Best movie of this year hands down!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

However with today's technology and killing prowess of the worlds' militaries the tech displayed in this movie is underwhelming. I remember watching this when it first came out when the helicopter seemed so futuristic. Now, not so much. It doesn't take away from the story line or the action. It's no Lethal Weapon but is definitely worth a watch.

Officer Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is a helicopter pilot for the L.A.P.D. He is haunted by an incident during the Vietnam war. His partner transfered to the day shift and he's given a newbie in Officer Richard Lymangood (Daniel Stern). They're suspended after city councilwoman Diane McNeely gets attacked on their watch. Murphy is suspicious and investigates on his own. Murphy is taken to a test of a new helicopter codename Blue Thunder flown by Col. Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell). It's a military weapon modified for civilian use with the upcoming Olympics in mind. Cochrane and Murphy has a combative history and Cochrane sabotages his helicopter. Murphy gets to fly Blue Thunder with all of its high tech gadgets. Using its surveillance capabilities, Murphy uncovers a conspiracy.The story is too convoluted. I don't really understand what the conspiracy is trying to do with Murphy. Cochrane is trying to kill him one minute and then the plan is to set him up for something the next minute. I don't think any of the conspiracy actually makes sense other than killing the councilwoman. The action is still fun. It is a lot of shooting and a lot of explosions. It doesn't take itself too serious especially when the barbecue workshop gets blown up. It is a fun action movie wrapped around some unreal story elements.

Blue Thunder was a great film when I was 13 but unlike most it's still a great film now. It's set in 1980 Los Angeles and Frank Murphy (Roy Schneider) is selected to flight test a new 'Anti Riot' helicopter prototype (Project THOR: Tactical Helicopter Offensive Response or Nicknamed Blue Thunder by the development team). As often is the way, the leaders of this project have a more sinister underlying plan for this piece of hardware revolving around possible terrorist action during the up and coming Olympic Games. The only thing that dates this film is the computer effects used during one of the fight/flight scenes. The Action contained within it (for an early eighties film) is first class. The main plot line is waaaaay ahead of it's time, the flight scenes are superb, the dialogue is compelling but above all believable with none of the clunk of the Blue Thunder T.V show, or the later offering (unrelated by studio) of Airwolf. The casting is excellent, Roy Schneider plays Frank Murphy brilliantly, Malcolm McDowell is really good as the annoying military test pilot but the show is stolen by Warren Oats as Frank Murphy's C.O Captain Jack Braddock. "If you notice that I don't have an ass when I get out of this chair it's because the Mayor has chewed it off". This film is also one of the first, I believe, to call reference to P.T.S.D, as suffered by countless Vietnam war veterans. I can highly recommend this film to you, if you are a fan of espionage, hardware or just plain suspense films you will really enjoy it.

A few years before Top Gun set new standards for fighter plane action movies, John Badham directed Blue Thunder, an action movie about a combat helicopter of the same name. Roy Scheider plays Frank Murphy, yet another cop, who is selected to pilot the revolutionary helicopter Blue Thunder. BT is a top-modern combat helicopter with some incredibly advanced spying equipment allowing the pilots to listen through walls, use infrared scanners among other things. This equipment quickly backfires on the crew, accidentally listening in on a meeting of a subversive group inside the FBI places Murphy and his co-pilot Lymangood (Daniel Stern) in danger.Sure enough, Murphy is framed, and subsequently chased, and an interesting helicopter hunt begins. The strength of this movie is its brilliant action sequences, the helicopter scenes are very impressive in a time before modern cgi could help filmmakers out, and this gives the film a great look of authenticity, and though some scale models are clearly used, many of the most impressive scenes are genuine stunt work.It is a shame that this film has become somewhat forgotten today, as it is easily on par with some of the more well-known action films of the 80s. The casting of Roy Scheider means that what the film's hero may be lacking in pure muscle size, it clearly has a lot of character instead. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie and it certainly delivers impressive action entertainment.