Best / Worst Aviation movie

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

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Best:
As a kid I watched the original flight of the phoenix with Jimmy Stewart.
I loved that move because it was so in tune with my childhood perception of flying. These guys were going to build a plane that may or may not work using knowledge of RC planes (which I had been flying at the time)

I always loved the struggle of a plane fighting to break free from the ground and they captured that struggle well.

Worst:
Executive Decision. Nothing about this movie wasn't horrible (except Steven Seagal dying)

More I.T. then aviation was the bomb that used an opened, exposed hard drive as one of its main components. Wouldn't work in a million years.

The only redeeming thing about executive decision as it plays out the one scenario we all secretly wish will happen... "Can anyone here fly this plane?" and we save the day. :wink2:


Whose got better/worse ones?
 
Best: airplane
Worst: snakes on a plane

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk
 
Moonraker was pretty FN stupid.

A really good one, if not so well known, is Fail Safe.

But every pilot's favorite is Airplane! It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether.
 
nauga said:
Best: The first five minutes of Top Gun
Worst: The rest of Top Gun

Nauga,
spinning out to sea
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Dude your little sigs at the end of your posts never fail to make me laugh.
 
Best - Strategic Air Command... Gorgeous in-flight B-36 and B-47 cinematography and starring an honest-to-god AVIATOR.

Honorable Mention - The Great Waldo Pepper... Didn't much care for it when I first saw it, but it has grown on me by leaps and bounds over the years.

Worst - Broken Arrow... If Travolta did that idiotic "removing-the-cigarette-from-his-mouth-with-a-dramatic-flourish" thing one more time I'd have personally hunted him down and beaten him senseless, but I'm not really sure that it counts as an "aviation movie".
 
Best is a tough one (I have so many favorites), but I guess I'd have to say 30 Seconds Over Tokyo.

Worst: Pearl Harbor
 
Best: Point Break, honorable mention to Fandango. Neither specific aviation movies but great aerial sequences in both.
Worst: So hard to choose, pretty much all of them. There is all the cheesy 1980's TV shows that often had aircraft, Riptide, Airwolf, A-team, Magnum PI. Horrible stuff but at least there was flying.
 
Worst: Top Gun. When I was younger when it came out, yeah, it was freakin' awesome. Then after getting into aviation and watching it again: What a steaming pile of crap. Though there are some quotable lines in the movie which have nothing to do with the flying aspect of it.

2nd Worst: Airplane - probably the single most overrated comedy of all time. I watched it once before I got into aviation, and didn't laugh once. I watched it after getting into aviation thinking I may have missed something. Yeah, I missed something. I misplaced my bullets.

Best: Any/all I've seen get something wrong - which ruins the whole movie, so there are none.
 
Best WWI: The Blue Max
Worst WWI: Fly Boys

Best WWII: 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
Worst WWII: Pearl Harbor
 
I think my favorite flying comedy was Air America
 
EdFred said:
Worst: Top Gun. When I was younger when it came out, yeah, it was freakin' awesome. Then after getting into aviation and watching it again: What a steaming pile of crap.
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I think you mean a steaming pile of "rubber dog **** out of Hong Kong"
 
Best: 12 O'Clock High
Came out before I was born for sure but I can recall the first time seeing it on TV. Then a TV series was built around it (ridiculous as all TV war series but enjoyable for this kid).

It may be the only aviation movie I watch repeatedly over the years but of course it's the drama rather than the (stock footage) flying scenes. You can't say they got much wrong with the flying except the thought that strategic daylight bombing actually worked. Catch-22 makes a good bookend.

Worst: Yeah, Top Gun.
I didn't even both going to the theater to see it. Everyone said, "You have to go see it". Watched it once. Most memorable scene was the homo-erotic volleyball game. Best character was Val Kilmer's strange Iceman.
 
Flight of the Living Dead is pretty good if you're into zombies. :) Sort of like "Snakes on a plane" feeling.
 
Best: History Channel WWII aviation documentaries.

Worst: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
 
As a middle school aged kid I think I watched Iron Eagle about a hundred times.
Always though it was better than Top gun because it focused more on flying and less love scenes.

Re watched Iron Eagle recently. The acting is horrific and the premis is beyond crazy. Lou Gosset Jr. is the man though.
 
Battle of Britain was one of my favorites. "taka taka taka"
 
MAKG1 said:
If you want a real shocker, go look at who wrote that.

FWIW, I agree it sucks….
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Chitty Chitty was great! Baron Bomburst LOL (Gert Frobe aka Goldfinger). And Benny Hill was in that movie too.
 
Best - One Six Right
Worst- Can't decide between Flyboys or Red Tails. Technically, Flight was pretty bad from a pilot's standpoint, but the overall story was good enough that I can't put it down that much.
 
Always been a fan of The Bridges at Toko-Ri. Hated the Iron Eagle sequels (but the first was fun to watch).
 
The Great Waldo Pepper.

About Airplane. It gets better with each view. Like Groundhog day. I couldn't stand that movie the first time I saw it. Zipped ahead on the VHS. Now I can watch it as often as it comes on -- usually around groundhog day. Duh.

I rate a bad pretentious movie worse than a bad one that does not aspire to greatness. For that reason, I think Top Gun is a really bad pretentious movie.

Do you think about a movie after you've seen it? Or do you immediately forget it. Those that you keep thinking about -- good or bad -- must have something that struck you on visceral level.
 
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Jayhawk said:
Best - One Six Right
Worst- Can't decide between Flyboys or Red Tails. Technically, Flight was pretty bad from a pilot's standpoint, but the overall story was good enough that I can't put it down that much.
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Recent aviation movies (except for some documentaries such as 16R), have been horrible. I saw Flyboys with memories of The Blue Max and Redtails with memories of The Battle of Britain. I will only mention ones not already cited.

Good ones:
The Right Stuff

The Dam Busters- sequences were the inspiration for the Death Star attack.

Squadron 633

The Bridges at Toko-Ri

Wings Okay, kind of corny. But what do you expect from a silent film. Action sequences though... far ahead of their time.

The High and the Mighty

Into the White

The Best Years of Our Lives- okay, only partly aviation. Still strikes a chord with me as a veteran about the trials of what every veteran probably faces upon returning home.

The War Lover

Hell's Angels
 
cyclepro said:
Best: airplane
Worst: snakes on a plane

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk
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I'm going to have to echo these picks myself.

Whenever I'm skipping through the channels on TV, and I see Airplane playing, I'm compelled to stop and watch it.
 
Favorites:

Twelve O'Clock High

Island in The Sky

Spirit of St. Louis

One Six Right

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

The High And The Mighty

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines​

Least favorite: Top Gun. I've been fortunate enough to miss the Iron Eagle films and other clinkers mentioned in this thread.

I enjoy The Right Stuff but hesitate to list it with other aviation films. The allegorical and unrealistically dreamlike flying scenes put it into a category of its own.
 
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

Mission Over Korea.
 
Lots of good ones: Airplane, Air America, 1941, 12 O'clock high.
Several bad ones: Iron Eagle was bad, but they made SEQUELS!!:eek:
I liked Top Gun as a kid, I think I was 18-20 when it came out, lots of action, but certainly not realistic. :dunno:
 
Funny thing about Top Gun is that while the story line is all BS, they really did a very accurate depiction of Naval Aviators.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Best:
As a kid I watched the original flight of the phoenix with Jimmy Stewart.
I loved that move because it was so in tune with my childhood perception of flying. These guys were going to build a plane that may or may not work using knowledge of RC planes (which I had been flying at the time)

I always loved the struggle of a plane fighting to break free from the ground and they captured that struggle well.

Worst:
Executive Decision. Nothing about this movie wasn't horrible (except Steven Seagal dying)

More I.T. then aviation was the bomb that used an opened, exposed hard drive as one of its main components. Wouldn't work in a million years.

The only redeeming thing about executive decision as it plays out the one scenario we all secretly wish will happen... "Can anyone here fly this plane?" and we save the day. :wink2:


Whose got better/worse ones?
Click to expand...

Re ED, the most unrealistic part was Kurt Russell's character getting pre-solo instruction in a Bo.
 
There was a movie called "Birds of Prey" back in 1973. They took your basic car chase movie and used helicopters instead. I don't remember if it was any good or not, but it had helicopters!
 
IMO, the worst aviation scene ever was in 2012.

That was just a terrible movie any way you look at it.
 
Best-The Right Stuff

Honorable mentions- Top Gun, The Final Countdown, The Battle of Britain, The Blue Max, Strategic Air Command, Great Waldo Pepper, Bombers B-52, Toward the Unknown, Flight of The Intruder (could've been great), 30 secs over Tokyo, The last Empire (favorite scene from any movie), The McConnell story, Always, Flyboys, The Aviator (Chris Reeve),Tuskegee Airmen, Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, Apocalypse Now (The scene) Rescue Dawn, By Dawns Early Light, Fail Safe, Behind Enemy lines, 633 Squadron, Flight of the Phoenix, Bat 21, Flight, The Red Baron, The Memphis Bell, Red Flag, The Spirit of St Louis, Hot Shots.

Some of the above not the best acting but the aviation scenes make up for it.

Worst- Firebirds, Iron Eagle, Red Tails, Jet Pilot, Dr Strangelove, Black Eagle (horrible), Steve Canyon (the whole series), Hot Shots.
 
MAKG1 said:
If you want a real shocker, go look at who wrote that.
Click to expand...

Novel or screenplay?

On the other hand, if we're accepting flying cars as aircraft we need to expand the criteria. The original Chris Reeves "Superman" had great flying sequences.
 
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