Blue Thunder

"Blue Thunder" has some really cool moments but, at the end of the day, it's just too silly to take seriously. It's probably the best R rated movie every made for 12 year old boys. It has the feeling of a movie that was rushed into production. The studio was looking for a big summer hit. The script needed more development. The good guys are okay but the villains are cookie cutter bad guys. That said, "Blue Thunder" is an okay time killer with a nice cast and some good action scenes. Honorable mention: a dreamy Candy Clark.

Always liked this one. Well written and acted, with excellent aerial action sequences. It's a shame this was Warren Oate's last role - he was magnificent. Other reviewers made a valid point about this film presaging the use of military hardware against civilians. We already use airplanes to catch speeders on the ground - doesn't the aviation fuel cost more than the amount of revenue taken in through summonses?

This film has an action-packed ending featuring an incredible (for it's time) police helicopter. However, to get to the end, one must plod through the remainder of the film and that is kinda slow. The film could be a great one but wound up only pretty decent. Roy Scheider as the star was an excellent choice and he did a great job in the film. Malcolm McDowell plays the antagonist well and the two play well off each other. However, the story bogs down a bit for nearly half the movie right in the middle. Once it picks back up, though, hold on to your seat! The ending is in the WOW! category. So watch the beginning, then take a nap in the middle to rest up for the end. 6 out of 10 from me.

'BLUE THUNDER' Is a cracking leave your brain behind entertainment that never let's up! 'Roy Scheider' Plays Frank Murphy,A former Vietnam Veteran,who is a helicopter pilot,for the Los Angeles police department,who becomes handpicked to pilot the eponymous 'blue thunder' which is a state of the art chopper designed for supreme law enforcement, Unfortunately for Murphy the test pilot behind this superb flying machine is Malcolm Mc Dowell,who also was on duty in Nam with Scheider, and serves as the film's all too English baddie! A young Daniel Stern, is a rookie who is assigned with Scheider, together the pair unravel a deadly conspiracy,involving said helicopter which climaxes with a superb aerial chase through the packed streets of Los Angeles,

Old movies have it hard on ImDb. They got pushed in this database without all the benefits modern movies have to artificially boost their initial user score. Publicity stunts, media spin, false "user" feedback... They got none of that. How many bad movies have you seen start at 8,5 and end up being turds. To remedy that, Blue Thunder gets a solid 8 from me. It is a typical 80's flick, sprinkled with sexist and racist bits nobody would dare to approach today. Movies reflect their epoch; here we find a pre-olympic L.A. not very far from it's race crisis. More important, we find real helicopters doing real stunts above and inside the city. No production will ever get a permit to do all this anymore and only for that, that movie is worth watching.

"Blue Thunder" . . . isn't this that movie where Roy Scheider uncovers a government conspiracy and then loops a wicked military chopper? You betcher sweet ass it is! And it's a shame the helicopter didn't talk. I mean, the comic potential of a reckless pilot and his snappy chopper is enough to salivate over. A more cynical person might find all of this silly, but not me. I was caught up in the whole thing; the car chases, the dofight through downtown L.A. It all works somehow, both as police procedural and conspiracy flick. Scheider lends a great presence to validate the whole thing, Malcolm McDowell is a real slime of the first order, but neither one of these guys has a thing on the real star of the movie: ol' Blue, herself. That is one menacing attack helicopter, loaded for bear and still sleek. I can only imagine what it was like back in the '80s to be a bystander on the ground watching them film this beast in the air. 7/10