Stealth

In terms of story, one of the dumbest and weakest films of the year, the only thing going for it is solidly shot action and a few impressively colorful shots of the beautifully green Thai landscape. The talking fighter jet is laughable, but what really knocked me out was the mid-air refueling. A prime example of pure scriptwriting madness. Nothing against the actors, as there really was nothing remarkable to showcase here, I only appreciate Jessica Biel, who is incredibly sexy in the navy uniform. The action is intense and dynamic, but the excessive computer-generated shots are tiresome and contribute to a big stereotype. And I’d rather not mention the political background of the whole situation. Unheard of budget, outrageous mess. But for entertainment? Why not. (2006-08-23)

God, that plot… if it wasn't there or if it was better, I wouldn't have such reservations about Stealth... This way, the filler is just held together by what I think are very decent special effects and pretty well shot action (one is amazed that the same director screwed up the third Mummy, where the action scenes should properly be called just "scenes"). (2009-06-11)

If this picture is the result that its makers were trying for, then... Then I don’t know, because I’m completely lost for words. No screenplay exists or if one does, they wrote it after they made the picture, because the movie itself has not even an ounce of story. The dialogs are so frightful they have no equal and logic took a long vacation. Despite the relatively decent cast, the acting is absolutely awful. Add to that the unbelievably overlong running time, but this wouldn’t have worked even in a considerably shorter movie. The only to a certain extent functional elements are some of the action scenes when, if you switch off your brain, you can even enjoy yourself - or at least live though them without any lasting damage. Overall this is an embarrassing affair which, despite being frightfully bad, isn’t bad in the right way for you too at least be able to laugh your head off at the expense of the filmmakers. After watching this, in my eyes Rob Cohen has lost the status of a solid B-movie routineer. There is no reason to pay any attention to that man at all. (2007-01-21)

A formally and thematically illogical farce that diligently destroys its A-level ambitions set by the opening credits right from the first minute and it attacks even the last remaining vestige of good taste that a contemporary viewer might be willing to preserve. The screenwriter's audacity, which delves into the tense political situation of the contemporary world, is truly astounding. The terrorists are scum, as is North Korea, not to mention the Siberian areas. The pseudo-justification in the form of dismissive remarks about the thousands of innocent victims in the interest of protecting the American people, as delivered by Jessica Biel, only adds to the absurdity. Rob Cohen proves that he excels at directing action sequences, and considering that half of the film is filled with digitally generated shots of fighter jets, it's been a while since I've seen such impressive visual effects work by a team of VFX artists. But the ending on the Korean border is downright embarrassing in terms of form. I wasn't expecting much, but compared to this, even older films by Michael Bay seem like "harmless documentaries" about establishing democracy and world peace. God bless America! (2005-10-14)

A luxuriously shot nothing. Rob Cohen transitions from war strategies to a regular buddy movie in the style of Top Gun, interjecting and concluding it all with a spectacular action sequence. Rather than being a failed average, Stealth becomes a very fast-paced mishmash, but it is the expensive-looking camera that compels me to forgive the many usual illogicalities. (2008-11-02)