Drop Zone (1994)

Drop Zone

While escorting a prisoner hacker on an airliner, cops Pete and Terry Nessip encounter a group of hijackers. These hijackers take the hacker and jump out of the airliner, and Pete’s brother is killed in the process. Pete takes it upon himself to find the people responsible for the attack and his brother’s death. (His brother is played by one of the Cosby kids from The Cosby Show.) He has to get into the world of Skydiving to discover the truth.

If you replaced a few nouns, this could have described any ‘extreme’ heist movie from the 90s.

I just watched this movie last night on HBO. Most people completely overlook it. It stars Wesley Snipes as Pete Nessip. This little action movie came out in December of 1994. Drop Zone starts off feeling like a cheap knock off of Snipes’ other movie Passenger 57, but it turns into a skydiving version of Point Break. Heck, they even brought in Busey from Point Break.

The biggest flaw of the movie is that it follows every action movie cliché down to a T. (Minus the male and female leads falling in love. Wesley Snipes and Yancy Butler characters never get it on or have any sexual relationship.) You throw in a guitar-heavy Hans Zimmer and you have another 90s action film.

The plot is unsteady, and some characters are a bit annoying. (On a Jar-Jar level) However, the charm comes from action scenes, which are better than the slower character moments, and the humor is pretty good too. Wesley Snipes also brings his same police office character type from every movie with him, and yet it doesn’t get old. Gary Busey as the main bad guy is entertaining, if similar to characters from Under Siege and Lethal Weapon. He kept my interest.

Drop Zone isn’t a great movie by any standards, but it’s a by-the-numbers fun 90s action film when Snipes was sill getting top billing in theatrical released films. It’s a basic fun popcorn movie that you can watch on a Saturday night.

Grade: C+

~The best Snipes moment is when he punches Yancy Butler in the face like a man. Originally, her character was supposed to be a man and when it was switched to a woman role, she argued for the punching scene to be left in. And, it is a great moment.