Storyline

A renegade general (Robert Miano) plots to bomb Washington using a new top secret jet called the Storm Catcher. The only trouble is only one man (Dolph Lundgren) is capable of flying it. So they seek to put him on the run in a conspiracy that makes him appear to have murdered several men and stolen the plane. Then try to murder his wife and take his daughter prisoner. Threatening to kill his daughter if he doesn't help, he appears trapped. However, his best friend (Mystro Clark) who is the plane's computer specialist has a few tricks up his sleeve.—John Sacksteder

Plot Keywords

pilot, co-pilot, friend, general, wife, fbi agent, suspenseful, rousing, intense, washington, d.c., jet, jail, cell, blackmail, false accusations, kidnapping, family, politics, military technology, rescue, pursuit, quest, escape, 1990s

Short Review

Major Jack Holloway (Dolph Lundgren) is a veteran pilot who is testing out the newest plane in the military's arsenal, a stealth fighter worth big bucks. He's also a family man who coaches his daughter's flag football team with his military partner, "Sparks" Johnson (Mystro Clark). During a camping trip with wife (kylie bax), daughter, and Spraks, Holloway has a lapse in memory and finds himself walking alone in his flight suit. It turns out the plane was stolen, Holloway framed, and now the CIA is after him. Little does he realize, that it goes deeper than he thinks, to his commanding officer. Storm Catcher is the first of two collaborations between Dolph Lundgren and Anthony Hickox, and it is by far the better of the two. This is not to say that it's a good film. Storm Catcher, much like it's follow-up, seem to be rooted in a late 80's, early 90's mindset in style and story. The high tech plane appeared to be a F-117 Nighthawk, a plane that has been around since at least 1983! Really? In 1999, we're worried about someone finding out about an F-117 Nighthawk?! It's not like they couldn't find out about it on the internet.. I think that I even had a book of planes that had a ton of information on the plane when I was younger. That fact alone made it hard for me to take the film seriously. Another thing that bugged me, was while I did appreciate adding some diversity to the cast with Sparks, and while Mystro was far from a bad actor, his part was reduced to token black guy there for comic relief. I'm a little sick of that, why can't he be a tough guy too? I suppose that in the buddy cop genre, or buddy military espionage (?) genres you have to have the comic relief character, I suppose I just wanted to see Sparks be a little tougher, and a lot less jokey. To circle to the first point I made, about the antiquated plane, the computers that were being used fell into the same boat as the plane. I literally laughed at the first shot of one of the computers. They're also painfully antiquated. Getting past all of that, well, the story is also sort of played out at this point. Granted it is 2010, and the movie is eleven years old, wasn't the good guy in charge turns out to be a bad guy already old hat by 1999? At least Robert Miano was able to work with the material to make his character somewhat interesting in the proceedings. the rest of the characters are flat, boring, and useless. The two CIA agents are terrible, Kimberley Davies sort of stands around with a glazed look on her face, and Anthony Hickox cast himself as the other agent. I can't tell if he's trying to be southern, or if he's trying to play the agent as homosexual. Either way, if the film lost Agent Lock, and Agent Load (yes, sigh, those are their actual names) I don't think that anyone would notice. Overall, about the only thing that was actually enjoyable about the film were the action scenes, and watching Dolph's wife get stabbed in the home invasion scene. Her character was the most useless out of all of them, sadly, her character survives in the end. Anthony Hickox, as I've said previously, seems to be stuck in the early 90's. Yes, he did give us Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, but at the same time, he gave us Storm Catcher, and Jill Rips. You know what, skip Storm Catcher, and go get Hellraiser III, at least you know you'll get to see Cenebites in that film. As for Storm Catcher, I assign it the grade of "FAIL."

Trailer

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