WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

gavin6942 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.

jimbo700 Air America is over 25 years old and it's still on my list of movies I watch regularly. It's not that I disagree with those who acknowledge its faults, because I knowledge them too. The things that make me want to watch this film over and over are: The music, which is fabulous... The soundtrack is filled with great tunes, some of which are a little out of the period but it doesn't matter. It's great to hear Rick Derringer and Edgar Winter cover their own hit "Free Ride" and Bonnie Raitt & BB King do a great cover of Dr John's "Right Place, Wrong Time". And Charles Gross's score is a perfect fit for this film. The second thing that makes film so great is the cinematography. The flying stunts still hold up to today's CGI effects and they were all pulled off by real pilots. But cinematographer Roger Deakins makes it all so much better with some of the most beautiful shots I've seen. The way this film was photographed reminds me of the beautiful cinematography from David Lean and Jack Hildyard in "The Bridge on the River Kwai". Air American was filmed mostly on location in Thailand and the lush vegetation and rolling hills and mountains are stunning. Air America is the story of a couple of pilots who fly cargo (and heroin) for Air America, the CIA's wartime civilian airline during the war in Vietnam. Mel Gibson plays a seasoned veteran pilot and Robert Downy Jr. is the young, idealistic newcomer who stirs it all up. When it was released it drew harsh reviews from the big publications, mostly because (according to the reviews) it tried to poke fun at, and perhaps dishonor the real life pilots of Air America. Putting politics aside I never thought this film dishonored the Air America pilots. The film's main weakness is the thin plot (based on real events). The acting is great. Downey and Gibson have great chemistry, and the supporting actors/actresses are also spot on. It cost over $35 million to make this film and every penny is seen on the screen. Unfortunately it never caught on at the box office and only grossed $32 million (worldwide). The acting, stunt flying, music and cinematography make it worth multiple viewings, even if you don't understand the plot or find it hard to relate to the characters. If you can watch it in this context, you might love it too.

Anssi Vartiainen Air America fails as a movie because you don't connect with its story, nor with its characters. It's a movie avoid of meaning, or soul.Our story follows the life of Billy (Robert Downey Jr.), who's forced to take up a job as a pilot in Vietnam War Era Laos since his license in the States gets cancelled after one dangerous stunt too many. There he meets up with Gene (Mel Gibson), who becomes something of a mentor for him. The rest of the film is your average clichéd corruption story. The army bad, family good, lovable rogues great. You know the drill.You'd think that movie with both Gibson and Downey in it would be at least mildly entertaining, but the thing is, this came out at exactly the wrong moment in both of their careers. Downey was still just a kid, nowhere near his later star power, whereas Gibson had just begun his long downward spiral from fame. Though, to be fair, I can't imagine how bad this film would have been without the two of them, because it's really the script which is to blame here. The characters have no depth, the villains are hilariously one-dimensional, and the story fails to raise any stages worth caring about.On the positive side of things, the technical aspects work just fine, some of the flying stunts and action scenes are fun to watch and even the story is merely incompetent and boring, not insultingly stupid. Those few things are not enough to save the film, but at least they kept me from hitting the bottle.So yeah, not really worth seeing, unless you're a die-hard fan of either of the two main leads. And even then I wouldn't bother.

Arlis Fuson This very boring movie is about a wild man who works as a helicopter pilot for a radio station and his crazy antics get him fired. It's 1969 and a war is going on in Vietnam and Nixon swears nothing is happening in the neighboring country of Laos, yet there is a secret 'no action' mission happening there and they are constantly losing pilots so the young radio station pilot is recruited. He gets there to find guys even crazier than he is and finds the missions aren't exactly safe either. Soon an American senator flies over because he hears rumors of drug trafficking. This new rookie pilot finds this to be true and finds most of the pilots are into illegal things, he isn't going to stand for it, but he's right in the middle and must find away to stop these illegal activities and get home safe.This movie is so boring. I don't know what genre it was. I think it was promoted as a comedy, but there's not one laugh this whole film. There isn't any action so it can't be a war film, so I guess it is pure drama..it was pure boring I know that. The movie just went on and on and on with guys flying planes and stupid dialog and nothing emotional or heartfelt or serious, I kept asking myself what the point to this film was..it was horrible.Direction was so bad, editing was even worse. Actors were okay like Mel Gibson, Robert Downey, Jr., Lane Smith, Art LaFleur, Tim Thimerson and Michael Dudikoff in a small unnoticeable part. The writers must have been stoned or asleep when they wrote this. The score was horrible and whoever supervised the soundtrack was crazy too. This movie had some great Rock N' Roll classics from CCR, The Stones, Edgar Winter and a few other and had tons of covers including some horrible version of a Dr. John classic and Aerosmith doing a cover of the Doors "Love Me Two Times' which was out of place for this movie set in 69. The worst thing was some of the songs weren't even out yet, A horrible cover of The Hollies "Long Cool Woman" can be heard at one time and that song didn't come out until the early 70's I hate flaws like that. Also the shirts Robert Downy Jr wore of Zeppelin and Hendrix, those types of shirts weren't made until the mid-70's, and the Hendrix one I know wasn't made until around 85. I hate flaws like that in film.This movie sucks, avoid it, it's boring has no point. 2/10 stars