 |
Stealth
2005 - PG-13 - 121 Mins.
|
| Director: Rob Cohen | | Producer: Neal H. Moritz | | Written By: W.D. Richter | | Starring: Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, Sam Shepard |
| Review by: Joe Rickey |
| Official Site: www.sonypictures.com/movies/stealth/ |
| |
|
What a big brain you have.
|
Ben Gannon (Josh Lucas), Kara Wade (Jessica Biel) and Henry Purcell (Jamie Foxx) are three of the world's best pilots. Working together as a team, they have been recruited by the U.S. Navy to join a top-secret military program. Going through endless training sessions as well as actually initiating battle, they establish a strong bond and go through everything together. So there's some resentment when their commanding officer, Captain George Cummings (Sam Shepard), announces there will be a new member of their team. His name is Eddie. More like "its" name is Eddie. In fact, Eddie is an artificial intelligence program inserted in a jet that can operate on its own.
Immediately feeling threatened by the new machine, Ben holds some resentment while training the jet all the basic maneuvers. His team seems oblivious to his fears though. But when a lightning bolt strikes Eddie during a training session, everything changes. All of a sudden, it becomes able to think and retain information, enabling it to make its own choices and decisions. Thinking that its sole purpose is to select a target and destroy it, on one mission Eddie goes haywire. It abandons the group and puts the lives of everyone at risk. The three pilots must band together once again to stop a force that is one of their own.
'Stealth' is directed by Rob Cohen, who could be branded the unofficial king of summer blockbusters. After the 2001 surprise hit 'The Fast and the Furious' spawned a new franchise by becoming one of the year's biggest success stories, he followed with 'xXx,' another film based primarily on action sequences. 'Stealth' follows suit in terms of being a summer blockbuster, offering up plenty of action sequences and eye candy and a complex and seemingly ridiculous storyline. However, like Cohen's 'Furious', the film still works better than it should due to the likable characters and the decent performances.
Josh Lucas turns in a good performance as the film's main hero. He proves himself as an action lead and is very likable in his portrayal. I've been a huge fan of Jessica Biel ever since she escaped the malicious Leatherface in 2003's 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and she gives another solid performance. She actually gets the most to do out of anyone in the cast and probably had the most grueling shoot of the three main characters. Both Biel and Lucas have decent chemistry together in a small subplot involving a love story. Foxx is charismatic and appealing in his brief but memorable role. Sam Shepard is the worst of the cast, overacting almost all the way through. Plus, his character change at the end seemed a bit abrupt to me. The rest of the cast does a good job, but aren't really given a whole lot to do.
Overall, 'Stealth' is a fun and entertaining action film with three likable leads. It didn't deserve the critical slaughtering that it received, for it is one of the summer's best popcorn movies.
|
|
|
