Air America

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.

Mel Gibson & Robert Downey Jr. play two renegade pilots working for a covert CIA project in Laos during the Vietnam war. Downey is the new recruit who is still trying to adjust to the place and crazy missions he must fly. Gibson is the seasoned veteran who tries to teach him the ropes, all the while trying to remain above the increasingly out-of-control escalation of the war they are a part of, but grown cynical over the U.S. involvement, which isn't really legal, and certainly not public... Good lead stars cannot do much with such a jumbled and confusing story, that never leads anywhere, and is mostly a series of comedic vignettes that struggle to say something serious among the bizarre(yet dangerous) happenings. It just doesn't work.

A young pilot (Robert Downey) finds himself recruited unwittingly into a covert and corrupt CIA airlift organization operating in Vietnam War Era Laos. As of 2017, the whole story of the CIA's involvement in drug smuggling has not come out. The general outline has been known for years, as this film indicates (it was based on a non-fiction book). But we are still waiting for the full expose. This film is good, not great. It suffers from an uneven feel. You want it to be a comedy, a buddy movie, or something like that. It isn't. Or perhaps it would work great as a serious exploration of government corruption. But it isn't that, either. It just sort of float in between somewhere.

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.