Air America

Spectacular action sequences and engaging performances by Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr make this big-budgeter entertaining and provocative. Read full review

This is an amusing vehicle for Gibson. At least this time, the bird doesn't fall off the wire. [10 Aug 1990]

While Gibson and Downey work well together, Air America does tend to be slightly overcooked in the cheap laugh department at the expense of a meandering storyline. Read full review

Roger Spottiswoode's Air America is partly glorious, partly junk, but unfortunately not in equal parts. Read full review

Air America is a pretty good blend of action, drama and rough comedy, although the comedy and adventure come out on top. [13 Aug 1990]

Air America comes on like a noisy, overproduced sitcom pilot. Read full review

Air America is far from a disgrace, but it's so rare to see a film with this much panoramic verve that you want it to deliver the real goods and not this cargo-load of tinkertoy war-is-heck ironies. [10 Aug 1990]

Air America, starring Mel Gibson's big blue eyes and Robert Downey, Jr.'s big brown biceps, is bland and toothless. [15 Aug 1990]

The movie has no script, and even the better gags - like one in which a couple of the pilots scribble away at coloring books in the backseat of a plane - could have been staged more vividly. Read full review

The movie that might have been goes down in flames. Read full review

The concept of Air America is refreshing, but its enactment goes nowhere fast. [10 Aug 1990]

The confusing screenplay, by John Eskow and Richard Rush, makes a few fumbling attempts to get a plot going (Downey crash-lands and has to be rescued by Gibson; later, their CIA bosses try to frame them for drug smuggling), but mainly the movie tries to get by on attitude, which is a mistake when Mel Gibson is its main perpetrator. [10 Aug 1990]

This muddled film about a secret C.I.A. project in Laos in 1969 fails on every possible level: as action film, as buddy film, as scenic travelogue and even, sad to say, as a way to flaunt Mel Gibson's appeal. Read full review