Falcon Down - Todesflug ins Eismeer

Being a huge science fiction fan I picked this movie to balance out my wife's romantic comedy pick. Ironically, in spite of all the expectations of a terrible B grade movie, I was pleasantly surprised in some areas. OK, so there was a laughable storyline. Was this a blatant ripoff of that terrible 70's movie FIREFOX with Clint Eastwood? And if so, why would anybody choose to ripoff such a disaster to begin with? Dale Midkiff couldn't act his way out of a paperbag, much less this movie. The CGI special effects were embarrassingly bad and were barely a step above 1950's Buck Roger's flying saucers. BUT here's the good stuff. Judd Nelson is actually pretty good in this film. Maybe I'm so used to seeing him in his typical schoolboy role, but he really does a reasonable convincing job as the conspirator. And any opportunity to watch William Shatner is always good. The set design was surprisingly good for a movie that probably didn't have much for sets. A very interesting design for the flight deck, especially from an aircraft buff like myself. And a nice design for the aircraft itself, reminiscent of the old Valkyrie experimental airplanes that were mothballed by the airforce after a few disastrous test flights.