Air America

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

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

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.

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.

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