Blue Thunder [VHS]

There seems to be some differing opinions with regards to the picture presentation on this DVD release of the movie Blue Thunder (1983). I just bought the Region One DVD, and it only has the fullscreen format (1:33:1), and is a singled-sided disc. Perhaps some reviewers purchased the foreign market DVD release, which apparently has both the widescreen and fullscreen formats. Now I have heard rumors that Sony is planning a Special Edition release of this film in the future, but then again, I hear a lot of things, and only about half are true...co-written by Don Jakoby (The Philadelphia Experiment), Dan O'Bannon (Alien), and Dean Riesner (Das Boot), and directed by John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, WarGames), the film stars Roy Scheider (Jaws, Sorcerer), Warren `Quaker' Oates (Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Stripes), Daniel `no relation to Howard' Stern (Home Alone, City Slickers), and Candy Clark (American Graffiti, Amityville 3-D). Also appearing is Paul Roebling (The End of August), David Sheiner (The Gong Show Movie), Joe Santos ("The Rockford Files"), and perennial screen villain Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Time After Time).Scheider plays Officer Frank Murphy, an ex-Vietnam helicopter pilot, prone to flashbacks, who now works for the Astro Division for the LAPD, assisting ground units from the sky to keep the mean streets of L.A. safe for us civilians. As the film begins, Murphy's saddled with a new partner, Officer Richard Lymangood (Stern), a goofus type, and the two proceed to show us the value of air support in law enforcement as they assist in catching a few violent punks, when they're not peeping at a nekkid contortionist. During their watch, a local politician, a mayoral appointee to the commission on urban violence, is assaulted. The attack is written off as a random act of violence, but Murphy's not convinced. After Murphy and his partner are grounded for some aerial shenanigans, their flight status is re-instated so they may participate in a gooberment program testing a prototype helicopter, one which features plenty of after-market modifications like thick armor, a forward mounted 20-millimeter electric cannon capable of firing 4,000 rounds per minute (hoo-ya), infrared night/heat vision capabilities, sophisticated eavesdropping equipment, turbine booster, whisper mode operation, and more. Turns out an old war acquaintance of Murphy's is also involved in the program, that of Colonel Cochrane (McDowell), and the two don't get along (Cochrane's played up as an uppity a-hole). During a test flight, Murphy and Lymangood accidentally on purpose catch wind of the true nature of the project (if it's tied to the gooberment, you know it must be evil), and the link to the now deceased politician, using the state-of-the-art surveillance equipment on the Blue Thunder, and have now become liabilities as those parties responsible will do whatever it takes to keep their plans secret, including murder...The story might be predictable and even thin in a few places, but I thought the film, overall, was a lot of fun, and the pacing pretty tight. One thing the movie features a lot of are spectacular aerial shots of helicopters in action, highlighted by some excellent musical scoring, which made me long for the widescreen format to really experience the full on excitement of these sequences. The actual helicopter did look a bit awkward, especially when compared to the much slicker, shinier one featured in the "Airwolf" television series, released a year later, but it was still pretty cool. As far as the characters, they seemed secondary to the whirly bird, but then that's usually the case in movies or television shows like this featuring a high tech whizzbang (how many people watched "Knight Rider" for David Hasselhoff's stellar performances?)...I thought Scheider, along with most of the others, did well enough, the real standout for me being Oates, as Captain Jack Braddock, Murphy's gruff, no nonsense superior. I've always dug on the Oates, and he fit his role here perfectly. It's a character I've seen countless times in other films, that of the supervisor stuck between a maverick type subordinate and his uptight, establishment superiors, complete with scene involving Oates' character stating how his behind has been chewed off for his subordinate's antics, but Oates seems to pull it off better than most. And then there's Stern's character of Lymangood...seemed his only point in the film was to provide a plot device, which he did, before his departure. As far as McDowell, he plays the villain role well, due to the fact he's played it so many times, but he seemed just a bit too smarmy here for my tastes. A toned down, less obvious characterization would have come across a little better, in my opinion. I did like the aspect of the story that involved the initially unintentional use of the Blue Thunder against those who sanctioned the program, the irony of using the sophisticated machine against those who developed it, in terms of exposing their surreptitious (and evil) plans, but I thought it odd the gooberment, fully understanding the capabilities of the aircraft, not having some sort of built in safeguard in case it should fall into the wrong hands. How hard would it have been to install a secretive, remote detonation device within the machine? Not very, but then we probably wouldn't have had much of a film. I suppose I could go on and on being all nit picky and such, but, as I said before, I really liked this film, but I thought it was relatively well put together, despite the preponderance of clichés. This is more or less an action film, and works the way it's supposed to...the best scenes are loaded up on the back end of the film, as Murphy, hunted by the authorities (after the gooberment spooks purposely attribute some of their underhanded activities to a now renegade Murphy), steals Blue Thunder and has to face off against two F-16 fighter jets. Seems like an uneven match, but keep in mind, a helicopter is a lot more versatile in a cityscape environment than jet aircraft, and Murphy, being the experienced pilot he is, uses this to his advantage.As I mentioned earlier, my DVD is single-sided, and features only the fullscreen format, which looked decent but could have been better (I did notice a little dust on the print in a few scenes, but overall, the picture was relatively clean). The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio came through well enough. Extra features for this release are sparse, including an original theatrical trailer and some material on the DVD case insert in terms of comments from the crew about the film. A solid four stars for the film, and two and a half for the lacking release.Cookieman108

Another good 80's movie thats rarely seen on TV today

This was the pilot movie on tv ,which later became a limited series with a new cast and mission.

BOTTOM LINE: Been a fan of this film since it first splashed across cineplex screens. I've owned it on tape, two different DVDs version and now this Blu-ray. BLUE THUNDER is a solid action film, thrilling and highly entertaining from start to finish. Roy Scheider is excellent as is the rest of the cast. I enjoy revisiting this movie every so often, like an old friend. The audio/video improvements in this new 1080p format make it a recommended upgrade. This spiffy new BLUE THUNDER Blu scores a solid 4 STARS from me.THE STORY: U.S. government develops a highly-specialized prototype helicopter gunship, nick-named Blue Thunder. The copter sports impressive firepower, is heavily armored and loaded to the rotors with all manner of high-tech, stealthy surveillance gizmos. It is assigned to Los Angeles police department's Astro Division to test its real-world capabilities, in anticipation of using it to possibly quell unrest & potential trouble during the upcoming 1984 Summer Olympics. Loner pilot Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) draws the short straw and together with his newly-assigned partner Richard Lymangood, (a young, gangly Daniel Stern), the duo takes to the skies. Soon afterward, Murphy uncovers a sinister plot by a handful of corrupt government officials within the Blue Thunder program to turn the super-duper chopper into an unchallenged master of the not-so-friendly skies. When these creeps discover that Murphy knows, (a terrific "Oh, crap!" moment), he suddenly becomes Target Number One.THOUGHTS: Lifting off in early summer of 1983, BLUE THUNDER is a slick allegory about Big Brother-type evils, a too powerful government and advanced technology getting ahead of our ability to use it properly and ethically. Rough-edged everyman actor Roy Schieder is perfectly cast here as Vietnam vet Frank Murphy, an idealistic but world-weary (and slightly damaged) man still suffering bouts of post traumatic stress disorder due to some deeply disturbing events he experienced while serving in 'Nam. Despite his desire to live a normal life the horrors of war are never far from his mind, often haunting the tortured ex-soldier in his dreams. Frank has few he can call friends. Among them are the Chief of the Astro Division (the late, great Warren Oates, in his last screen role), a mean as a snake, tough as saddle leather type who takes no crap but has a genuine soft spot for Murphy. Cute-as-a-button Candy Clark is Frank's ditzy, off-again/on-again girlfriend. New to the fold as Murphy's eyes & ears while aboard Blue Thunder, Daniel Stern's turn as Lymangood is a joy as he brings a genuine, earnest, goggle-eyed and eager to please energy to the role. You like him almost immediately. Lymangood, ("JAFO" to the boys in Astro), also brings a valuable skill set to the table, making him an integral part of the narrative and not just a shell or red herring. Rounding out the cast as Frank's nemesis (and old war "buddy"), is Malcolm McDowell as callus retired Army colonel F.E. Cochrane. McDowell crafts a smug, slimy, unhinged, slick & irritating character in Cochrane. Seriously, you just want to kick this guy in the nuts every time he's on screen.F/X-wise, the full-scale Blue Thunder chopper itself is pretty impressive but sadly outdated in today's real world of ultra-sophisticated gunships like the Apache & Cobra, and their Super versions. Still at the time this came out, it was a cool yet also frightening concept: something that could blow away most anything in the air and at the same time be capable of silently hovering undetected outside your window and stealthily recording everything you say & do. Big Brother in the air? Scary stuff - and rather prophetic. (Although the airborne eyes & ears that we must contend with and worry about today are tiny remote-controlled drones rather than huge manned gunships.) The movie's SFX miniatures look good but the optical composite work is rather lacking; (the shots of the Air Force jets are kinda lame). They work well enough to service the story, and if you've gotten into the movie and are rooting for Frank during the film's tense, climactic airborne confrontation then the jet F/X wonkiness won't even matter.THE BLU-RAY: Mill Creek gives us a really nice quality transfer. The movie has never looked or sounded better than it does on this Blu-ray, but be advised that this disc has ZERO extra features. If you've got the Special Edition DVD then you'll want to hang onto it for the bonus content. Even without the goodies, this Blu-ray is worth the double-dip for the improved video & audio.

Saw this on video years ago - great flying, but looking back on it now it's a bit ridiculous. The action take place over a city with people going about their lives whilst a helicopter has missiles fired at it by jets - which hits a new build skyscraper the shots one of them down with the pilot landing near a freeway - then gets machine gunned by another helicopter - all this with apparently no civilian casualties - bit 'A-Team'.The Blu-ray copy is fine packaging is German, but film and documentaries in English.However the cast and helicopter flying is good - this film did lead to 2 spin offs - Blue Thunder and the now possibly better remembered Air-Wolf.

The 80s was the golden age of action movies, and Blue Thunder still holds up as one of the most enjoyable. Part of a Summer double whammy from director John Badham that also saw him scoring a big hit with WarGames, it's another piece of paranoia turned into slick entertainment as Roy Scheider's Vietnam vet with a bad case of flashbackitis (otherwise known as Clint Eastwood Firefoxitis) gets reassigned from flying police choppers to testing out a new crowd control weapon - the heavily armed state of the art helicopter of the title. With 1984 literally just around the corner and fully equipped with computer-controlled gun systems, high-tech listening devices that can hear a mouse fart at 2000 feet and infrared cameras that see through walls, it's clearly intended for more than just crowd control at the Los Angeles Olympics, which isn't exactly a surprise since Malcolm McDowell's old wartime adversary is behind the program.Naturally Scheider uncovers their real, albeit vaguely defined dastardly plot and uses the weapon against them, with some especially spectacular results as helicopters duel over the city in scenes that are all the more impressive for being done largely for real. No CGi here and surprisingly few model shots too, just terrific stunt work excitingly edited. The Blue Thunder itself is a striking creation, first seen blotting out the rising sun like a malignant insect, the film clearly enjoying showing off its tricks and firepower as much as it pays lip-service to abhorring its purpose. The plotting may be rudimentary and the characters one step up from cardboard, but the film manages to sell them effectively enough to never quite allow them to be completely overshadowed by the hardware thanks to solid performances, with particularly good supporting turns from Daniel Stern as Scheider's rookie observer and a wonderful swansong from Warren Oates as his eloquently sarcastic boss (the film, co-produced by The Wild Bunch's Phil Feldman, even has a rather sweet dedication to him `for all the joy you gave us').It did inspire a dismal short-lived TV series that missed the point of the film and turned the Blue Thunder into a `good guy,' though the film itself was changed substantially from Dan Jakoby and Dan O'Bannon's original script. Closer to Taxi Driver with multi-million dollar firepower, that saw Scheider's psychotic character genuinely going crazy and shooting up the city, but the studio wanted the destruction without the high body count of innocent bystanders - it's one of the finished film's absurdities that for all the destruction only the villain gets hurt - turning him circuitously into the film's hero instead, borrowing more than a few plot points from the previous year's Firefox along the way while thankfully improving on Eastwood's film. The rather decent documentary on the special edition DVD AND Blu-ray goes into that in surprisingly frank detail, with O'Bannon even talking about the commercial reasons for his taking first billing on a screenplay largely written by Jakoby - with Alien just released and O'Bannon too ill to work full time, they could get a better deal with his name first. It's certainly a lot more informative than the vintage 1983 puff piece for the film that's also included and which has unfortunately been letterboxed from its original fullframe. The DVD special edition also includes three storyboard sequences that aren't on the Blu-ray, while the Blu-ray includes the original theatrical trailer, which isn't on the DVD special edition but was on the otherwise barebones original DVD release.Unfortunately the picture quality on Columbia's special edition DVD isn't any visible improvement over their earlier issue, with the same rather light blacks and limited depth: it's an acceptable widescreen transfer, but if it weren't for the new extras it wouldn't be worth the effort. However, the Blu-ray is a distinct step up in quality.

Blue Thunder is a 1983 action thriller film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Gordon Carroll, Phil Feldman, and Andrew Fogelson and directed by John Badham. The film features a high-tech helicopter of the same name and stars Roy Scheider, Warren Oates, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern, and Malcolm McDowell.A good action thriller which still holds up today with all the CCTV and Internet surveillance in today's world will leave you to ask which side you are on.

Boy do i miss Roy. He was one of finest, along with Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington, everything they touch turns to gold. This movie is no exception - the aerial shots are fantastic pre CGI, and this is a great conspiracy 80’s movie.

Its from the early eighties so it was filmed the good old fashioned way with real stunts, real explosions and none of these rubbishy CGI cheats.Roy Scheider plays a hotdog helicopter pilot for the police department who has been tasked with testing out a new super helicopter.He uncovers a secret plot and is framed for murdering his partner to keep him quiet.It doesn't work as you might expect.Great action and a very decent cast.Bluray is excellent picture and sound quality and some of the documentary extras are very good too.