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Blue Thunder is directed by John Badham (Short Circuit)
and stars Roy Scheider (The French Connection, Jaws) Daniel
Stern (Home Alone) Warren Oates (Stripes) and Malcolm McDowell
(A Clockwork Orange.) ***
Blue Thunder is not your average helicopter. The chopper
was invented for use by the police, but was designed with
more than a few other features in mind. The inventors of
this piece of equipment want to show off what it is capable
of, but first must train Frank Murphy, a pilot from the
police department, on its use. Murphy and the project pilot
don't exactly have a positive history with one another,
and as the secrets of the helicopter are gradually discovered,
the tension between these individuals is unleashed fully.
***
Blue Thunder is dated as hell and filled with all the
old cop movie clichés anyone who has ever gone to the movies
knows. But it's also a ton of fun to watch. ***
Let's not kid ourselves. Plenty of the elements of
Blue Thunder fill like they've been lifted straight from
other cop/soldier movies. With his Vietnam background and
post-traumatic stress disorder, our hero is more-or-less
John Rambo in a helicopter. And the younger, rookie cop
feels plagiarized from any number of other police films.
This movie follows the Big Book of Clichés from start to
finish. ***
And yet, I'm still recommending it. The flying scenes
are impressive and (gasp!) actually believable. The performances
are all top-notch (YES, the late Roy Scheider actually had
some good roles in movies other than Jaws), and the direction
and pacing just right. Writing by Dan O'Bannon (Alien) only
sweetens the package. Sure, it hasn't aged as good as similar
movies from the same era. But Blue Thunder is a ton of fun
to watch. It's a b-movie classic worth rediscovering, or
in some cases, discovering for the first time. ---
Image And Sound:
Blue Thunder isn't the kind of movie that's ever going
to look like a million bucks in 1080p. And yet, this transfer
more than does the source material justice. It's not a drop-dead
gorgeous remaster, but there's not exactly anything wrong
with it either. The level of detail is strong considering
the age of the film, and there clearly weren't any big remastering
shortcuts taken here. The grain level is a bit on the heavy
side, but fortunately, isn't a big distraction. Audio gives
the action scenes a much-needed aural depth that the SD
versions of this film were lacking, and there is even a
sense of ambience in some less action-filled scenes. I expected
this to be a half-assed back-catalogue transfer of an old
b-movie, but Sony actually impressed the hell out of me
here.
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