Firefox

Clunk Eastwad was never an actor and his drab appearance in this stained toilet paper is further proof of that fact. The Government needs help in foiling some Bad Guys, so of course NO ONE ELSE is capable of carrying out a covert mission which involves flying a Russian jet than an old retired pilot jogging out in the sticks. Enter Eastwad. After a small eternity of eternally mundane events such as Eastwad trying to shake foreign spies by walking down corridors, hanging around in a train station toilet, and then walking and hanging around some more, we finally get to see the plane. Gee, I wonder if Clunk will be able to successfully fly it to the free world? Totally unexciting and dramatically anemic. Miss this flight on purpose.

The Soviets have developed a new revolutionary jet fighter Firefox that could evade radar and function using brain waves. They recruit Russian speaking ex-Vietnam pilot Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood) into the Soviet Union to steal Firefox. He is still haunted by his experience in Vietnam. He is assumed to be expendable and takes the identity of a heroine smuggler who is tracked by the KGB. I don't know why he is taking on the identity of a drug smuggler. That seems like the worst idea ever. The whole infiltration is completely unbelievable. It's also pretty lifeless. The movie is way too long. The plane is good fun and that's the only salvation. It just takes forever to get there.

"Firefox", while definitely dated, is a good Cold War spy thriller that falls far short of being great. Clint Eastwood plays Mitchell Gant, a burned-out Vietnam fighter pilot who's enlisted to steal a high-tech, heavily-armed, stealth Soviet fighter plane right out of its Siberian hangar. The first half of the film is a John le Carre type thriller – Clint sneaking into Moscow, assuming a Soviet pilot's identity, and making his way to the experimental Firefox fighter craft. The second half, when he climbs into the cockpit of the Firefox, is where the real fun begins. While entertaining, the film isn't particularly great – apart from Clint's gritty performance as Mitchell Gant, none of the other actors manage to stand out in any way. The jet fighter sequences also haven't stood the test of time – they looked great in the Eighties, but now they just look dated and unrealistic. Certain scenes in the film are little more than padding, buying breathing room between action scenes and doing little else. There's enough tension and action scattered throughout the film to make `Firefox' fun, but there's much better Cold War movies than this (`The Russia House' and `The Hunt for Red October' easily come to mind), and there's certainly much better Clint Eastwood movies than this. B-/C+

This thrilling and intriguing movie is set during Cold War , the URSS has developed a high-tech jet called MiG-31 that can be partially controlled by a neuralink . The Soviets have made a sophisticated aircraft , the latest aeronautic marvel that flies at 6 times the speed of sound, is invulnerable to radar, and worst of all it has a lethal technological weapons system that the pilot can control through cerebral waves and thought . As soon as the pilot detects a threat - either visually or a scope - his brain impulses will direct a missile to that threat , without so much as pushing a button . The American fighter pilot assigned by Secret Service (Freddie Jones) is the Vietnam veteran named Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood), a burned-out USAF ace pilot, is smuggled into the USSR to infiltrate the Russian airbase at Bilyarsk, where the supersonic fighting plane Firefox/MiG-31 is being terminated , he must rob it and avoid the mass production that would give the Russians a huge advance . Officer Mitchell Gant goes behind Russian lines and faces a dangerous assignment . In Russia is helped by various secret agents (Warren Clarke, Nigel Hawthorne , Ronald Lacey) against KGB (Hugh Frazer , David Gant) and Soviet officials ( Kenneth Colley ,Oliver Cotton , Klaus Lowitsch ) . Eastwood directs , produces and plays this exciting film about a pilot sent into the Soviet Union on a mission to steal a prototype jet fighter . This overlong picture takes a while to take off , but when it does , it's cool film . It contains suspense , thrills , intrigue , action-packed and is pretty entertaining . Spectacular aerial pursuits and dogfighting in ¨Star Wars¨ style created by FX expert John Dykstra who made special visual effects in several films such as ¨Galactica , Star Trek ,Batman , Spiderman , X men and Hanckock ¨. Ample support cast full of prestigious British actors who make good performances as as Freddie Young , Kenneth Colley , Stefan Schnabel , David Huffman , Nigel Hawthorne , Warren Clarke and Ronal Lacey , among them . Colorful and appropriate cinematography by Bruce Surtees ,son of great cameraman Robert Surtess and Eastwood's usual . Thrilling and suspenseful score by the maestro Maurice Jarre . Rating : Acceptable and passable but slow-moving and over lengthy .

I remember watching Firefox as a child and being spellbound, as an adult however I watch with an ever increasing sense of hilarity, I think that Eastwood made this film with his tongue firmly in his cheek. The hi-jinks begin when a burnt out Vietnam vet is recruited to steal a new Russian jet, selected purely for his ability to speak Russian, he them proceeds to go to Russia, disguised as a drug dealer, who is already in the country (no passport control in the Rodina?) the poor old dealer is bumped off to the immortal line, "They have killed him Vasily, they have killed Mr Leon Spragg!" The scene is cut before Vasily's reaction can be noted, but it is probably hysterical laughter at his comrades accent. And speaking of accents, Clint walks about dressed in a soviet airbase, in a soviet uniform, and nobody even blinks at his American twang, the Firefox itself, far from being the superior warplane, looks like it was modelled on a pregnant duck, made by airfix and painted with a tin of cheap matt black paint. The rest of the film is a chase sequence, with the obligatory flashback, but needless to say that it all worked out OK! Not Clint's finest hour, but a good way to kill a couple of hours if you are bored!

During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet military develops a super high-tech fighter aircraft - it flies fast, has deadly weapons, and has technology that allows the pilot to control guided missiles with his mind. Basically any army with this baby in its arsenal will have air superiority. Clint is assigned to steal it from the heart of Soviet territory for the USA. The plot is fairly generic and in this day and age most Cold War thrillers have seem to have lost much of their edge, but this is nonetheless an entertaining film from Eastwood. It is not one of his best and not one that he will be remembered for, but no one can deny the slickness of the plane of the title. The final section of the film, which admittedly does take a while to get to, has Clint flying around and raising hell is a fun ride and on par with the final chase in "Where Eagles Dare" in terms of entertainment. However, the buildup has enough suspense to make the whole movie worth a watch. 7/10 Rated PG: violence

Though a big Eastwood fan, I have to take exception with the special effects of this movie. It was made five years after the original Star Wars, yet the flying sequences look like something out of the sixties. The aircraft move on planes and at angles that are just physically impossible. The cockpit instruments are a mixture of then present day, and even some very old technology. (The altimeter, which gets a lot of exposure before the glacier landing, is probably 1950's vintage. Additionally, the model of the Firefox is hardly believable as a futuristic fighter, even for the time. The story had potential, but I guess the budget was minimal.

Imagine a film made and set towards the end of the second world war where the Nazis have developed a new secret weapon which will stem the tide of the allied advances in the East and West and it`s up to John Wayne or Clark Gable to steal the Nazi weapon and bring it back to the good old US of A. Sounds pretty ( Yawn ) exciting doesn`t it ? Now imagine remaking it 40 years later except the enemy are the Commies and the film stars Clint Eastwood as the hero . Will this make the film any better ? Correct it wouldn`t . This is a very tedious film . I was going to call it a " thriller " but seeing as it doesn`t have much in the way of thrills I`ll just call a drama though that`s probably the wrong word too . Nothing really happens in this film until Eastwood gets into the Firefox cockpit which leads us through a journey of extremely crap SFX , but the effects aren`t even bad enough to laugh at , and this is the best bit of the film . Elsewhere in the film people just walk around calling each other " comrade " a lot and there`s a sub plot about anti semetism in the USSR , at least if it`d been set during the second world war we could have seen stereotypical Nazis goosestepping about saying " Heil Hitler " " Actung " and " We have ways of making you talk American pig dog " . And yes the bad guys in FIREFOX are all played by British actors . Haven`t seen that in a film before ( Double yawn )

It's not often that Clint Eastwood serves up a boring film, but Firefox is certainly one of his few mis-steps. Clint the director seems excessively fussy about the complexities of the plot while Clint the actor seems so indifferent that one wonders if he wishes he were somewhere else. The original Craig Thomas novel on which the film is based is actually an exciting and well-crafted piece of fiction (I know because I've read it) but this big-screen adaptation sadly misfires on all cylinders. Former American pilot Mitchell Gant (Eastwood) has moved to a secluded corner of Alaska following his traumatic ordeal in a Vietnamese prison camp. He is approached for a highly sensitive mission when the Western governments learn that the Russians have developed a new, incredibly advanced supersonic fighter jet. Gant's extraordinarily dangerous mission involves going behind the Iron Curtain and stealing the new super plane from its impregnable hangar. The film trundles along for 136 minutes, but it actually feels much longer. The first 100 minutes of that running time is particularly hard to endure, with an interminable series of cloak-and-dagger exchanges, tediously repetitive flashbacks, and the usual murky plot build-up that goes with he territory in these ubiquitous spy thrillers. The final half an hour or so is slightly more tolerable as it shows Gant piloting the jet out of Russia, pursued by a duplicate jet across the Arctic skies. The aerial special effects are rather unconvincing during this climactic showdown, but at least there's a little excitement (something markedly lacking from the rest of the movie). Maurica Jarre provides a good music score which is probably the best thing about the film. Firefox is a failure on most levels and is strictly one for Clint's most die-hard fans.

This is a great movie to watch if you're interested in hokey, unrealistic junk. Old Clint is indestructible, yet kills everyone else with just a single shot. The acting is horrible throughout, which gives it something in common with the writing and directing. The special effects are the worst I've ever seen; looks like someone holding a model airplane on a fishing pole.