I love this movie so much

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

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

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Federal marshal Pete Nessip (Wesley Snipes) and his brother; fellow marshal Terry Nessip (Malcolm Jamal Warner) are escorting a prisoner to Atlanta when the plane they are travelling on is hi-jacked by a bunch of sky-diving criminals led by former DEA agent Ty Moncrief (Gary Busey)The Nessip brothers' prisoner is taken from the marshals custody by said sky-diving criminals (in order to carry out cyber crimes on their behalf). With the help of professional sky-diver Jessie Crossman (Yancy Butler), Pete sets about stopping Moncrief and his crew whilst he simultaneously tries to avenge his brother's death...As far as action films go then Drop Zone is probably about as generic as they come; there is very little in the way of originality offered up here and no real surprises in store, but what really lets it down is that, for the most part, it just isn't much fun to watch....It begins with a bang and sets itself up as a tongue-in-cheek action film (which given the material and the rather sub-standard performances this is the only way it can really be looked upon), but it isn't consistently fun and it wavers wildly between dumb-ass cringe-inducing dialogue, back to serious plotting and then back to dumb-ass cringe-inducing dialogue. The director doesn't seem to know how to play the film out and by wildly switching between tones the film never really works and is either embarrassing to watch or just plain dull (and I'm still not sure what is worse).The performances are pretty poor as well; Busey just embarrasses himself although he does at least look like he's having fun here. Butler is very wooden and brings virtually nothing to the table, but it's Snipes that was the real surprise and given how energetic he can be I was surprised by how much he underplayed the role here - although again this could be the director's fault rather than Snipes.Drop Zone isn't a total waste though and some of the action scenes (particularly the ones at the start) give the film some life and energy and some of the sky-diving sequences are quite good (although some of these sequences seemed a tad over-indulgent - what exactly was the point of showing all of the sky-divers holding hands in a circle at several thousand feet on numerous occasions?? I really wanted to like Drop Zone as I do normally enjoy a bit of action cheese and hoped that it would be a film that I could say was 'So bad that it's good', but unfortunately, it's mostly just bad.

This is one of the best Skydiving Action thrillers ever made, Wesley Snipes is brilliant as a U.S. Marshal whose brother is killed by air-jet skydiving terrorists lead by actor Gary Busey, who captures a passenger. Snipes shaken up by his brother's death, decides to team up with skydiving experts, to find the terrorists, and stop them from robbing a high-rised bank on Independence day. This film has great action scenes, special effects filled skydiving sequences. The energized soundtrack matching the action scenes is also flawless, as is the crystal clear widescreen presentation and filming, not the least of which is a script having a realism that leaves no stone un-turned.Let me tell you about the action. It's excellent! Even if you're not a sky-diving fan, this will make you want to take it up. You always know when a films good and that's when you want to be or do what that actor is doing in the film. Drop Zone achieves this with flying colors. One problem with this film however is that some of the effects are now looking a bit ropey. This, thankfully, is only on about a total of 5 seconds worth of effects from the whole film. This is quite an achievement considering that the film is all about effects and stunts. What do you expect, it is about sky-diving after all. In complete, this film is a good, all-round action film even if you don't know anything about sky-diving or even if you don't have an interest in sky-diving.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

US Marshal Pete Nessip and his brother Terry, also a US Marshal are assigned to escort convicted computer hacker Earl Leedy to a top-security prison.But the commercial airliner Pete and Terry are on-board is hijacked by a group of terrorists led by renegade DEA agent Ty Moncrief who kidnaps Leedy and Terry is killed.Believing Leedy is dead, Pete is held responsible for the incident and is suspended. Pete sets out to track down the terrorists, and turns to help from professional skydiver Jesse Crossman (Whose ex-husband Jagger is one of the terrorists working with Ty), where Jesse and her team are taking part in a Independence Day skydiving show in Washington D.C, where airspace security is at minimum.Where Ty plans to use Leedy to hack into the DEA mainframe computer to expose the identities of undercover DEA agents to international drug rings.When Jagger is killed by Ty and Selkirk, one of Jesse's team members is injured, Pete and Jesse team up to stop Ty and his associates, and both Pete and Jesse can get their revenge....There is a strange thing about Badham and his movies. They are strange average creatures that attract big stars, and for some reason, I cannot get enough of them.Here is a prime example of one. The action is limited to a few fights and some really bad blue screen diving (it really is the pits) but Snipes is at his swaggery best and really makes the film a little kookier.Released around the same time as Termianl Velocity, this is the more serious version, as Sheens monster really played it for laughs.Busey is out acted by his hair, and come the final scene, his hair has taken over his body, so his stunt double really has to wear the most awkward wig ever.Despite the bad effects and the average fight scenes, there is something about this movie that makes it watchable, when it shouldn't be...

Although it's utterly ridiculous, I really, really enjoy this movie. Badham is a fine, if underrated action/thriller director; WarGames is great, Nick of Time is good, and his other notable movies include Stakeout, Saturday Night Fever, and The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings. He keeps Drop Zone moving quickly enough that suspended disbelief doesn't lift, which is a good thing considering that the bad guys are rogue skydivers. Seriously. Fortunately, the head bad guy is played by Gary Busey, who could make an interior decorator evil.There's some great aerial photography, and it makes skydiving look awesome. It's extremely well-paced, the supporting cast is likable, and the script is enjoyably amusing. Snipes is one of the premier action stars of his generation, and his presence alone can elevate a movie from the mediocre to the above average. And Yancy Butler is absolutely smoking. End of story.This movie is actually one of the more compulsively watchable to be released at the end of the action movie renaissance of the mid-'80s to mid-'90s. I'd watch it right now, even though I just saw it last night. My definition of a good movie.