Stealth Fighter (1999)

4/10

tarbosh220005 August 2010

Warning: Spoilers

"The Ultimate Street Fight At 50,000 Feet!" As if Desert Thunder (1999) wasn't enough, from the team of Jim Wynorski, Lenny Juliano, some stock footage, miniatures, and a green screen comes Stealth Fighter, the tale of Ryan "Iron Man" Mitchell (Mandylor) a Harry Connick Jr. lookalike who is a member of a special ops team who reports directly to President Westwood (Hudson). When his former buddy Owen Turner (-T) starts working for evil terrorist mastermind Roberto Menendez (Divoff), bad things start to happen.

They sink a submarine with a full crew on board, initiate the killer satellite Thanatos to blow up the world, and on top of that, Turner steals a stealth fighter jet. Meanwhile Mitchell is trying to repair his family life with his wife Erin (Eleniak) and daughter J.P. (Dampf). So he offers to go on this one last mission to save the world.

You know Menendez is evil because he sports an ascot. Lister plays his muscle named Berg. All he does is bug out his eyes. The best actor in the movie is Sarah Dampf as Mitchell's precocious daughter. The code name "Eagle One" makes another appearance just like in Desert Thunder. The movie is filled to the brim with silly slang and you have to activate the closed captioning to understand the dialogue: "You've just been splashed!", "The Bird", The usage of "SAMS", etc. There's also the funny mission names such as "Black Raven" and "Operation: Clean Sweep".

A tongue-in-cheek scene occurs when William Sadler, as Mitchell's commanding officer Frank Peterson, sits behind his desk and yells "You're a wild card!" Also in that scene, Sadler calls him "Kenny" for some reason. Strangely, his daughter claims to have a boyfriend named Kenny. In that same scene, his wife offers Mitchell some iced tea. Of all drinks, why that? Speaking of the man, he wears some funny shirts and spits out his lines in his own inimitable way. He's part tough, part goofy. Somehow he doesn't seem like an expert with planes. In the final battle between him and Mitchell, we even get to see his martial arts stylings, or Ice-Fu if you will.

Many things in Stealth Fighter are prescient. Ernie Hudson is cast as the President, predating Obama. They talk about Electro-magnetic Pulse attacks, which have been in the news recently.

The title has two meanings: Mitchell himself, and the plane in question. The submarine subplot wasn't substantial, it was pretty subpar.

In all, if you like cardboard planes, goofy DTV action, Jim Wynorski, or Desert Thunder (which is superior to this) and you want slang-filled, utterly brainless action, then watch Stealth Fighter.

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2/10

Yuck!

Terbor3 July 2002

The original description I read of this movie made it sound like it might be decent. Unfortunately, this movie is far from decent. In fact, the best part (some flying in the desert/Utah) has very little to with the plot of this film.

This is far from the best movie Ice-T was ever in. I haven't seen too many of his movies but there is no doubt that he gives a much better performance in "New Jack City".

The special effects are laughable, the military protocol is horrendous, and the acting isn't too hot either despite the fact that this movie features oft-seen actors like Ernie Hudson, William Sadler, and "Tiny" Lister.

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2/10

Wow...but not in a good way.

flybrian23 July 2001

About the only accurate thing in the movie is the title. Yes, it does feature an F-117 Nighthawk. Well, sort of. Anything other than close-ups of the actors is either stock footage from other movies or government films. Virtually all of the F-117 is identical to what you'd see on a History Channel special (any of which, by the way, is more worthwhile to watch than this). One of the most laughable scenes is the one in which the Good-Guy-Hero-Extrodinaire flies virtually every variation of the F-16! First, he climbs into the cockpit of an F-15. As he takes off (without removing the wheel chocks, of course!) its your generic F-16. But...my God! By mid-flight, its been magically transformed into a two-seater F-16B trainer! But wait! Now the gray F-16 has altered its paint scheme to become a bluish tiger-stripped Red Flag adversarial training jet!

So many other screw ups and laugh-out-louds that others pointed out, like the Presidential Motorcade consisting of his limo and one other sedan (whatever) as well as the "War Room" consisting of 9 chairs, a table, and a 20" Sony.

As far as the actors go, Ice-T has moved on to bigger and better things, like Law & Order: SVU (an excellent franchise to be a part of).

1/2 out of ***** for plot, storyline, accuracy, and everything else important in a movie.

****1/2 out of ***** for camp value.

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1/10

Stealth Movie With Stealthy Plot

DanielDG5 October 1999

"Stealth Fighter" is perhaps one of the worst low-budget espionage films concievable. Ice-T's portrayal of a navy fighter pilot borders on ridiculous even comedic as he brings unbelivable adolescent "gang" behavior and language to the film. What happens when the gangsters of New Jack City meet political terrorists? You get "Stealth Fighter" a movie that is almost insulting to the intelligence. How is it possible that a pilot can be concurrently enlisted in both the Air Force AND Navy, be a Navy SEAL, and lastly, be qualified for all major US aircraft? And with all the intelligence neccessary to do all of those tasks, we're to believe that Ice-T's character can't even pronounce the words "seven-seven-seven" with good english? (Ice-T pronounces seven as 'tevin-tevin-tevin.') Not to mention that this film excessively steals stock footage heavily from such movies as Iron Eagle, Interceptor, Clear and Present Danger, US Navy Seals, Diamonds are Forever and includes a battle sequence constructed entirely from edited footage of the bombing scene from Flight of The Intruder, where the only noticeable difference is Brad Johnson and Williem Dafoe have been conviently edited from the scene. The "stealth" F-117 which is stolen from the US gov't is actually the prop used as the "Manta" transport plane from Executive Decision. What is supposed to be a high-tech Los Angeles class submarine is actually the WWII era submarine set featured in Down Periscope. And the center attraction, a stolen SDI satellite, is actually stock footage of the killer satellite from James Bond "Diamonds Are Forever." To make matters worse, the footage editors didn't even bother to remove the original on-screen text from US Navy Seals in the carrier scene...the text that says "Off The Coast of Lebanon" does not match the on screen text used earlier and for the rest of "Stealth Fighter" - it's like comparing italic Times New Roman to Arial font. There are way too many character flaws, plot inconsistencies, and easily recognizable props and footage from other movies included in "Stealth Fighter" to make it believable.

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Musta been the Y2K bug

glentom124 October 2004

Apparently there were more affects from the Y2K problem than we knew about, like this movie made in 2000 for example.

When it came on TV early this morning I came prepared with my IMDb.com in hand. So I already knew it was a stupid movie, but I wanted to see what the reviewers were talking about.

But I won't go into it, you really have to be at least a "Colonel" in the Navy to grasp the technology in this movie. As a prior Marine Corps Officer, I was sick to my stomach to see the supposed Marine Corps personnel in the "White House", with their bathrobe like uniforms and long hair. They could have hired the lowliest Private in the USMC to provide technical guidance at $45 a day, and he/she would have fixed almost every technical flaw of the military innacuracies.

And when the "Colonel" of the Navy reported to the President, I pretty much had it. The movie is still on, but I cannot watch it anymore.

BTW, if you want to see a really good "flying" movie, that was made using a lot of stock footage from an earlier movie, watch Dawn Patrol (1938) with Errol Flynn. Its hard to believe that movies 60+ years earlier than this one could still be more accurate, AND expertly use footage from other movies. But I suppose the studio owned the earlier movies back then, as opposed to this movie that just stole them.

Aside from technology, acting was better back then too! Oh well, read the other reviews, they do a much better job then me. (p.s., I see that IMDb pointed out IMDb as a possible spelling mistake:)

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1/10

Could it look any lower budget?

chummy_17 April 2002

Satellite ran this stinker late last night and, what seemed on the surface an interesting premise was lost quickly in the poor writing, stiff and otherwise horrible acting, mute extras, and overall lack of direction. Here are but a few examples: there are no colonels in the US Navy; men on the disabled sub were having difficulty breathing, but they were not breathing "carbon monoxide" as the med staff suggested unless their exhaust was leaking into the compartment; lifting off from an arms seller's supposedly isolated base of operations, the Nighthawk rolls along a clearly marked runway, then passes a VOR station, a type of navaid that would assist in identifying the location of this base. How about a GPS receiver that we're to believe also transmits its location, despite it being noted in the dialogue as simply for finding one's position?

Most of the dough must have been blown on the really cool opening sequences that hooks the viewer, these scenes depicting Navy fighters roaring through and taking out an urban area, 'cause from there on out, it's the movie itself that proved stealthy.

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1/10

Ugh ... In-accurate. Stock. icccchhhhhhhhh

Warren-1823 July 2003

Pretty bad as compared to Top Gun and Flight of the Intruder.

Stock crap and only one flight director..... Yeah right People don't age in 10 years ????? I like the scenes at the Air force base , where they steal the F117, with all the private planes all around... uh huh. The Navy officer in a Naval Uniform being addressed as Colonel ???? Ice T is supposed to be acting ?????

Wasted performance by William Sandler.

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5/10

Stock footage galore!

Bosco 55th3 November 1999

I don't recall any fight/action scenes in this movie where they were not stock footage from past movies such as Iron Eagle 1, Flight of the Intruder, and any other Air Force/Navy dog fights that were ever filmed. I loved Ice T's character, and the whole movie reminded me of the long canceled series "Players" with Ice T and Costas Mandylor. The only thing that kept me from switching the channel is Ice's as a well written(shocking for this movie) bad guy image. What made me want to just change the channel was the bad military information, and slow plot. But, what else do you except for Hbo friday movies? 2 out of 5.

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5/10

A paltry effort

hengir4 February 2008

Warning: Spoilers

Well, this is a busy little film. There is a stricken submarine on the bottom of the sea, an orbiting death ray ("It's not part of the Star Wars project, IT IS the Star Wars project!") and a stolen stealth fighter that is used by one of the villains as a rather excessive assassination weapon. All of which add up to .... not much at all. Low budget film making can be an art in the sense that good imagination can make up for a lack of dollars, besting mega-budget productions, but not in this case. Using other people's footage can lead to wonderful continuity blunders. For example the villains are hiding out in Angola and our heroes get dropped off an aircraft carrier and paddle to the shore. Unfortunately the caption on the borrowed footage says the aircraft carried is off the coast of Lebanon! Our heroes had a heck of a lot of paddling to do.

And Ice T may have played that funky music once upon a time but as an actor in this he is laughable. All the menace of a wet lettuce. A paltry effort and not even the great William Sadler could save it. His character blows his brains out near the end. One knew how he felt.

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1/10

Why was this made? Shoddddyyy!

markusws9 January 2008

Warning: Spoilers

Okay, this is an action flick, Ice-T, Tiny Lister as super bad boys, Costas Mandylor as the tough hero risking his future with his family to serve his country. I guess if you are fans of those guys there is something in here, but couldn't you have given them a tighter story, and better execution. And, puleeeze, make it a little believable. This is pure formula with too much unbelievability, like when Ice-t rats out William Sadler's character to the president and his staff. Why did I know that Sadler was going to be leak here. That is another example of formulaic casting. Give the guy some roles where he's not the bad guy so its a harder to spot. Or how about the fight at the end where highly decorated Costas' character puts down his gun so he can go hand to hand with Ice-T's character? Then Ice-T doesn't kill him!? What is that? Some kind of honor among thugs routine? It is just too much of a fairy tale to be a good action flick. Costas "sneaking up" on character after character while making all kinds of noise, the enemy compound so sophisticated it controls top secret space satellites, but such shoddy security that the marines' walkie-talkies go undetected as far a underground subs and Costas runs around without any surveillance picking him up. TOO Unbelievable!!!!

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2/10

Can't even get timeline right

wstetler511 December 2020

Can't even get timeline right part of the movie is supposed to be at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines this movie was made in 1999 Clark Air Force Base was closed in 1991.

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10/10

Best movie ever!!!!!

truh219 March 2005

This is the most amazing film I have ever seen. Everyone MUST take 80 minutes out of their day to bask in its splendor. Great photography, superb acting, and incredibly memorable lines! "I got the satellite, I got the stealth, I got the bombs, I got the power, and please, Mr. President, don't think I won't use them." What more do you need? My only question is, where is Ice-T's Oscar?! Every scene is a gem, from William Sadler's "beratement" of Costas Mandylor, to the Wishmaster's bedroom escapades, to the final showdown between Mitchell and T! The list just goes on and on. The best part of all, and you must view the entire film to understand this, is that the plot is completely fluid and realistic! One final note: Stealth Fighter was released the same year as The Matrix. Only a fool would not recognize Stealth Fighter's clear superiority. Enjoy!

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6/10

Could have been done better

ashgameover22 July 2011

Just an OK movie. The plot is a pretty cheap one and I would have liked more dialog rather than all of the flying/fighting scenes. I must admit I watched it online and even wound up skipping through parts. There were however three excellent actors in this film, being Ernie Hudson, Costas Mandylor, and William Sadler. They all played their parts as best as they could with the writing given. There was an over usage of dramatic flight imagery and score music. I would recommend it for someone who is more into stealth flying such as soldiers or the like they may enjoy the film but for your typical movie goer, it's something to watch once if that and never again.

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1/10

The worst movie of the year?

Calvin-293 November 2000

"Stealth Fighter" is a joke from start to end. Terrible actors, horrible screenplay and an even worse story makes this one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The film is a bad copy of "Golden Eye", which already is terrible so what is to be expected anyway? Then mix it up with actors from the bad side of gangster rap and "Picket Fences", and there you have it, Stealth Fighter. The only positive thing about this movie is that it even makes Steven Seagal-films look good, a hard task all by itself. Do yourself a favor, don't waste any time by seeing this flop.

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A Battle for the World???

kjheinz8 July 2002

I don't know who came up with this film, but the casting director and the props person need to be glued together for about a month just to teach them a lesson. President Ernie Hudson? Do you take us for saps? Did anyone notice that during the tense negotiation scene with the bad guys, the President and his cabinet are sitting in what could be characterized as a small grade school classroom? watching a 19 inch tv monitor? while all assembled around a small dinner table? You can actually see them all being visibly uncomfortable, since they all can't fit into the picture at once. Ernie has a look on his face as though the camera crew didn't let him eat any catered donuts that morning--he's hungry and wondering where his life went.

Isn't the President supposed to have a big "situation" room, with padded chairs, big screen tv monitors and a huge conference table for when he negotiates with bad guys? If I were a bad guy, negotiating with Pres. Hudson while his staff all has to stand over his shoulder so they can see the tv would be impetus for all kinds of mischief. I bet when one of them stands up, he better call "fives" or someone takes his chair.

And who wrote Ice-T's lines? I certainly hope it wasn't the Ice-Man himself. Note to self, Ice: any tough-sounding one-liner that ends in the phrase "peach trees" is not all that tough to begin with. Wasn't this guy a rapper? Can't he sound any more intimidating than that?

Ice - T vs. Ernie Hudson in a battle for the world? Perhaps under-water living is the life for me, after all. Do yourself a favor..don't watch this movie. Go rent Ghostbusters, put on an Ice-T CD, and punch yourself in the groin for 2 hours.

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2/10

Nonsense!

redkiwi30 June 2002

Pick a bad script, pick a famous person to play in a film, and sit back and watch the money roll in.

Yes, Hollywood is that cynical.

Ice-T stars [if you can call it that] in a predictable and typical action film.

Don't see it -- it's rubbish.

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3/10

A "typical" B movie

kiprocnrol5 September 2006

Warning: Spoilers

I watched this movie for the 1st time, today, Sep 5, 2006. As an "action movie" addict, I don't know how I missed it before.

I knew, before watching, that it was, at best, a B MOVIE. The CAST gave it away!!! Ice-T as a Ex-Navy pilot. Get Real!! Ernie Hudson as the President!! Come on! Ya never know if he's gonna be a good guy(Everthings Jake) or a bad guy.(the Subsitute) William Sadler as a Navy Admiral- He's a BAD GUY IN EVERYTHING!! Andrew Divoff- Ya knew he was a bad guy!! Tommy "tiny" Lister. Ya never know what part he has.

John Enos- A SOAP star in a real movie? There are others, but these were enough to tell me what I needed to know. It was going to be a B at best, but, I had to "stick it out" After all, IT"S AN ACTION movie.

Tere a a number of "stolen scenes"-taken from other movies(previously sited) It kind of reminded me of some of the "westerns from the 50s/60s". Same scenes of stampedes, posse chases, etc.

All in all, it real isn't "that bad", but, bad enough. Contas Mandylor reminded me of both Michael Pare and Michael Dudikoff.

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1/10

Absolutely Horrible

mjcsocal28 March 2002

This movie was horrible. This only reason I watched it was because my roommate and I were playing Mystery Science Theater 3000 to it. The technical facts are virtually all incorrect, and the acting is even worse. The producers couldn't even afford to produce their own effects, they had to steal footage from Flight of the Intruder, Crimson Tide, Bat 21, and others. Do not watch this movie unless you want a good hour and a half worth of laughs (although the director didn't intend this ).

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1/10

it isn't stealthy, and there's precious little fight.

sassheckscher16 January 2002

I'm not going to argue with anyone else. This has "fortnight old turkey, should have been chucked in the bin after Christmas", writ large upon it.

Ice and Costas have worked a lot together. They're obviously mates, the fight scenes are laughable. The only reasoning I can see behind why they would want to be involved in this, is that the gas bill must have been pressing again.

They are both capable of much, much better.

C'mon boys, don't do this kind of thing again. Please. Pretty please!

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2/10

Embarrassing Piece of Junk

webstergrayson18 November 2007

This is one of those movies that is so obviously thrown together to make a quick buck that anyone stuck watching it is bound to feel embarrassed after sitting through, say, the first ten minutes, wondering why they have chosen to waste their time in such a way. Everything about this flick- the acting, the special effects, and especially the writing- are so bland and derivative that it is clear that no one involved in the making of this picture really cared about what they were putting together, didn't care if the film they were making was memorable or meaningful or even entertaining in any way. The fact that the people who made this movie put so little effort into it is genuinely insulting to anyone who has chosen to invest precious time in this excuse for a movie. The plot, by the way, in case you care, focuses on a heroic fighter pilot (Costas Mandalys, in an astonishingly dull performance) who attempts to retrieve a stolen jet from a villain who has happened to employ the pilots wayward ex comrade (Ice T). Its all stuff you've seen a thousand times before, and almost always done better than it is here. With so many great action movies out there, there is no reason to waste your time on this.

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1/10

Probably the worse movie EVER

tim0619-763-43780726 February 2014

I recorded this movie as the description looked like it might be good. It wasn't! In fact it was the worse movie I have EVER watched! My five year old could have made a better movie. All of the scenes with the President are a total joke. The guy that is the President doesn't look or act presidential at all and neither do any of the people around him. The conference room scenes look like they were made in a trailer. A very little conference room table with a few cheap chairs around it. Even the presidential limousine looks like they rented it from some local limousine business. Don't waste one second of your time watching this disaster of a movie.

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6/10

don't try and count the bodies

nzpedals26 May 2016

it's amusing to read the reviews that complain about the bits pinched from other films? who-cares, just suspend one's usual criteria and go with the ...flow. did anyone really expect Oscar potential?

Jet fighter pilots at the start, murder, faked death, then some guys steal a stealth plane! lots of bodies already. Then there has to be a rescue. Enter the big hero, at first he has a whole bunch of Seal- types with him, but they ALL get killed, so, it is up to him to save the world. But alas, even he can't save the 141 guys in the submarine.

and guess what... he does too. and gets back home in time for the parent's day at the (over)cute daughter's school.

The story is passable-fantasy-hero stuff, the acting varies, but is not as bad as some reviewers claim, hey what do you expect from a 9- year-old? I was impressed with the scenes showing the planes... until I read how they "did" them. They didn't, they borrowed the footage.

My only real complaint is that the plane and submarine interiors look too big. Both those things are so cramped?

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Worst of the

xredgarnetx6 September 2006

STEALTH FIGHTER is a STV that employs a sizable amount of stock footage to retell the tale told 100 times more professionally in BROKEN ARROW. A fighter pilot (Ice-T, who reads every line with even less inflection than Chuck Norris, if that's possible) fakes his own death in order to eventually get around to stealing a Stealth for a mobbed-up bad guy (the ever-grim Andrew Divoff, once again playing a bad Latino). Ice-T's old compadre, hotshot pilot Costas Mandylor (the new millennium's Michael Pare), is hot on his trail. I should have been suspicious of all the stock footage and cheap-looking miniatures. Sure enough, the director is good old Mr. Recycler, the Dumpster Diver himself, Jim Wynorski. The only good thing about this flick: A black actor plays the U.S. president. Bad news, though: It's Ernie Hudson, who is not believable for one moment as the president. Hudson hasn't been believable in anything since GHOSTBUSTERS, although I do love to watch him get his at the end of THE SUBSTITUTE. And here's a little bit of irony or coincidence: Veteran character actor "Tiny" Lister has a modest role in the flick as a thug. Tiny, who is black, played the U.S. president in THE FIFTH ELEMENT. Lister I can buy as the president.

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In my humble opinion:

flinty7107817 May 2004

This film is quite possibly one of the worst ever made - Ice T can't act or deliver a line (but that isn't necessarily just in this film - Ya know wot I'm sayin'), the fighter plane scenes are stolen from Flight of the Intruder, basically this is a cack version of Broken Arrow (quality film)! The "plot" is totally lacking - I only ended up watching it all the way through just to see if it could get any worse - which it consequently did! The only good thing in this film was Erika Eleniak who did manage to cheer me up for a bit of this epic eyesore! So in summary if you see this film in a rental store destroy it so no-one else loses an hour and a half of their life watching it!

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Recycled Scenes

Air America24 February 2001

Maybe they thought we would not recognize the scenes from "Flight of the Intruder," I mean "Hello?"

I see others recognized stuff from even other more obscure sources, so viewers don't come with the word "stupid" on their forehead! ! !

And I agree that the acting is just about as bad as it gets.

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