It helps a bit to understand this movie if you know it is a Russian / US joint venture. This explains the Russian and US filming locations and cast. It's entertaining if not fully comprehensible.Fighter airplane buffs will enjoy the multitude of planes on display. The aerial combat is quite exciting and not that difficult to figure out who is who when they remove the mouth piece of the helmets.It's not Top Gun at all. The surprisingly current and complicated story involves some Saddam weapon called the Rainmaker. A bunch of young hot shot pilots (kudos to makeup for making them look younger) are set up in a friendly fire incident and sacked. Then 7 years later some of them are recruited to destroy the weapon in Iran with Russian assistance. It gets a bit confusing then but the action is exciting including some over the top shoot outs at airbases. The multi national production does not look cheap even though there is a slightly amateurish vibe throughout. Hard to figure out at first who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.The cast is a bit better than the story. Cam Gigandet of Twilight and Troy Garity are the good guys. Mario Van Peebles is the villain. Shane West of Nikita is the good guy turned bad. Nice to see Rachel Leigh Cook on screen again and speaking Russian no less.Overall a B movie can be entertaining even if you don't always know what is going on.

I'm sorry, but someone submitted a review for this movie from the cover description on the box and had not even seen the film?.This is not so much the reviewers issue as that of IMDb, no one can perceive a movie from a cover description. For that review to be left up only cements what most people already perceive about IMDb and that is the star rating doesn't mean a thing because the reviews are not regulated.The person who submitted the review should be removed as they are contributing NOTHING.On with my review, this is my first, but rest assured I have at least seen the movie in question.From the outset I had low expectations and I didn't have to wait long to be disappointed, the actors for the most part cannot act and as a result over act to compensate for their lack of skills.The command that starts the saga was clearly given by someone with a different voice, but over radio and in flight I guess that can be overlooked, however the proceeding court case cannot be, I understand that for the movie to get off the ground (pardon the pun) one must somewhat breeze over certain things, but the way in which the court verdict is conducted is terrible, there's just no way in real life these pilots would have lost their wings in the manner depicted in this movie.The actors in some scenes are wooden and for the most part seem like they are reading from the script and are so distracted by the reading they forget to act.Trying to create memorable lines that would eventually become real life quotes is another annoying factor with this movie, such as ""it's like Toy's R us, you break it you buy it", and yet another quote "It's Dejavu all over again" forgive me but isn't that the very meaning of Dejavu?. I think about as much imagination went into the entire script as what went into those lines.....not much.CGI is not brilliant, the night scenes in what looks like a Junkers JU-52 and later an Antonov AN-2 are at best mediocre. Moreover the CGI explosions and some of the pilot scenes are of 1960's quality, just horrible.Most everything about this movie is shallow, including the jail scene with the Russian woman (Mariya Guzeeva) who is cooperating with the U.S, the close ups of her ass and eventually even a camel toe are not required and just digs a larger hole to bury this film in.The movie is riddled with mistakes, for instance, a reference to the AN-2 while the engine is smoking the comment is made about a "cracked pan" these engines use a dry sump, regardless a engine without oil wont smoke, rather it will seize, the AK-47's referenced are actually Type 52's (Chinese copies). Bullets that hit 'glass' aircraft canopies are clearly incorrect as aircraft do not use glass for canopies, they use perspex.I couldn't help but laugh when a fighter pilot (Mario Van Peebles) is using a SU-27's machine gun he shows a recoil affect even thought the guns are controlled remotely.Bill Pullman was poorly cast in this movie, he seems to be constantly grinning or smirking, almost (to me at least) at the script itself. Rachael Leigh Cook needs to have her eyes fixed if she is to be taken seriously as they are a distraction to what seems to be an otherwise fairly good actress, Cam Gigandet needs to stop trying to be the next Brad Pitt. Mario Van Peebles has yet another notch in his belt, sadly none of his notches reflect good movies or acting, I fail to see the attraction.In conclusion Red Sky is a misery to watch, both painful and rather smelly. It's one of those movies where you ask yourself 'should I turn it off now?' when your only five minutes into it.Any reference to Top Gun should only be done so for benchmark reasons and nothing more, sadly this movie does no justice to the 'jet fighter' movie genre.I only completed watching the movie to write this review, hopefully I can save others from the pain I endured. 2/10

I watched this movie, not expecting much of it. Some pains were taken to develop it into a wide scope of countries and equipment. The Red sky anthem sound quite good and one manages to get hooked more or less at the beginning. As the story unfolds however, the suspension of disbelief becomes strained as the dialogues sometimes get childish and the acting gets unconvincing. For example: the traitor gets way too easily convinced to abandon the dark side, as if his original criminal money motives were not the values that he lived by. CGI gets sometimes too 90 's (meaning lacking depth, detail and adequate lighting) and worst of the worst in actual filming, the Sukhoi planes really look their age and a lack of adequate maintenance. They are in terrible shape and it shows. During a strafing pass of the aggressor, you can actually see that some cockpits were replaced by a plastic sheet. You can also see that the upholstery of the seats and the state of the instruments are pitifully worn out. The paint on the planes show fissures that extend into the superstructures, tires were flat... These poor planes haven't been airworthy for a long, long time. I don't mean that good planes must be destroyed for the sake of a movie, but some paint and a few spare parts could have helped. Otherwise, there is always CGI (good CGI). As a conclusion, I would say that it's a B/C movie, showing good effort and mediocre realization. Watch it if you have nothing else to do and forget it.

Overall this is a decent jet fighter plane action in the skies kind of movie. Another Mario Van Peebles movie, but even his over acting is almost watchable. The rest of the cast is great, and there is a good back story built up to show a true brotherhood, and friendship between the soldiers from the US, and Russia. Rachael Leigh Cook looks great, this must have been filmed last year before the newest season of Perception, or earlier, as she still looks young, and definitely not pregnant(Not that she is not allowed to be, but lately the show is missing the old RLC, and that's a me problem, so back to the review). It is good to see Troy Garity not playing a heavy, or a creep. Not much to say about the male leads that you do not already know, or expect from them, they do as they should, and you get what you want. There are a lot of good pyrotechnics in this movie(Big things going boom)and the action shots are edited together well to give the seamless effect of a plane shooting, and the effect on the ground being realistic(there are too many of these lower budget films that don't understand how important that is). I enjoyed this as a bit of action fluff, the story is not broken, it flows smoothly, and you are not left in the dark about any of the main characters, their motives, or where they end up. I do recommend this one to anyone who likes movies with air combat, and explosions, for you this is just the ticket. Otherwise most folks will find the story full enough, and will not feel very lost, or disappointed with the results.