"New Jack City" director Mario Van Peebles' straight-to-video feature "Red Sky" concerns a quartet of "Top Gun" style U.S. Navy aviators during the Iraq war that receive orders to blast a suspicious Iraqi chemical weapons facility with their missiles. An unknown individual known only as "Warlord 2" (Mario Van Peebles) transmits those orders. Later, to their horror, our heroes learn that they had fired on friendly American inspectors searching the site for a weapon of mass destruction—a Rainmaker—designed by Saddam to destroy oilfields. The fliers—'Cobra' (Cam Gigandet of "Twilight"), 'Cajun' (Troy Garity of "Sabotage"), 'Rodeo' (Shane West of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen") and 'P-Dawg' (Jacob Vargas) cannot prove that they received authenticated attack orders. Similarly, the JAG officer in charge of the prosecution, Captain John Webster (Bill Pullman of "Independence Day"), cannot produce the tapes that would convict this foursome. This stalemate prompts our heroes to leave the Navy. Afterward, Rodeo and his fiancée, Karen Brooks (Rachel Leigh Cook of "Josie and the Pussycats") break up when he objects to the intimate way she treats Cobra in a bar.
Afterward, our heroes go back into the private sector. Meantime, Kurdish rebels associated with "Warlord 2" appropriate the Rainmaker. The Pentagon believes that our heroes obliterated the 'Rainmaker' when they fired on the plant. Seven years elapses and three of them grow suspicious about one of them. Meanwhile, Tom Craig's former fiancée has become a respected journalist who is ferreting out information about the debacle in the former Soviet Union. Intelligence agents grille Cobra about his role in the botched mission, but he refuses to tell them anything other than what he told the court. Captain Webster is beginning to have suspicions about Cobra. Webster serves in the Pentagon now. He approaches Cobra about an audacious plan to fly into Iran to destroy the Rainmaker in a "strictly off the books" secret mission where they will be flying jets with Iranian colors. Webster offers Cobra and his comrades the opportunity to clear their names and receive honorable Navy discharges. We also learn that during the seven years after the debacle, Cobra has been slipping money to the Marine's widow. Anyway, Cobra and his men decide to take Webster up on his offer. They learn that they will have to perform a HALO insertion into Iran, steal the planes, and equip them with special bombs to destroy the Rainmaker. Of course, it should come as no surprise that our heroes are double-crossed after they HALO into Iran and land in a prison.
Mario Van Peebles generates minimal urgency in this complicated aerial combat opus based on retired Navy pilot Randy Arrington's novel "Kerosene Cowboys: Manning the Spare." The intriguing premise and the first 40 minutes create no surprises, and the characters have no depth beyond surface appearances. None of the leads engender any charisma, especially Cam Gigandet, and Gigandet has done better things with greater personality. "Red Sky" has all the hallmarks of a straight-to-video release. It is too matter of fact despite its above-average, overqualified cast. Confined to a colorless role, Bill Pullman appears either out of place or just too old to be useful as a lead. Rachel Leigh Cook is pretty dull, too, as an investigative journalist. The two treacherous villains are hopelessly lackluster, too, until three-fourths of the action has taken place. One of them vanishes early and the other has everybody completely fooled everybody about his identity. Altogether, "Red Sky" isn't a total loss. Peebles jacks up the action after our heroes escape from the prison and perform their mission. Their far-fetched escape from an Iranian airfield imitates "Tomorrow Never Dies" when Cobra using a jet to mow down Iranian soldiers. The biggest surprise comes just after our heroes get airborne and they take out the opposition. Happily, Peebles paints the heroes into a dramatic corner. The best action occurs in the final quarter-hour, but it is too late to salvage this formulaic fodder.
Afterward, our heroes go back into the private sector. Meantime, Kurdish rebels associated with "Warlord 2" appropriate the Rainmaker. The Pentagon believes that our heroes obliterated the 'Rainmaker' when they fired on the plant. Seven years elapses and three of them grow suspicious about one of them. Meanwhile, Tom Craig's former fiancée has become a respected journalist who is ferreting out information about the debacle in the former Soviet Union. Intelligence agents grille Cobra about his role in the botched mission, but he refuses to tell them anything other than what he told the court. Captain Webster is beginning to have suspicions about Cobra. Webster serves in the Pentagon now. He approaches Cobra about an audacious plan to fly into Iran to destroy the Rainmaker in a "strictly off the books" secret mission where they will be flying jets with Iranian colors. Webster offers Cobra and his comrades the opportunity to clear their names and receive honorable Navy discharges. We also learn that during the seven years after the debacle, Cobra has been slipping money to the Marine's widow. Anyway, Cobra and his men decide to take Webster up on his offer. They learn that they will have to perform a HALO insertion into Iran, steal the planes, and equip them with special bombs to destroy the Rainmaker. Of course, it should come as no surprise that our heroes are double-crossed after they HALO into Iran and land in a prison.
Mario Van Peebles generates minimal urgency in this complicated aerial combat opus based on retired Navy pilot Randy Arrington's novel "Kerosene Cowboys: Manning the Spare." The intriguing premise and the first 40 minutes create no surprises, and the characters have no depth beyond surface appearances. None of the leads engender any charisma, especially Cam Gigandet, and Gigandet has done better things with greater personality. "Red Sky" has all the hallmarks of a straight-to-video release. It is too matter of fact despite its above-average, overqualified cast. Confined to a colorless role, Bill Pullman appears either out of place or just too old to be useful as a lead. Rachel Leigh Cook is pretty dull, too, as an investigative journalist. The two treacherous villains are hopelessly lackluster, too, until three-fourths of the action has taken place. One of them vanishes early and the other has everybody completely fooled everybody about his identity. Altogether, "Red Sky" isn't a total loss. Peebles jacks up the action after our heroes escape from the prison and perform their mission. Their far-fetched escape from an Iranian airfield imitates "Tomorrow Never Dies" when Cobra using a jet to mow down Iranian soldiers. The biggest surprise comes just after our heroes get airborne and they take out the opposition. Happily, Peebles paints the heroes into a dramatic corner. The best action occurs in the final quarter-hour, but it is too late to salvage this formulaic fodder.