3 stars out of 4
Added 4/12/2009
The Bottom Line:
A sneakily-good Cold War thriller which suffers a bit from dated effects but makes up for it with a high level of tension, Firefox won't be mentioned in Clint Eastwood's obituary but it's an engaging movie whose running length flies by faster than Clint's MiG 31.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I've always wanted to buy this dvd, ever since I read the novel and saw the movie on t.v., I've search for this dvd and I found it on amazon.com. It's a good movie, with flawed characters, but despite this he made it, and the amazing dogfight with the other firefox, it just blew my mind away, eastwood is great!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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A fun film with a great conclusion
Added 11/12/2007
I'm partial to certain Eastwood films, especially the early spaghetti westerns which made him famous. This film is sort of a Cold War CAVIAR EASTERN.
Here, a long-retired, Vietnam-mentally-damaged Eastwood is tapped on the shoulder by the CIA to steal a new Soviet fighter-jet that is invisible on radar, the Firefox. (Clearly, the film preceded the unveiling of our own top-technology in that realm, which the Soviets never ever achieved). Eastwood, whose mother was Russian and so he speaks Russian like a native, grudgingly acceeds to the arm-twisting proposal and goes undercover behind the Iron Curtain. There, the CIA network ultimately gets him through a morass of close calls and to the Firefox, which he steals but at great cost of life to all the folks who helped him.
The final third of the film is totally focused upon his attempt to escape The Soviet Union with a second Firefox aircraft and a very ticked off Russian pilot (Eastwood had kicked his butt back at the Russian base), hot on his tail.
Of course, none of this could actually have been pulled off but it's nice to think that it COULD have happened, so, it's the purest form of silly fiction. But still, the film is well-conveyed, not hokey in any way.
Like John Wayne, Eastwood is the worst sort of actor, coming off as contrived and isolated from his supporting actors, but that is actually why most of us love him (and John Wayne too). Also, the special effects are very realistic in this film, well-done.
In the end, if you love Eastwood, you'll find this movie much to your liking, very macho and all. The stereotyped Russians (Soviets at the time), fully meet our western expectations of arrogance, bad temper, and ineptness.
If you're not a big Eastwood fan, I'd pass this one by as there are better choices in his film repertoire for the casual viewer. Don't look for anything deep and/or philosophical in this one -- it's a very straightforward flick, typical Eastwood really.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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movie preview
Added 5/26/2007
Clint Eastwood was a great choice for the lead role in this movie. His emotional flashbacks add a nice touch to the suspense surrounding his effort to sneak into Russia and steal a high-tech airplane. While the airplane is an interesting focal point, I enjoyed more following the logistics and complications the intelligence service had to confront to get Clint to the airplane and then out of Russia.. Good entertainment, particularly for spy fans.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Cold War cliches
Added 4/26/2007
I'm not sure whether Firefox is really a guilty pleasure or simply a film I remember as being one. It's certainly overlong and overfamiliar despite its neat Maguffin - Clint Eastwood's flashback-plagued Vietnam vet fighter ace has to steal a state-of-the-art warplane with a thought-controlled weapons system (as long as you remember to think in Russian) from the heart of the Evil Empire - but it has a sort of undemanding Cold War charm that the constant stream of clichés only reinforces. Even the old school model effects in the final chase-and-dogfight section are more fun in their way than modern CGI effects, especially when the Firefox is leaving a wall of water in its wake as it races across the sea or causing fallen snow to fill the air as it passes over the mountains, so it's a shame that much of the last third is played in darkened control rooms rather than the skies.
The Russians, naturally, are mostly played by British actors, albeit in this case actors best known for their sitcoms, which adds a different dimension to their scenes as comically humourless KGB types or lemming-like dissidents only too happy to die for the cause, or incorrigible hams like Freddie Jones who simply look like they SHOULD be in a sitcom. There's even an almost admirable perversity into giving most of the explanatory dialogue in the last half-hour to Klaus Löwitsch, an actor with a shaky grasp of spoken English who sounds like a bumblebee caught in a vacuum cleaner pipe. Not good by any means, but strangely watchable, and Maurice Jarre contributes an enjoyable score from the days before he disappeared entirely into atonal electronics.
The Region 1 DVD is the uncut theatrical version before Clint re-edited and trimmed the film by some 12 minutes without visibly improving it for video release (however, the European PAL DVD is the shorter version). Boasting a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, it also includes a 29-minute British behind the scenes documentary and the theatrical trailer.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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3 stars out of 4
Added 4/12/2009
The Bottom Line:
A sneakily-good Cold War thriller which suffers a bit from dated effects but makes up for it with a high level of tension, Firefox won't be mentioned in Clint Eastwood's obituary but it's an engaging movie whose running length flies by faster than Clint's MiG 31.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I've always wanted to buy this dvd, ever since I read the novel and saw the movie on t.v., I've search for this dvd and I found it on amazon.com. It's a good movie, with flawed characters, but despite this he made it, and the amazing dogfight with the other firefox, it just blew my mind away, eastwood is great!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
A fun film with a great conclusion
Added 11/12/2007
I'm partial to certain Eastwood films, especially the early spaghetti westerns which made him famous. This film is sort of a Cold War CAVIAR EASTERN.
Here, a long-retired, Vietnam-mentally-damaged Eastwood is tapped on the shoulder by the CIA to steal a new Soviet fighter-jet that is invisible on radar, the Firefox. (Clearly, the film preceded the unveiling of our own top-technology in that realm, which the Soviets never ever achieved). Eastwood, whose mother was Russian and so he speaks Russian like a native, grudgingly acceeds to the arm-twisting proposal and goes undercover behind the Iron Curtain. There, the CIA network ultimately gets him through a morass of close calls and to the Firefox, which he steals but at great cost of life to all the folks who helped him.
The final third of the film is totally focused upon his attempt to escape The Soviet Union with a second Firefox aircraft and a very ticked off Russian pilot (Eastwood had kicked his butt back at the Russian base), hot on his tail.
Of course, none of this could actually have been pulled off but it's nice to think that it COULD have happened, so, it's the purest form of silly fiction. But still, the film is well-conveyed, not hokey in any way.
Like John Wayne, Eastwood is the worst sort of actor, coming off as contrived and isolated from his supporting actors, but that is actually why most of us love him (and John Wayne too). Also, the special effects are very realistic in this film, well-done.
In the end, if you love Eastwood, you'll find this movie much to your liking, very macho and all. The stereotyped Russians (Soviets at the time), fully meet our western expectations of arrogance, bad temper, and ineptness.
If you're not a big Eastwood fan, I'd pass this one by as there are better choices in his film repertoire for the casual viewer. Don't look for anything deep and/or philosophical in this one -- it's a very straightforward flick, typical Eastwood really.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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