does it matter?  8^)
    
    							GTI