STEALTH FIGHTER is a STV that employs a sizable amount of stock footage to retell the tale told 100 times more professionally in BROKEN ARROW. A fighter pilot (Ice-T, who reads every line with even less inflection than Chuck Norris, if that's possible) fakes his own death in order to eventually get around to stealing a Stealth for a mobbed-up bad guy (the ever-grim Andrew Divoff, once again playing a bad Latino). Ice-T's old compadre, hotshot pilot Costas Mandylor (the new millennium's Michael Pare), is hot on his trail. I should have been suspicious of all the stock footage and cheap-looking miniatures. Sure enough, the director is good old Mr. Recycler, the Dumpster Diver himself, Jim Wynorski. The only good thing about this flick: A black actor plays the U.S. president. Bad news, though: It's Ernie Hudson, who is not believable for one moment as the president. Hudson hasn't been believable in anything since GHOSTBUSTERS, although I do love to watch him get his at the end of THE SUBSTITUTE. And here's a little bit of irony or coincidence: Veteran character actor "Tiny" Lister has a modest role in the flick as a thug. Tiny, who is black, played the U.S. president in THE FIFTH ELEMENT. Lister I can buy as the president.
Review of Stealth Fighter
