Fighter pilot IMAX

[Guest Dirt Beater]

Anyone seen it yet?

[Spartacus]

Nope. Where I am it doesn't come out until June.

[ghost_ttu]

I saw it, don't expect Oscar winning performances, because it isn't acting, it's pretty much a documentary on Red Flag. That being said, very good photage, gives a good glimpse of Red Flag (that will have to be commented on by someone that has attended RF) I enjoyed it based solely on getting a better idea of what RF does, and the video in flight.

[Toro]

I haven't seen it, but you can expect that the average Joe will think it's outstanding while the more experienced fighter guy will shake his head at some of the innaccuracies. You'll never get a commercial movie that will 100% accurately portray anything in the military. The preview clips on the IMAX Red Flag film website look great but, for example, anytime you see two of the same aircraft in close formation (in the same shot), it's not accurate. That's done for the camera and viewer - except for coming up initial and going through weather, we never fly that close, and certainly not at low altitude.

Now, that being said, I'm sure this is leaps and bounds above Top Gun and all its inaccuracies, and I plan to see the IMAX film.

[Guest nickythefish]

Saw it a few days ago and must say that there seemed to be a rather large "Cheese" factor. Most of the aerial footage was cool though.

[Guest IGB]

Saw it over X-mas at the USAF museum. A lot of what would have been considered cool or amazing shots were done by a computer. The story line was ok. They put a face to the "figher pilot". What is funny, and be sure to look for it, is when ever they show the mass briefings and are filming the movie's star, look to the screen's left, his right, and see the APT kid taking notes like he's leading a four-ship package that day. He's in all of the briefing scenes. The movie has a bit of a "JAG" feel when the star was flying BFM, then debriefing, was chosen to be the the focus of our CSAR assets and he was shown evading, etc. Maybe Red Flag is like that, but probably not. What I did like about the movie is that it portrayed all of the support agencies doing their jobs from Mx doing engine runs and a swap to the FD putting out a simulated jet fire. What was missing was the IMAX shot of finance losing your travel voucher.

[Guest mrharvester]

The movie is worth seeing, but I was expecting a lot more cool footage than it actually had. Ditto on the cheese factor. I especially liked the scene where the ABM and some other guy in the back of the AWACS were confused about what the different colored airplanes meant on the radar screen.

[Guest PhiPsiViper]

I like top gun ,i think it inspired me to be a pilot one day

[Mambo]

Originally posted by MrHarvester:

I especially liked the scene where the ABM and some other guy in the back of the AWACS were confused about what the different colored airplanes meant on the radar screen.

Thank God I sit in the front of the plane!

[ClearedHot]

For a little comic relief I thought I would provide a review of the IMAX Fighter Pilot Operation Red Flag film now showing at the new Air and Space Museum. My family all flew into DC last week for a medal presentation so I ran them out to the museum. My nephew wanted to see the flick so we all paad our $8.00.

First let me say there are some great flying scenes, but within the first twenty seconds I started to chuckle. They show an F-15C doing and unrestricted climb out of Nellis, but the cool factor stops when he rolls over on top and checks in with "Miami Center".

There is some great footage of low-levels out on the range but they mix mission and pictures from the F-15C and F-15E.

Watching this film you would think every aircraft in the USAF has 10,000 gallons of Napalm to drop. You would also think all we do is fly around and drop flares every two seconds.

The only part of the film that really bothered me was when the digitized a few F-15's down low for dramatic effect. The real views were enough for me to wish I was back flying.

All in all a decent flick, but don't expect a realistic experience of flying at Red Flag.

[Guest Brutus]

I thought that in the first scene the pilot was on his way to Nellis. That may be why he checked in with "Miami Center".

[Mambo]

Man...our guys here don't do unrestricted climbs on their way to a TDY....maybe I should let them know that they are doing them in the states so our guys can do that too...

By the way, did that jet going from Miami to Las Vegas have any external tanks on it???

But of course I'll go see it first chance I get, it's gotta be better than that other AF movie...Iron Eagle I, II and III.

[Guest eowizard]

I thought it was very entertaining, I wasn't expecting a totally realistic portrayal, not that I would have noticed. There was definitely some Hollywood factored in. I asked an ABM if they really had the elaborate AWACS 3D battlefield software shown in the movie, he said their screens looked more like an old Atari game.

[ClearedHot]

Originally posted by Brutus:

I thought that in the first scene the pilot was on his way to Nellis. That may be why he checked in with "Miami Center".

I was stationed at Nellis for three years and I grew up in Miami. The runway in the film was Nellis.

[Guest Brutus]

Well Nellis or not, it was trying to portray the dude going to Nellis. Your average Joe Bag of Doughnuts watching the film really doesn't know that, nor would he probably care.

[ClearedHot]

Originally posted by Brutus:

Well Nellis or not, it was trying to portray the dude going to Nellis. Your average Joe Bag of Doughnuts watching the film really doesn't know that, nor would he probably care.

The message I posted was for the people who view this board and have a greater appreciation for things aviation related, not the average Joe Bag of Donuts on the street.

Thanks for the tip Joe.

[ 30. January 2005, 09:09: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

[ClearedHot]

Originally posted by Mambo:

Man...our guys here don't do unrestricted climbs on their way to a TDY....maybe I should let them know that they are doing them in the states so our guys can do that too...

By the way, did that jet going from Miami to Las Vegas have any external tanks on it???

But of course I'll go see it first chance I get, it's gotta be better than that other AF movie...Iron Eagle I, II and III.

No tanks and the camera angle was great. Then they digitized a C model doing a low-level for dramtic affect.

It also had a section with A-10s mixing it up with HH-60's.

At one point they had a scene with a 7 ship of HH-60's flying together, how much maintenance effort did that take?

[ 30. January 2005, 18:40: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

[Mambo]

Maybe it was only 1 HH-60 and the other 6 computer generated...

[Guest Aces-High]

Yea, I really wished they would have just stuck to the real footage instead of trying to dramatize the low level stuff. I always think real is better than dramatic, but that's me. I was also a little pissed that with all the airframes they demonstrated in the film, there was not one 135 ? I guess it just shows that the 135 crews have real work to do, and don't have time to dance around at red flag with the pretty boys. :D

[ClearedHot]

Aces-High as far as I am concerned, they should make an IMAX tanker movie. I will never say another word after they way the 135's helped me in OEF. Came into indian country and did a tobagan all the way down to 2000 AGL to help me cover a crash site and recovery. Be proud of what you do.

[Guest Wxpunk]

I just saw it tonight at a market test preview. I enjoyed the movie but had a few issues that have already been discussed and one that wasn’t:

The A-10 attack scene where the tank/apc was simply sparking while getting pummeled with depleted uranium rounds and then the ensuing fuel explosion (as if there would be fuel in an old target vehicle) comes from a few feet away. They used allot of pyrotechnics and only one actual bomb scene.

But, it was still worth the free ticket. :D

---------------

Wxpunk

[AFCS_Actuator]

I saw the movie in Vegas, at the Luxxor, right after I spent the day at Nellis on an ROTC tour. All the stuff in the movie is at Nellis. And I'll be damned if I didn't recognize three or four of the officers that were in the movie. BTW - the Threat Center is a bunch of fun!

[Toro]

Abso****inglutely terrible.

I went and saw it with a bunch of buddies (all aircrew) and the quote that best summed up the movie was "Man, leave it up to the Air Force to fag up something cool like Red Flag."

Here are just a few of my beefs - rant switch on...

- The main character is an F-15C pilot, yet all the footage is F-15E. WTFO? I know the IMAX makers said something about him being a great candidate because his dad was a pilot, but who gives a crap. He didn't do any acting and IMAX faked everything else, so why not get some F-15E dude and make up some story about his dad being a pilot?

- CGI footage of the planes at low altitude.

- The dude flies a solo F-15 to Nellis. Except for FCFs, OCFs, and wingman aborts, we never fly solo.

- Every time the red flag briefer made an irrelevant comment ("Good morning, today is Thursday"), every person in the room would simultaneously pull out their pens (click-click-click-click-click) and start writing.

- As eowizard pointed out, AWACS scopes weren't even close to real - it looked like something out of Battlestar Galactica...even had real-time HUD footage of the aircraft. Gimme a break.

- Contrary to what IMAX would have you believe, Red Flag does actually consist of more than flying around at low altitude and popping off flares every 6-9 seconds. If I had a quarter for every unnecessary flare that was expended...

- As Wxpunk mentioned, the explosions weren't real. Of everything that blew up, there was only one shot that was not staged and it was very clearly a different quality of film (stock footage).

- Along with that, the F-15s strafed as they were level to climbing. We can't do that - nose has to pointed at the ground.

- After his kill, the Aggressor flight lead "Tractor," clenches his fist and yells out "Yes!". I hope his buddies don't let him live that down. I suggest a replot of for him.

- Total trucker comm during the fights....though not enough of it. Red Flag is an absolute comm nightmare and I don't think they got across the point of how hectic and confusing it really is (they attempted it for about 6-9 seconds in the AWACS, but it could have been played up much more).

So most of you might think I'm being nitpicky and that the stuff I'm complaining about wouldn't matter to the casual observer. Absolutely correct. My beef is that IMAX had a golden opportunity and they pissed it away so they could dumb it down for the masses. There was no need to do that. With only minor changes to the movie that would not have detracted from he overall flow, they could have kept it true to absolute chaos and excitement of Red Flag. Pretty unbelievable that somebody got paid to be a technical advisor to that movie.

Rant switch off.

[Guest Shortbus]

I saw it last week at wright Pat. I was also very disapointed. I don't understand why they just didn't keep it real. Do they honestly think people are going to be bored? The GCI BS was what pissed me off the most. There was some great flying footage that looked a thousand times better. I'm sure before the movie was actually shot they paid some computer geeks to do some of that cool "hollywood shit" and figured they just had to put it in the movie since all of the movies comming out of hollywood have that BS in them. My mom came out to visit and that is why I went to see that gay movie in the first place. I figured it might have some good 135 shots. Wrong! Man the gouchie boys get all the fame. Oh well. I guess I figured it would be cheesy, and I wasn't disapointed. The best part was when they kept dropping their masks and hooping it up. That was pretty funny. I guess you have to drop it if you want to shout or something. It's been so long since I have had to wear a helmet I forget. What do I know I'm just a stupid tanker guy.

[Guest Wxpunk]

...yeah, and you ride the shortbus anyway. :D

--------------

Wxpunk