Review of Terminal Velocity (1994) by Lucien L — 07 Mar 2015

"Terminal Velocity" is an forgotten movie is actually techincally well made action-adventure flick that doesn't take itself too seriously. It offers some first-rate action sequences, some good laughs and the occassional clever dialogue (Written by David Thowy, who later directed Charlie Sheen in the underrated "The Arrival").

Ditch Brodie (Played by Sheen) is a Skydiving teacher, who doesn't take his job very seriously and enjoy taking risks for the hell of it. One day, an attractive mysterious woman (Nastassja Kinski) wants to skydives and he teaches her the basics before skydiving for the day. When it happens, she accidently killed herself from Fallen out of the plane, when Ditch tries to save her. Then he finds out, maybe she didn't died somehow and he finds himself mixed up with mysterious bad guys. He has to find a way to clear his name and find this woman. Once he does finds her, he has to help her to finish her mission. Since she was a former KGB agent, who is trying to help her country and kill those, who has betrayed her.

It sounds like a complex plot heavy movie, in a way, it is but it doesn't make a lot of sense. But thankfully, Thowy's script is often tongue in cheek, even if the story doesn't quite breakthrough as it should. Maybe it would have been an totally different picture, if Thowy directed the film. Deran Sarafian, who directed "Death Warrant" and "Gunmen". Sarafian does have some good action set pièces and there is a fun visual style to the whole thing. Sheen and Kinski do play well together. The villians, played by the late James Gandolfini and Christopher McDonald plays their roles fairly well but their characters could have used more fleshing out.

Basically "Terminal Velocity" is a popcorn movie, the story has some good elements but it is almost nothing special about it. Action sequences keeps you interested and the tongue in cheek attitude of the whole thing. Mill Creek Blu-ray is better than expected with the picture and sound quality. Certainly Worth a buy for Under $5. Grade:B.