Acensbart
Excellent but underrated film
Roman Sampson
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Lucia Ayala
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
peterrichboy
I remember going to see this at the cinema in the early 80's and really enjoying this movie, and watching it on TV for the first time in over 30's years my enjoyment has not diminished. Of course Clint Eastwood is his usual excellent self as the US pilot sent behind Russian enemy lines to steal an advanced Russian super jet. Eastwood is abley supported by a strong British support cast lead by Freddie Jones and Warren Clarke. By today's high quality CGI standards the aerial shots look it a bit naff, but that apart there is still plenty to enjoy in this movie. 7/10
calvinnme
... and by my count this line was spoken at least seven times here.This is a cold war thriller from Clint Eastwood about a Vietnam vet fighter pilot sent undercover and across the iron curtain to steal a new Soviet super-plane. The first two-thirds of the film are a treat, with a lot of tense scenes of Clint and his sympathetic Russian contacts narrowly escaping capture. The last section is where the film loses steam, with a lot of repetitious, dated fx shots of the jet in action.Warren Clarke is memorable as Clint's chief contact. Also featured are Freddie Jones, Ronald Lacey, Nigel Hawthorne, and Kenneth Colley. As you may have noticed, there are no women listed; this is the rare film with no substantial female presence at all. The real star, though, other than Clint, is the fictional MiG31 "Firefox" fighter jet, invisible to radar, capable of Mach 6 speeds as well as full nuclear armament. The film also borders on science fiction with the jet's thought-controlled weapon systems.It is a 50/50 proposition as to whether you will like this one. For me it was fun to see Eastwood stretch his directorial skills in a different direction, and even more fun if you actually remember the cold war...or were even alive during the cold war for that matter.
Joel Newman
I saw this at the movies in 1982 (I was 7 yrs old) and remember being exhilarated. I still think it's a good film (although biased due to nostalgia). But passing himself off as a Russian officer with an American accent is silly; Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood) knows Russian (evidenced by him activating the Firefox's weapons)...it would've been better if the Russian characters when speaking among themselves spoke Russian (with English subtitles). And the music could've been better (I don't like Maurice Jarre - admittedly I haven't heard all his music). Someone else's IMDb review criticized the special effects but I think they're okay. Firefox is well edited and nicely structured; it's got violence, suspense, aerial combat, cold war intrigue; a psychologically wounded protagonist, explosions, a cool underground train station, an awesome plane (or two); helicopters, a submarine, a battle ship and war rooms. It's like the James Bond film Octopussy (without sexuality) crossed with The Empire Strikes Back's air-to-air combat scenes on the planet Hoth. Is that good or bad? Let's just say that Firefox is a memorable film.
robertleather-84204
A brief review of Firefox. It manages to mix in an interesting spy story with what should have been a spectacular ending. But what actually happens is that it after an hour or so of some very well made and well acted spy stuff and then the whole movie falls down flat with some of the very worst "special" effects seen on the silver screen.To quote Nigel Hawthorne (who stared in the movie) "They shot hours of footage of the clouds with various planes and we saw it in the rushes and we were all impressed. Then we saw what they did with it and it was terrible." (during an interview on Wogan, BBC TV).Even the laser-disc based arcade game looked better!
