Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #119436 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-12-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Customer Reviews

tricks of the trade
ACTIVE STEALTH stars Daniel Baldwin, Fred Williamson, and Hannes Jaenicke (sp.?) in a standard rescue-mission action flick. Soldiers fly in a "modified" Stealth fighter to save their comrade, held prisoner by a Central American drug lord. Watching the DVD the first time, the movie held my interest, and I thought it was average fare--entertaining but not memorable.

I watched the DVD again with commentary by director Fred Olen Ray, and it was a blast. Ray is a hoot. His comments give all kinds of insight into how the movie was made. He introduces actors, and explains how shots are usually set up and executed. He explains special effects. Ray tells what it cost to rent the plane, and how the crew created "smoke" blowing past the actors in a few scenes (a worker blowing pipe smoke at them, actually).

Throughout the commentary, Fred is entertaining. If you've ever wondered how a B-movie gets made, ACTIVE STEALTH is for you.

I give the movie 3 stars, and the DVD 5 stars. Split the difference, and the ACTIVE STEALTH DVD gets 4 stars.

"Iron Eagle" meets "Delta Force"
"Active Stealth" is a story of "US Army Rangers" on counterdrug and hostage rescue missions in Central America; plausible Ranger missions. It goes terribly awry from there with more than the usual howlers for a straight-to-video action flick. "Rangers" assault targets in broad daylight, with no suppressive fire, no body armor and no face camoflauge-it was obvious few of the actors had experience with M16s/AKMs/Berettas. Firefights ensue with 2000rds being expended at a range of 50 meters or so, with almost no casualties-to both sides. After this mission, where for the first time since Norris' "Delta Force" in the '80s we find actors who need haircuts, we meet the characters in "Company C" (only 4 though, apparently the other 100+ folks and A,B and D Companies are on leave..it's ALWAYS Company C in these movies). Colonel Williamson, who also needs a haircut and moustache trim, assigns Company C to a Stealth fighter that can hold about 4 people behind the pilot-not unlike "Executive Decision". The plan is insert Company C, rescue a guy left behind, blow stuff up and escape. Two ARMY pilots are sent off to a carrier to fly an F14 for top cover, presumably to take advantage of ample stock carrier footage. The F117 static for the loading scenes is actually a pretty good model of an actual F117. Also, stock footage of F117 ops are matched closely with shots of the mockup. The HUDs in the air-air scenes are fairly realistic-much more so than in Iron Eagle-faint praise indeed. Uniforms look well researched. Rank is correctly placed and the ribbons appear to be in the right sequence (yes, costume designers there IS an order to how ribbons are placed and it doesn't take much research to get it right); BDUs (fatigues) have too many Ranger tabs-1 per shoulder has always been found to be sufficient.

The good points, yeah there are some, are two: I originally got this DVD when I saw that Ms Ava Fabian had a part in the movie. (I had the pleasure of playing beach volleyball with her in a Pro_Am tourney many years ago. One of her expressions of disgust in the flick reminded me of a look I got when she set me up for a spike, which I promptly put in the net. But I digress.) She acquits herself well here, given her small, uncredited part, and is so mentioned by the director in his commentary, the other good part. The commentary is definitely more interesting than the movie, as he explains exactly what financial and time constraints he was under-and even points out some howlers of his own.

Worth renting on Dollar-night for the director's commentary, and if you're a fan of Ava Fabian, for her pretty good performance. My DVD says it's rated "R". Might be hype to sell DVDs-there's nothing in this over say, PG-13.

This is so innaccurate!
This movie was a real loser. It is so innaccurate. "Rangers assulting a target in broad daylight with standard issue M-16's an M9's with no silencers or scopes. Most Rangers would use an M-4 or an MP5. No face paint, no stealth at all. Also, what Army unit flys a news crew style helicopter to pickup Rangers in the middle of South America? It should have been a Blackhwawk or a Huey gunship with AH-64 Apache air support.
The capabibility to shoot of these "Rangers" is terrible too. At little more than 100 feet they empty an entire clip and hit nothing but air.
The worst part of the movie was Army pilots flying an Air Force F-117 TWO SEATER WITH A CARGO BAY? NO NO NO!! It is a 1 man AIR FORCE, stealth bomber. Also Army pilots "carrier qualified" and F-14 qualified? No.
No. This movie was terrible, do not rent or buy it.