Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Blue Thunder Blu-ray Movie Review

Sony delivers another quality catalogue title with 'Blue Thunder.'

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 12, 2009

This mother hears through walls, fires 4,000 rounds a minute, and peaks down dresses at 1,000 feet.

Ah, John Badham. 1980s filmmaker extraordinaire. No, really. Though he's worked steadily since, nothing on his resumé has quite matched the heart and soul of his career, the triumvirate of Blue Thunder, Wargames, and Short Circuit. These films encapsulate the decade through and through; not only does each film follow one of the decade's most widely-adopted themes -- highly advanced and in some way out-of-control technology -- but they also serve as wonderful ambassadors of the era, every frame oozing 80s culture, style, and music, the latter a Badham trademark shared with fellow Director John Carpenter (Starman). Though not the best of the three (that distinction going to Wargames) or the cheesiest (Short Circuit), Blue Thunder represents a picture that's delivered on a fairly even keel, offering steady doses of action, good characterization, and a plot that's strong enough to hold audience interest through to the end. Sporting a 1984 Oscar nomination for Best Editing, Blue Thunder was also something of a trend-setter; both the short-lived "Blue Thunder" television show and the longer-lasting "Airwolf" -- a show about a highly advanced attack helicopter -- premiered on television a year later and, in 1989, the United States unleashed the deadly Apache attack helicopter into combat for the first time during the invasion of Panama.

Blue Thunder and the sunrise.

Los Angeles police helicopter pilots Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider, Jaws) and Richard Lymangood (Daniel Stern, Home Alone) witness from above the brutal attack on councilwoman Diane McNeely (Robin Brantos), the chairperson of the mayor's task force on combating urban violence. Nevertheless, Murphy and Lymagood are grounded when off-task shenanigans kept them from assisting in the prevention of the attack and pursuit of the attackers in a timely fashion. When the councilwoman dies of her wounds, Murphy initiates his own personal investigation into the matter. He's soon recalled to duty to test pilot the city's newest helicopter, code named Blue Thunder, a radically advanced machine meant for crowd control for the upcoming 1984 Olympic games. Closely involved in the project is Colonel F.E. Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell, Star Trek: Generations), a man Murphy served with in the skies over Vietnam. When it appears that there may be more to Blue Thunder and Chochrane than meets the eye, Murphy sets out on a dangerous and unsanctioned mission in Blue Thunder to save his life and expose the truth.

Blue Thunder takes a tried-and-true story that was found in many pictures during the 1970s and 1980s -- the tale of a cop on the edge who treads dangerous ground when he's told to back off a case but investigates on his own accord -- but here ups the ante by placing him in the driver's seat of a highly advanced weapon with then-unparalleled surveillance capabilities. The Blue Thunder is no Apache, but it's a great looking piece of equipment and ahead of its time in several areas. Indeed, like all great forward-thinking pieces of fiction, Blue Thunder proves somewhat visionary in its prediction of what the none-too-distant future had to offer. The chopper itself is tough and angular, taking on a no-nonsense appearance, a perfect fit for the film's edgy protagonist. It's equipped with a stealth (or "whisper") mode, sensitive listening devices, various scanning and visual penetration modes, and a precision-targeting system tied into the pilot's helmet. There's nothing too futuristic about the Blue Thunder helicopter, particularly in retrospect, but for its day it was a fine piece of machinery that proved a worthy central character in one of the more visually impressive action-oriented pictures of the early 1980s.

Anything past the good-looking chopper and loud and aggressive action scenes seem like gravy in a movie like Blue Thunder, and there's enough here to go around during a busy Thanksgiving afternoon. The story line is not necessarily innovative but it does well to layer on suspense and tie it directly into the capabilities of the Blue Thunder helicopter. It often enthralls dramatically and psychologically in the midst of the action, drawing the audience in and, while there's no real suspense as to the ultimate outcome, Badham squeezes every last ounce drama out of each sequence. Blue Thunder is certainly no thinking man's movie, nor does it require an astronomical IQ to enjoy, but it never insults its audience's intelligence, either, even in the midst of several clichés. Also aiding in creating a rather impressive outing is a collection of fair-to-good performances from the cast; there's nothing much here that requires more than a passing effort from Roy Scheider, Daniel Stern, and Malcolm McDowell, but they never once give less than a 100-percent effort and never appear disinterested or otherwise dispassionate about their characters and the story.

Blue Thunder Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blue Thunder finally arrives, appropriately enough, on Blu-ray, with a quality 1080p, 2.40:1-framed transfer. Neither fine details nor colors ever jump off the screen, but there's nothing here that's unsatisfactory, either. Blue Thunder isn't the sort of film that offers either eye-popping colors or breathtaking detail; it looks as it should, with a color palette that's the slightest bit drab but otherwise steady. Close-up shots reveal sufficient detail, for instance the seams and lines in Blue Thunder's fuselage. Blacks look fairly good; several nighttime shots, particularly early in the film, provide stable and mostly inky blacks that are generally dotted by a fair level of grain but don't drown out too much detail. Speaking of grain, the transfer reveals a rather heavy amount; there's absolutely no sign of any sort of noticeable scrubbing here. The print exhibits only extremely minor speckles; it's mostly clean and pleasing to the eye. The image can go a little soft on some of the exterior distance shots of the chopper against the cityscape, but the transfer is otherwise consistently sharp and strong. This Blu-ray release of Blue Thunder should more than satisfy first-time viewers, and the film's longtime fans will be ecstatic with how good it looks.

Blue Thunder Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blue Thunder rumbles onto Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This mix offers an active sound field; the film's opening jumble of radio chatter may be heard emanating from every corner of the soundstage, and there's never a lack of back-channel information. Throughout the film, the sounds of helicopters may be heard buzzing about the soundstage, the rotors sweeping across the listening area with fair level of volume and clarity. Minor ambience also finds its way into the mix, offering a fairly realistic sense of space in the less aggressive sequences. A chase sequence near the end of he film makes for a fantastic listen; choppers maneuver through the soundstage, gunfire erupts with authority, and it's all accompanied by a powerful low end that completes an engaging aural sequence. Dialogue delivery is smooth and intelligible throughout. Blue Thunder makes for another high quality lossless soundtrack from Sony.

Blue Thunder Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Blue Thunder delivers a solid array of bonus materials. First up is a commentary track with Director John Badham, Editor Frank Morriss, and Motion Control Supervisor Hoyt Yeatman. They discuss the film's basis in reality and the technology on display throughout the picture, filming locations, the cast and their performances, shooting techniques, and more. The track remains solidly focused on the technical tidbits surrounding the process of bringing this picture to life, as well as some discussions on the real-world operations of helicopters. Though not a terribly fascinating track, it's worth a listen for those interested in helicopters or how movies were made back in the 1980s. 'The Special:' Building Blue Thunder (480p, 8:23) takes a rather fascinating look at the origins, design, and construction of the film's centerpiece prop, the helicopter. Ride with the Angels: Making 'Blue Thunder' (480p) is a three-part documentary that takes viewers deep into the work that went into bringing Blue Thunder to the screen, delving into the three most crucial segments of the filmmaking process: Pre-Production (16:10), Production (18:44) and Post-Production (10:21). Next up is the vintage 1983 Promotional Featurette (480p, 8:36), a rather cheesy, none-too-substantive piece meant to introduce viewers to the world of Blue Thunder. Also included is the original Blue Thunder trailer (480p, 3:21) and 1080p previews for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, The Da Vinci Code, Casino Royale, The Sky Crawlers, and Blood: The Last Vampire. This disc is also BD-Live (Blu-ray profile 2.0) enabled.

Blue Thunder Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

John Badham knows how to make an entertaining picture, and Blue Thunder delivers a fun and engaging ride from start to finish. Just as good as the movie is the fact that it's here on Blu-ray so relatively early on in the format's existence. Movie fans should be positively ecstatic with Sony Pictures' commitment to releasing a broad array of movies in something of a bulk quantity on a month-by-month basis and, for the most part, delivering high quality video and audio presentations along with a fair collection of bonus materials. With their recent wave of 1980s catalogue releases, the studio has breathed new life into some old favorites, a few forgotten gems, and some films that perhaps time hasn't looked too kindly upon. Blue Thunder falls into the middle grouping, a fair picture that's never mentioned on any sort of "best of" lists but makes for a fun watch that never slows down and still impresses, not particularly with its technology, but in the way it handles the material. As expected, Blue Thunder looks and sounds just fine on Blu-ray, and the disc offers viewers a fair collection of extras. Recommended.