Air America has a pretty interesting soundtrack of period music (during the Vietnam war era), which will keep most viewers watching. I hasten to add that the final Fred Astaire track really comes out of nowhere.
I wanted to like this movie. It treats the CIA's drug and gun-running in Laos during the vexed Vietnam conflict. President Nixon is shown on television insisting that there are no combat troops in Laos ("No boots on the ground!" Sound familiar?). The plot focuses on the role played by the CIA in supporting the production of heroin in exchange for cooperation of the Laotian military. Some attention is given to the nature of covert activities and the types of people (losers and mercenaries) who sign up for such missions.
The primary problem is that there is a real cacophony of tones and messages. Air America tries to be smart, but it comes off as rather lame. Not really incisive enough to count as a serious critique of the war or US policy, nor really funny enough to constitute comedy. Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. are both pretty mediocre in this production, and they are the best of the cast, which abounds in stereotypical caricatures of the usual suspects: CIA agents, senators, prostitutes, Asian military figures, among others.
It would be great for people to learn about the involvement of the Caustic Incompetence Agency in the drug trade during the US military engagement in Vietnam--especially since many veterans came home addicted to heroin and ended up social outcasts. But it would probably be better to read some books than to watch this middling effort.
I wanted to like this movie. It treats the CIA's drug and gun-running in Laos during the vexed Vietnam conflict. President Nixon is shown on television insisting that there are no combat troops in Laos ("No boots on the ground!" Sound familiar?). The plot focuses on the role played by the CIA in supporting the production of heroin in exchange for cooperation of the Laotian military. Some attention is given to the nature of covert activities and the types of people (losers and mercenaries) who sign up for such missions.
The primary problem is that there is a real cacophony of tones and messages. Air America tries to be smart, but it comes off as rather lame. Not really incisive enough to count as a serious critique of the war or US policy, nor really funny enough to constitute comedy. Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. are both pretty mediocre in this production, and they are the best of the cast, which abounds in stereotypical caricatures of the usual suspects: CIA agents, senators, prostitutes, Asian military figures, among others.
It would be great for people to learn about the involvement of the Caustic Incompetence Agency in the drug trade during the US military engagement in Vietnam--especially since many veterans came home addicted to heroin and ended up social outcasts. But it would probably be better to read some books than to watch this middling effort.