Iron Eagle

9-year-old me thought this movie was amazing. 9-year-old me was also an idiot. Also, truth in advertising, please. The planes in this film were neither iron nor eagles, but I guess Titanium Falcon doesn't have the same ring to it.

While this cheesy, fighter-jet, action movie conjures up images of the 80's action "classic" "Top Gun"(1986), this movie's tale of a recent high school graduate and his older black mentor, "Chappy," stealing a couple jets to start a war with not-Libya and rescue the boys' father, is aimed a little more at kids than the notoriously homoerotic rom/com released later that same year. Luckily this family-friendly, Reagan era, jingoistic action schlock works as a wonderful 80's time capsule of sorts.

It manages to use all of the cliches of movies that were popular at the time. It's like John McTiernan and John Hughes filmed two separate movies and edited them together to make the most semi-cohesive story they could. It doesn't work on any other level than amazingly terrible. It's such a fascinating hodgepodge of American '80s zeitgeist, that it's difficult to be mad at it.

For children.

Crap.

His name is General Chappy General. Chappy.

The pure power of shitty 80's action personified.

One of my favorite movies as a kid. I actually still enjoy watching this. It's just "cool".

A beautiful, hilarious relic from the 80s, this movie belongs in a museum.

Not boring, just stupid. People who sell militarism to kids like this should be strung up by their thumbs

Crap

Dum-dum comic-book movie. Full of jingoistic ideals, dubious ethics, and people who die and miraculously come back to life. Not boring, just stupid.

Incredibly jingoistic but depicts the military as totally incompetent.

Combine Top Gun with Delta Force, remove Tom Cruise and Chuck Norris, and add a generous helping of cheese.

The virgin Top Gun vs the chad Iron Eagle lol. Ok in all seriousness Top Gun is definitely shot with more verve and style but on the other hand in this one we don’t have to deal with an hourlong romantic subplot. Top Gun also only really features white-on-white friendship whereas in this one we have the always epic interracial friendship

Of course!