Iron Eagle | 
| Director: Sidney J. Furie
Actors: Louis Gossett Jr., Jason Gedrick, Tim Thomerson, Larry B. Scott, Caroline Lagerfelt
Studio: Sony Pictures
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $2.95
You Save: $7.03 (70%)
New (3) Used (7) from $0.01
Rating:  50 reviews
Sales Rank: 58778
Format: Color, Dolby, Original Recording Reissued, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 117 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0767864042
UPC: 043396062078
EAN: 9780767864046
ASIN: B000053V8K
Theatrical Release Date: January 17, 1986
Release Date: January 30, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: NEW AND FACTORY SEALED SHIPPED NEXT DAY MON. - FRI.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Short of Top Gun, this could be the definitive boys movie of the 1980s. An 18-year-old (Jason Gedrick) gets instruction from an old vet (Louis Gossett Jr.) in how to fly an F-16 jet and kick butt in the Middle East, all while listening to his Walkman and--oh, yeah--saving his father from terrorist clutches. Gossett wears his tough-love face while the kids run rampant. Speaking of kids, young guys must like this comic-book movie, as its success spawned three sequels. But watch out for the Reagan-era jingoism and political reductiveness. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 Dated and campy - but still a fun film January 17, 2008
Taylor X (Las Vegas, NV (USA))
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
Iron Eagle is directed by Sidney J. Furie. The film stars Louis Gossett Jr. and Jason Gedrick, and co-stars Tim Thomerson and Larry B. Scott. Basil Poledouris contributes the musical score.
Doug Masters is the son of a United States Air Force fighter pilot who is shot down over enemy lines. When he gets the news that his father has been shot out of the sky and that he will hang in three days (for supposedly flying over their borders.) Doug has just graduated from high school and has been denied entry into the Air Force academy. Feeling he has nothing to lose, and that no one else will help his father out of his situation, he joins forces with a veteran pilot and several friends to work out a plan to rescue his father before it's too late.
Iron Eagle is a good film, but it's certainly not a great one. Released not long before Top Gun, it was almost immediately forgotten in the wake of that far more popular (and in most aspects superior) film. This movie feels dated and borderlines on camp, but is just good enough to squeak by with a marginal recommendation.
The acting in Iron Eagle is decent - good but not great. I did enjoy Louis Gossett Jr's performance as the veteran pilot Doug recruits for the rescue mission. But sadly, most of the other characters are one-dimensional. Every other character in the film, including Doug, lacks any real depth. With better performances and characters to be portrayed by the actors, this movie probably would have gone down in history as more than "just another B-grade flying movie."
Apart from the acting, the film has its share of other flaws as well. The biggest one of which is that it feels dated. Looking back, this film reeks of eighties excess. The atmosphere of the film shows this in a variety of scenes. Additionally, despite the serious storyline about a boy out to rescue his father from certain death, the film comes too close to being campy at times. How can you take a boy who flies fighter planes seriously when he times his shots to rock music? The movie never really succeeds at giving the feeling of despair the director surely intended, because half the time it doesn't take itself seriously. And then we come to the length - the film approaches two hours! It could just as easily have been twenty minutes shorter - the ending, in particular, drags on too long. Top Gun was FIFTEEN MINUTES SHORTER than this film, and accomplished far more, and above all doesn't feel dated. These issues bog Iron Eagle down, and ensure that this fighter plane of a movie never truly gets off the ground.
We then come to the music of Iron Eagle. The score for the film is composed by Basil Poledouris. While not a great film score by any means, it gives a heroic feel to a number of scenes, and for the most part accomplishes what it set out to do. The songs featured in the film are all very good - including contributions by Queen, Ronnie James Dio, and Helix. I admit, these songs, while good, do feel dated by today's standards, and they are one of the things that really make the movie show its age. But they're good songs nonetheless, and you can rest assured this critic will be picking up the soundtrack.
If all the issues, then why am I letting the movie squeak by with a marginal recommendation? I don't exactly know, to be honest. It's cheesy and dated, and yet somehow it won me over. There are some great and surprisingly memorable moments here, and while nothing is truly classic, there's definitely enough to keep you interested. Top Gun this isn't, but it's a good way to kill two hours if you're into eighties movies.
Thumbs up
 This Movie Change My Life !! June 16, 2003
Lee Kyung Hee (Busan, Korea (South))
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
When I was 6 years old, my father give this movie that recorded from TV in 1989. That time I'm kindergarden boy. but this movie very huge, huge impact in my life. This movie treat war story. So some people may think this stuff feel very cruel. But that's wrong! this movie treat humanism like father & son. Doug rescue Father in enemy line. So this every scenes that Doug's try try so hard behave is so moved to me. now I'm 21 years old. and now I'm "South Korea Airforce Academy" Student. In the end dream come true.Like Doug Masters. So I'm very proud about me and this movie. Someday I'll drive F-16. This movie's give me a my dream. Change My Life~ Doug & Father's meet scene is never forget it..thorough all my life.
gold old campy action fun February 11, 2004
cameron bates (florida)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I watched Iron Eagle when it came out in the theaters in 1986. I was in college, and it was absurd. A teenager and his buddies with an air reservist steal a couple of F-16's and manage to fly across the atlantic, attack an entire country and recover a single person? Impossible!But if reality is what you are looking for, get a documentary. This is just good old-fashion fun. The plot has holes, but the action is there. The Good guys are truly white hats and the evil, stereo-typed middle-eastern despot/colonel is dripping with evil. gotta love the fun,... expecially the dog fighting scenes.
BEST DARN MOVIE EVER MADE, I LOVE CHAPPY May 7, 2004
Justy (Chappy's Pants)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Where to begin, when I saw this movie for the first time I just feel in love with Chappy. I have yet to see a movie that even comes close to the quality that this movie embodies. If Chappy were a real person I would marry him and have a life of action and romance in his jet, going really fast all over the world and blowing stuff up. I am not sure if Chappy should be hanging out with little boy though, that could be bad. You know what they say "16 will get you 20". You just have to watch this film, you too will be swept away by the passion that Chappy exudes. If I had a chance to save my daddy from the bad guys I would want Chappy by my side, if not sitting on his lap in the cockpit of his jet.
 Just Plain Silly August 17, 2004
J. Collins (Las Vegas, NV USA)
5 out of 13 found this review helpful
Ahh, "Iron Eagle". A classic of the 1980's Golan-Globus production mill. With the current spate of historic/"current" military movies, it's sometimes good to see how Hollywood's come in trying to get the details right. One can't do much better than using this flick as a baseline. In case you aren't already familiar with this gem, Louis Gosset Jr. playing a reserve Air Force Colonel, and a teenage kid fly a mission inside an unnamed Arab country -OK I'll name it: Libya- to rescue the kid's dad. Pop gets shot-down when he's intercepted in international waters, but the US refuses to do anything more than diplomatic pressure.
The kid and Lou Gosset meet up when the kid's challenged to race the local bully with his PLANE while the bully's using his dirt bike. Suffice it to say he wins and impresses his babe; he doesn't get his slot at the USAF Academy, though. You gotta take the bad with good I guess. When the words on Dad get back to the family, this kid uses his base "network" to get access to imagery, enemy air defense data, and two F16s carrying a B52's worth of ordinance. All of this being done by his friends exploiting the dim bulbs who are their parents, no less. (If only strike planning was this easy.) Of course, the kid has flown training missions with his dad, and has a boatload of simulator time, so he's a natural to fly the mission. He convinces Gosset to go along with him, and his two-ship is on the way. The flying scenes are nothing spectacular, with obviously Israeli F16s playing the good guys, and Kfirs (modified Mirages) acting as MiGs. Cockpit scenes are completely the imagination of the set designer; I'm guessing he never was anywhere near a real aircraft. These are especially dated now as many computer flight sims are pretty darn accurate in cockpit, flight, and combat models. Anyway, lots of explosions on the way in, Lou gets hit and aborts and our hero must press on alone-go figure. He manages to talk with the evil dictator directly and get his dad on the runway for him to land (!) and pick him up. More silliness ensues as he launches weapons on the ground, taxi's out and takesoff. He kills the bad guy and heads home to find Lou punched out and was rescued. Rather than the prison sentence for espionage, and theft of government property that Lou, the kid, his pals and the idiots they exploited on base should've got, he gets his slot at the Air Force Academy. The end.
Overall, I guess Lou's performance was fairly good, but everyone else performed at the grade-B level this flick is. Note especially a very young Shawnee Smith as one of the kid's buds. Worth seeing for laughs, and as a film version of a kid's pilot fantasy.
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