Air Rage (2001)

Air Rage (2001)-*1\2

Directed by: Fred Olen Ray

Starring: Ice-T, Cyril O'Reilly, Kim Oja, Alex Cord, Jack McGee, Steve Hytner, Gil Gerard, and Glynn Turman




"Altitude gets Attitude."






During a court martial, Col. John Sykes (O’Reilly), and his cohorts as well, are dishonorably discharged. The Chief Judge Adjutant, General Harlan Prescott (Cord), throws out their initial plea agreement, probably so he could bellow at them and then give them the maximum punishment. Later on, Prescott boards a plane with his assistant that looks exactly like Eugene Levy. Sykes and his disgraced army men board the same plane and take it hostage. Now with complete chaos on board, only one man can come in and save the day: Matt Marshall (Ice-T). But because he gets wounded in a firefight, he isn’t as active in day-saving as he should be. That’s when spunky flight attendant Kelly Young (Oja) gets into the act. One minute she’s serving drinks to obnoxious passengers like Morton (Hytner), the next minute she’s killing baddies and flying the plane. Will everyone on board make a safe landing…or will they be overcome with their AIR RAGE?

First came Executive Decision (1996). Then came Strategic Command (1997). Now comes Air Rage, an overlong, unnecessary addition to the plane-hostage movie canon. Over its 100-minute running time, you won’t see anything you haven’t seen before. Another plane is taken hostage, another strike force is brought in to save the day, another terrorist wants yet another CD-ROM filled with information, and it all seems very, very familiar. The only actual air rage is felt by the viewer as he takes in this repetitive muck. 

After we were watching the movie for a while, we noticed Ice-T was nowhere in sight, so we went on Ice-T watch. Despite appearing very prominently on the box art, Ice doesn’t show up until exactly 40 minutes in. And even after that, he’s not a forceful hero because he’s injured and in pain for a good amount of time. If there’s a main hero here, it’s Kelly the Stewardess. We were happy to see Oja not be put in an ineffectual stewardess role and instead get in on the action. But she’s not on the box art. Could it be sexism? Maybe because he was fresh off of fellow plane flick Stealth Fighter (1999), where he was the baddie, perhaps Ice-T was sick of planes and he doesn’t care as much this time around. And is it just us, or is it racist that Ice-T of all people leads a Black Ops team where the code name is Blackbird?

Pretty much the only bright spot in this air disaster of a movie is the presence of Alex Cord as the General. His presence is great and his voice is fantastic. He should have narrated the movie. That might have fixed things. As seems to be standard for Fred Olen Ray, while the movie itself is substandard, he gets a lot of great character actors to shoulder the weight of the project. This seems to mitigate the cruddiness of the proceedings somewhat. Jack McGee, Glynn Turman, and Gil Gerard are all welcome faces and they do their best. Even Steve Hytner, immediately recognizable as Banya from TV’s Seinfeld, is here and he plays an unlikeable jerk very well. But it’s just not enough to overcome the lack of originality here and the boredom that ensues from it.

Pro tip: If you want to watch something like this, but want to see a movie that’s actually good and very entertaining, watch Passenger 57 instead.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Point Doom (2000)

Point Doom (2000)- * *

AKA: Gang's Traffic

Directed by: Art Camacho

Starring: Richard Grieco, Jennifer O'Dell, Andrew "Dice" Clay, Angie Everhart, Zach Galligan, John Enos III, Ice-T, and Sebastian Bach

Rick Hansen (Grieco) is a Hollywood talent agent lookin’ for love in all the wrong places - namely, the Play Pen, his local strip club. When he goes there to visit his buddy Frankie (The Diceman), the club’s owner, Rick is served by a waitress named Stephanie (O’Dell). Instantly enraptured by her, he essentially stalks her until she agrees to do a screen test for him. Unfortunately for the lovesick Rick, Stephanie is in an abusive relationship with a murderous biker named Blackie (Enos III), who has a mean jealous streak. He and his violent gang, the Satan’s Slaves - which includes Spider (Galligan) - have stolen some money and drugs, and their rivals, who include Ringman (Ice-T) and Slim (Sebastian Bach) want them bach. Sorry, back. As if all that wasn’t enough, Stephanie also lives with, and cares for, her epileptic sister Jessica (Everhart). Does Rick Hansen know the maelstrom of trouble he’s just walked into? Will things finally all come to a head at...POINT DOOM?

According to Wikipedia, “Point Dume is a promontory on the coast of Malibu, California that juts out into the Pacific Ocean. The point, a long bluff, forms the northern end of Santa Monica bay.” The mysterious elves that write Wikipedia entries might be more right than they realize, as Point Doom is indeed a long bluff, at an overlong 99 minutes - and we’re not sure what the point actually was. Once again, we’ve been snookered by what we call the Lone Tiger Effect - when you want to see a movie because of its great cast, but the movie itself is not so hot. It was directed by our old buddy Art Camacho (we don’t actually know him, but we feel as if we do because we’ve seen his name in the credits so many times), and, yes, it is a low-budget DTV movie from 2000. Our expectations should have been lower because of the latter fact. But let’s break this down: 

                - Zach Galligan - as a member of the Galligang, he plays a heavy and seems to be running from his past as a Gremlin wrangler.

                - John Enos III plays almost the same role as he did in Missionary Man (2007), as the memorably-named Jarfe.

                - Angie Everhart, like Galligan, stretches in an unglamorous role as a woman with medical problems who mainly wears sweatpants.

                - Sebastian Bach  was a welcome and unusual presence and deserved more screen time. He must have been a “slave to the grind” of this particular production. Hmm.

                - Ice-T had some funny and ridiculous dialogue, which of course was delivered in that inimitable Ice-Tean way.

                - Richard Grieco is “Grieco Suave” as he plays the romantic lead - though in the “talent agent vs. biker” fight...well, we’ll let you guess who wins.

                - Jennifer O’Dell - we don’t have much to say, other than that she wears some pretty outstanding outfits.

                - Andrew “Dice” Clay steals the movie with his charisma, and is, funnily enough, the voice of reason amongst all the crazy goings-on. His thick Brooklyn accent is unmistakable.

The movie suffers from bad pacing - it starts off with a bang, but it didn’t know to quit while it was ahead, and some editing problems hamper things as well. Though on the bright side, there is a PM-style car flip/blow-up, and Enos rides his motorcycle in slo-mo away from the flames. Of course, there’s the time-honored barfight, but this one features a White Zombie song during the brain cell-depleting stupidity. Besides some of our favorite B-Movie names in unorthodox roles, Point Doom is also noteworthy in that it features some original songs by the original artists - Motley Crue, Motorhead, and the very catchy 80’s classic “White Horse” by Laid Back. But despite the cast and soundtrack, Point Doom is junky, too long, and needed a lot more pep in certain places. 

Much like Cape Fear, you'd have to be pretty brave to venture a trip to Point Doom. But if you've wanted to see Sebastian Bach shoot and punch people, this is the movie for you. 

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett