Fire Birds [Wings of the Apache] ** (1990, Nicolas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones, Sean Young) – Classic Movie Review 12,215

Nicolas Cage stars in the 1990 American military action film Fire Birds [Wings of the Apache] as US Army Apache-assault-helicopter pilot Jake Preston, who is trained to peak fitness by tough chief warrant officer Brad Little (Tommy Lee Jones). Then, with a little help from equally tough ex-lover Billie Lee Guthrie (Sean Young), he zaps some nasty drug villains of a cartel in South America.

This harmless action entertainment is a routine Top Gun clone, with a miscast Cage adrift as a conventional hero. But the other actors fare better, particularly Jones, who reaps the rewards of overacting shamelessly, and director David Green tries hard to get the yarn airborne. The aerial stunt sequences involving combat helicopters are quite spectacular.

The story is conceived by retired Lieutenant Colonels Step Tyner and John K Swensson and retired Marine Captain Dale Dye.

Also in the cast are Bryan Kestner, Dale Dye, Mary Ellen Trainor, J A Preston, Peter Onorati, and Bert Rhine.

Writers: Nick Thiel (screenplay), Paul F Edwards (screenplay), Step Tyner (story), and John K Swensson (story), Dale Dye (story).

It is a co-production between Walt Disney Studios and Nova International Films, and was released under Disney’s Touchstone Pictures label. It is produced by William Badalato, Keith Barish and Arnold Kopelson.

It was shot primarily on location in Tucson, Arizona, at Pima Community College, and at Fort Hood, Texas army installation, home of the Army’s Apache Training Brigade.

Fire Birds premiered in the US on 25 May 1990 grossing a modest $14,760,451 (on a $22 million budget).

It runs only 87 minutes.

The soundtrack is composed and conducted by David Newman.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,215

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