(American Flyers, Another Stakeout, The Assassin, Bird on a Wire, Drop Zone, The Hard Way, Incognito, Nick of Time, Stakeout, Wargames)
Producers:
D.J. Caruso, Wallis Nicita and Lauren Lloyd
Screenplay:
Peter Barsocchini and John Bishop
Music:
Hans Zimmer
Cast:
Pete Nessip: Wesley Snipes (Blade, Demolition Man, Drop Zone, The Fan, Jungle Fever, King of New York, Mo' Better Blues, Money Train, Murder At 1600,
New Jack City, One Night Stand, Passenger 57, Rising Sun, Sugar Hill, To Wong Foo, U.S. Marshalls, White Men Can't Jump)
Ty Moncrief: Gary Busey (Big Wednesday, Chasers, Drop Zone, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Lethal Weapon, Lost Highway, Point Break, Predator 2, Rookie of the Year, Soldier, Surviving The Game, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,
Under Siege, Universal Soldier II, Warriors)
Jessie Crossman: Yancy Butler (Drop Zone, The Ex, Fast Money, Hard Target, The Hit List)
Drop Zone
is a parachuting term and that's what this film centres around when it comes to dealing with
the bad guys, perhaps trying to replicate the success of 1991's other Gary Busey-starrer,
Point Break.
While on a plane with his brother Terry (The Cosby Show's Malcolm Jamal-Warner,
who gets about two minutes of screen time), FBI guy Pete Nessip (Wesley Snipes) knows something
is wrong when he's called to the cockpit to be told of the terrorist presence onboard. D'oh!
They're there to collect witness Earl Leedy (Michael Jeter, most recently seen as
Death Row prisoner Eduard Delacroix, the mouse befriender, in
The Green Mile), who the Nessip
brothers are meant to be guarding, but before you know it, Ty Moncrief (Gary Busey,
playing a bad guy whose name is worth at least a double word score in Scrabble) and his
cronies blow a hole in the side of the plane and make their escape, also causing lots of
passengers to disappear with them, Alive-style.
What follows is a standard plot-by-numbers film as Nessip wants to get revenge for his
brother's death, albeit a rather entertaining one. Given that the enemies are all skydiving
geniuses, he has to learn too and is treated to a few lessons from Denise Richards-wannabe
Yancy Butler as Jessie Crossman, an actress who looked like she might stay around after
this and Hard Target), but
quickly faded back into obscurity.
There are, however, some cool action sequences and plenty of one-liners, the best of which
are delivered by the ever-impressive Busey.
One of the things that's always irked me about this film is that during the early scene
where the plane has problems, Snipes is seen to be holding onto chair legs while trying
to stop his brother from slipping outside. As soon as he go "bye bye", Snipes lets go and
sobs uncontrollably, hammering the floor of the plane as he boo-hoos. Of course, he's not
holding onto anything else in the plane, for some time, right by the open door, so how
come he's not sucked out too?
One thing that has to be noted here is that this is the first time Drop Zone has
ever been available in the correct 2.35:1 widescreen ratio in the UK, as the PAL Laserdisc
was cropped to about 2.1:1, in similar fashion to the NTSC laserdisc. It's also anamorphic,
free of artifacts and has a stunning quality to it that will make your jaw drop during the
daylight skydiving sequences. The average bitrate is a high 8.10Mb/s, often hovering just
above that.
The sound is first rate too. I don't have a Dolby Digital 5.1 setup at home, more's the
pity, but I have good recollection of this film in the cinema soundwise. Impressive effects
included a moment when a plane simply flies past the screen - takes a second and that's it
- doesn't sound impressive to describe it like that, BUT, what we saw was the moment as it
was halfway doing a circle round the audience. I wanted to turn my head as it left the
screen, it was that impressive, knowing that I'd feel a right idiot if I did because there
would be nothing there... and sure enough, I turned my head and saw a cinema wall. Ahem.
Another great moment comes when Snipes is tricked into diving from the plane as Yancy
drops him out on purpose just when he doesn't realise it. It was a deafening sound.
Behind me there was also two boneheads who professed to have got in without paying. However,
at one point during the film, Snipes is sitting at his desk and a knock on the door is heard
on the extreme right of the auditorium. Bonehead 1 turned to Bonehead 2 and said,
"Hear that? That NICAM sound that is!" Doofus!
Extras :
Chapters :
19 chapters for the 97-minute running time which is just about enough, although I never
say no to more.
Languages/Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and German; surround for Czechs, whilst those of Polish
origin only get a mono option. Subtitles are available in
English (and hard of hearing), German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish,
Dutch and Icelandic.
And there's more... :
Well, a two-minute Theatrical Trailer and that's it.
Menu :
A basic static and silent menu with a shot of the front cover and the usual
options.
Overall, it's formulaic but entertaining. Whether it will stand up to repeated viewings
is another matter, plus the fact that it's been cut by the BBFC for about 10 seconds worth
of non-15-cert-friendly material.
In the short time that Paramount have entered the DVD market, they've shown they're perfectly
capable of producing a perfect-looking picture with sound to match - and how many companies
can honestly say that? - but all we need now are the extras.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
