The fall of 1994 saw two skydiving action flicks go head-to-head. First up was Terminal Velocity, starring Charlie Sheen in the days of his last gasp grab for action-man status before descending into the shambolic self-parody where he became most famous for being 'Denise Richard's husband.' An absurdly overblown stunt reel of preposterously proposed high-altitude antics that saw our man Charles as the impossibly named Ditch Brodie engaging in fisticuffs with former KGB nasty boys, in the back seat of a Cadillac, hurtling towards the Earth from 30,000 feet, Terminal Velocity was redundant, derivative, and simply dreadful.
Hot in it's heels a mere three months later was Drop Zone, which if nothing else effectively answers that question that occasionally pops up during a nostalgic cinema conversation - 'What ever happened to Wesley Snipes career?'. Answer: It tanked because he consistently made dreck like this - oh, and then didn't pay his taxes. A lazy riff on the central conceit of Point Break - lawman must catch criminals by immersing himself in their adrenaline junkie subculture - minus that film's snappy script and fluid, kinetic direction, genre hack-for-hire John Badham somehow manages to make plummeting through the troposphere seem labored, offering up a glorified, extreme-sports themed episode of Miami Vice.
Even more bizarrely he seems to have misunderstood the basic definition of subculture. Terrified that anything existing on the margins of society might be perceived as being a bit weird and, by extension, undesirable, Badham would have us believe that there are enough skydivers hanging around at any given time that they could effectively mobilize against the National Guard should the mood strike them. Into this standing army marches Pete Nessip (Snipes), a US Marshall chasing a high-tech criminal gang led by Ty Moncrief (Gary Busey) who high-jacked an airliner as cover for the kidnap of a DEA witness on his way to testify. Being the early nineties they hadn't really invented Islamic fundamentalism yet, so the bad guys are working for the South American cartels, and anyone characterized as being sufficiently physically unattractive is a computer hacker capable of penetrating federal databases in a matter of minutes, with any old laptop you care to throw at him.
Nessip's only way into this world is through the coercion of Jessie Crossman (Yancy Bates), an ex-sky-diving champion, who, wouldn't-you-know-it, is sassy, sexy and complete with parole violations he can use for leverage. Bates' character, while not uneasy on the eyes, exists for no other purpose than because the sight of Snipes strapped tightly to the body of another dude for the same amount of time might look, you know, a bit gay.
But even up in the air Badham badly let's us down. Cock teased with the promise of thrills and spills we're given obvious stunt doubles and apocalyptically bad green screen. Snipes, who typically does a decent line in grinning, gaudy ass-kicking is for his part such a total non-entity you wonder if he didn't accidentally land on his head during pre-production. What Drop Zone lacks so badly is even the vaguest hint of self-awareness as to it's own extreme levels of absurdity. Even Point Break - magnificent guilty pleasure that it is - managed to acknowledge it's own latent homoeroticism, with Keanu Reeves' straight-faced enquiry "Are we going to jump or jerk-off?" being not so much a throwaway quip as a profound moment of clarity. What else to say about Drop Zone? It's no Terminal Velocity, that's for sure.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Nothing beyond the original theatrical trailer.
"Drop Zone" is on sale February 9, 2010 and is rated R. Action. Directed by John Badham. Written by John Bishop & Peter Barsocchini. Starring Gary Busey, Wesley Snipes, Yancy Butler.
