It’s odd to think that once upon a time Charlie Sheen was just a talented actor with crappy taste in film. Considering he starred in two of the best films of the ‘80s in Wall Street and Platoon amongst others, his resume reads like a best and worst list. And on the latter list is Terminal Velocity, a film that flopped hard when it came out and now is more of an oddity than anything else.
Sheen stars as Ditch, a daredevil sky-diving instructor who manages to have a student (Nastassja Kinski) who doesn’t survive the landing on her first jump. When she turns up later, Ditch winds up stuck with her as they’re chased down by Russian Mob members out for some gold to finance a coup de tat. Shenanigans ensue as Ditch has to try and survive everyone wanting to kill him.
It’s interesting to see Sheen playing the role typical of a woman in an action film; mainly he exists to be saved from bad guys (including James Gandolfini and Joe Piscopo with bad Russian accents). Considering Sheen’s recent problems, it’s fun to see him as a damsel in distress as opposed to the hero. He has to be saved, continually, by Kinski. It’s an interesting play on the dynamic of the action hero, especially with someone who’s played the badass hero many times. Remember, he did play a Navy SEAL once.
Unfortunatel, outside of this change in dynamics there’s nothing new, original or even engaging about this film. It’s just a number of better moments from better films playing the formula to save the day. If you’ve seen one action film and seen someone sky diving you’ve seen Terminal Velocity.
The film’s Trailer is the only extra.
Terminal Velocity is lesser Charlie Sheen, right below his “winning” videos that briefly took ahold of pop culture.
Mill Creek Entertainment presents Terminal Velocity . Directed by Deran Serafan. Starring Charlie Sheen, Nastassja Kinski, James Gandolfini. Written by David Twohy. Running time 102 minutes. Rated PG-13. Released: May 15, 2012. Available at Amazon.com.
